Alexander Pope > Quotes

“Blessed is he who expects nothing, for he shall never be disappointed.”
― Alexander Pope

“To err is human, to forgive, divine.”
― Alexander Pope, An Essay On Criticism

“How happy is the blameless vestal’s lot!
The world forgetting, by the world forgot.
Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind!
Each pray’r accepted, and each wish resign’d”
― Alexander Pope, Eloisa to Abelard

“Charms strike the sight, but merit wins the soul.”
― Alexander Pope, The Rape of the Lock

“Fools rush in where angels fear to tread.”
― Alexander Pope, An Essay On Criticism

“A little Learning is a dangerous Thing.”
― Alexander Pope

“A man should never be ashamed to own that he has been in the wrong, which is but saying in other words that he is wiser today than he was yesterday.”
― Alexander Pope

“What Reason weaves, by Passion is undone.”
― Alexander Pope, Essay on Man and Other Poems

“Hope springs eternal in the human breast;
Man never Is, but always To be blest.
The soul, uneasy, and confin'd from home,
Rests and expatiates in a life to come.”
― Alexander Pope, An Essay on Man

“Act well your part; there all the honour lies.”
― Alexander Pope, An Essay on Man

“Vice is a monster of so frightful mien
As to be hated needs but to be seen;
Yet seen too oft, familiar with her face,
We first endure, then pity, then embrace.”
― Alexander Pope

“Wise wretch! with pleasures too refined to please,
With too much spirit to be e'er at ease,
With too much quickness ever to be taught,
With too much thinking to have common thought:
You purchase pain with all that joy can give,
And die of nothing but a rage to live.”
― Alexander Pope, Moral Essays

“Know then thyself, presume not God to scan,
The proper study of mankind is Man.
Placed on this isthmus of a middle state,
A being darkly wise and rudely great:
With too much knowledge for the Sceptic side,
With too much weakness for the Stoic's pride,
He hangs between, in doubt to act or rest;
In doubt to deem himself a God or Beast;
In doubt his mind or body to prefer;
Born but to die, and reas'ning but to err;
Alike in ignorance, his reason such,
Whether he thinks too little or too much;
Chaos of thought and passion, all confused;
Still by himself abused or disabused;
Created half to rise, and half to fall;
Great lord of all things, yet a prey to all;
Sole judge of truth, in endless error hurl'd;
The glory, jest, and riddle of the world!
Go, wondrous creature! mount where science guides,
Go, measure earth, weigh air, and state the tides;
Instruct the planets in what orbs to run,
Correct old time, and regulate the sun;
Go, soar with Plato to th’ empyreal sphere,
To the first good, first perfect, and first fair;
Or tread the mazy round his followers trod,
And quitting sense call imitating God;
As Eastern priests in giddy circles run,
And turn their heads to imitate the sun.
Go, teach Eternal Wisdom how to rule—
Then drop into thyself, and be a fool!”
― Alexander Pope, An Essay on Man

“If you want to know what God thinks about money just look at the people He gives it to.”
― Alexander Pope

“Blessed is he who expects nothing, for he shall never be disappointed.”
― Alexander Pope

“Beauties in vain their pretty eyes may roll;
Charms strike the sight, but merit wins the soul.”
― Alexander Pope , The Rape of the Lock

“Words are like Leaves; and where they most abound,
Much Fruit of Sense beneath is rarely found.”
― Alexander Pope, An Essay On Criticism

“You purchase pain with all that joy can give and die of nothing but a rage to live.”
― Alexander Pope, Moral Essays

“Nature and Nature's laws lay hid in night:
God said, Let Newton be! and all was light.”
― Alexander Pope

“Some people will never learn anything, for this reason, because they understand everything too soon.”
― Alexander Pope, Miscellanies in Verse and Prose. by Alexander Pope, Esq; And Dean Swift. in One Volume. Viz. the Strange and Deplorable Frensy of Mr. John Dennis. ... ... Several More Epigrams, Epitaphs, and Poems.

“Do good by stealth, and blush to find it fame.”
― Alexander Pope, An Essay on Man

“Our judgments, like our watches, none
go just alike, yet each believes his own”
― Alexander Pope, An Essay On Criticism

“True ease in writing comes from art, not chance,
As those move easiest who have learn'd to dance.”
― Alexander Pope, An Essay On Criticism

“To wake the soul by tender strokes of art,
To raise the genius, and to mend the heart”
― Alexander Pope

“All nature is but art, unknown to thee;
All chance, direction, which thou canst not see;
All discord, harmony not understood;
All partial evil, universal good.
And, spite of pride, in erring reason's spite,
One truth is clear, 'Whatever is, is right.”
― Alexander Pope, An Essay on Man

“Death, only death, can break the lasting chain;
And here, ev'n then, shall my cold dust remain”
― Alexander Pope, Eloisa to Abelard

“Men must be taught as if you taught them not,
And things unknown propos'd as things forgot.”
― Alexander Pope, An Essay On Criticism

“No woman ever hates a man
for being in love with her;
but mainly a woman hates a
man for being her friend.”
― Alexander Pope

“If I am right, Thy grace impart
Still in the right to stay;
If I am wrong, O, teach my heart
To find that better way!”
― Alexander Pope, Moral Essays

“The world forgetting, by the world forgot.
Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind!”
― Alexander Pope, Eloisa to Abelard