Alexander Pope Quotes (535 Quotes)

Know then this truth, enough for man to know virtue alone is happiness below.

No friend's complaint, no kind domestic tear
Pleas'd thy pale ghost, or grac'd thy mournful bier.

'Tis not a lip, or eye, we beauty call, But the joint force and full result of all.

Gentle dullness ever loves a joke.

Those move easiest who have learn'd to dance.

Order is heaven's first law.

Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind!

One thought of thee puts all the pomp to flight, Priests, tapers, temples, swim before my sight.

The fox obscene to gaping tombs retires, And savage howlings fill the sacred quires.

The light of Heaven restore Give me to see, and Ajax asks no more.

Content if hence th' unlearn'd their wants may view, The learn'd reflect on what before they knew.

'With ev'ry pleasing, ev'ry prudent part, Say, what can Chloe want'She wants a heart.

In every age,
In ev'ry clime ador'd,
By saint, by savage, and by sage,
Jehovah, Jove, or Lord!

Parties in Wit attend on those of State,
And publick Faction doubles private Hate.

Laugh where we must, be candid where we can But vindicate the ways of God to man.

Provoking Daemons all restraint remove,
And stir within me every source of love.

Thus unlamented pass the proud away,
The gaze of fools, and pageant of a day!

An excuse is worse than a lie, for an excuse is a lie, guarded.

Tell me, my soul, can this be death?

We bring to one dead level ev'ry mind.

Plays round the head, but comes not to the heart. One self-approving hour whole years outweighs Of stupid starers and of loud huzzas And more true joy Marcellus exil'd feels Than Csar with a senate at his heels. In parts superior what advantage lies Tell (for you can) what is it to be wise 'T is but to know how little can be known To see all others' faults, and feel our own.

From loveless youth to unrespected age,
No passion gratify'd except her Rage.

Learn from the beasts the physic of the field.

Envy will merit, as its shade pursue, But like a shadow, proves the substance true.

Peeled, patched, and piebald, linsey-wolsey brothers, Grave mummers sleeveless some, and shirtless others.

Nothing is more certain than that much of the force, As well as grace, of arguments or instructions depends on their conciseness.

Each beast, each insect, happy in its own:
Is Heav'n unkind to man, and man alone?

For thee, fair Virtue!

Fools admire, but men of sense approve.

Experience, this; by Man's oppression curst,
They seek the second not to lose the first.

Soft is the strain when zephyr gently blows, And the smooth stream in smoother numbers flows But when loud surges lash the sounding shore, The hoarse rough verse should like the torrent roar. When Ajax strives some rock's vast weight to throw, The line too labours, and the words move slow Not so when swift Camilla scours the plain, Flies o'er th' unbending corn, and skims along the main.

The gen'ral order, since the whole began,
Is kept in nature, and is kept in man.

And mistress of herself, though china fall.

The dear ideas, where I fly, pursue,
Rise in the grove, before the altar rise,
Stain all my soul, and wanton in my eyes.

Reason's whole pleasure, all the joys of sense, Lie in three words,health, peace, and competence.

So very reasonable, so unmov'd,
As never yet to love, or to be lov'd.

Fondly we think we honor merit then, When we but praise ourselves in other men.

While expletives their feeble aid do join, And ten low words oft creep in one dull line.

Nature stands check'd; Religion disapproves;
Ev'n thou art cold--yet Eloisa loves.

But now no face divine contentment wears,
'Tis all blank sadness, or continual tears.

Grant but as many sorts of mind as moss.

To pardon those absurdities in ourselves which we condemn in others, is neither better nor worse than to be more willing to be fools ourselves than to have others so.

You purchase pain with all that joy can give, And die of nothing but a rage to live.

But as the world, harmoniously confused, Where order in variety we see And where, tho' all things differ, all agree.

And make each day a critic on the last.

When much dispute has past, we find our tenets just the same at last.

Know then thyself, presume not God to scan; The proper study of mankind is man.

Hope travels through, nor quits us when we die.

Unlucky, as Fungoso in the Play,
These Sparks with aukward Vanity display
What the Fine Gentleman wore Yesterday!

An obstinate person does not hold opinions they hold them.