Pope, Alexander
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Pope, Alexander
Be not the first by which a new thing is tried, or the last to lay the old aside.
Pope, Alexander
Change
A person who is too nice an observer of the business of the crowd, like one who is too curious in observing the labor of bees, will often be stung for his curiosity.
Pope, Alexander
Curiosity
How happy is the blameless vestal s lot? The world forgetting, by the world forgot.
Pope, Alexander
Chastity
I am his Highness dog at Kew; pray tell me, sir, whose dog are you?
Pope, Alexander
Class
Those who dream by day are cognizant of many things which escape those who dream only by night.
Pope, Alexander
Dreams
Blest paper-credit! last and best supply! That lends corruption lighter wings to fly!
Pope, Alexander
Credit
Lo! thy dread empire, Chaos! is restored; dies before thy uncreating word: thy hand, great Anarch! lets the curtain fall; and universal darkness buries all.
Pope, Alexander
Chaos
True politeness consists in being easy one s self, and in making every one about one as easy as one can.
Pope, Alexander
Courtesy
Good God! how often are we to die before we go quite off this stage? In every friend we lose a part of ourselves, and the best part.
Pope, Alexander
Death and Dying
Blessed is the man who expects nothing, for he shall never be disappointed was the ninth beatitude.
Pope, Alexander
Disappointments
Satan is wiser now than before, and tempts by making rich instead of poor.
Pope, Alexander
Devil
Happy the man whose wish and care a few paternal acres bound, content to breathe his native air in his own ground.
Pope, Alexander
Happiness
Health consists with temperance alone.
Pope, Alexander
Health
To err is human, to forgive is divine.
Pope, Alexander
Forgiveness
How shall I lose the sin, yet keep the sense, and love the offender, yet detest the offence?
Pope, Alexander
Forgiveness
I was not born for courts and great affairs, but I pay my debts, believe and say my prayers.
Pope, Alexander
Faith
Why has not man a microscopic eye? For the plain reason man is not a fly.
Pope, Alexander
Eyes
An excuse is worse than a lie, for an excuse is a lie, guarded.
Pope, Alexander
Excuses
Fools rush in where Angels fear to tread.
Pope, Alexander
Fools and Foolishness
To be angry is to revenge the faults of others on ourselves.
Pope, Alexander
Hatred
Know then this truth, enough for man to know virtue alone is happiness below.
Pope, Alexander
Happiness
The worst of madmen is a saint run mad.
Pope, Alexander
Fanatics and Fanaticism
What s fame? a fancy d life in other s breath. A thing beyond us, even before our death.
Pope, Alexander
Fame
At every word a reputation dies.
Pope, Alexander
Gossip
We think our fathers fools, so wise we grow. Our wiser sons, no doubt will think us so.
Pope, Alexander
Fathers and Sons
An honest man s the noblest work of God.
Pope, Alexander
Honesty
For Forms of Government let fools contest; whatever is best administered is best.
Pope, Alexander
Government
Many people are capable of doing a wise thing, more a cunning thing, but very few a generous thing.
Pope, Alexander
Generosity
Who breaks a butterfly on a wheel?
Pope, Alexander
Exaggeration
The ruling passion, be it what it will, The ruling passion conquers reason still.
Pope, Alexander
Passion
Fondly we think we honor merit then, When we but praise ourselves in other men.
Pope, Alexander
Praise
Fix d like a plan on his peculiar spot, to draw nutrition, propagate, and rot.
Pope, Alexander
Inertia
Passions are the gales of life.
Pope, Alexander
Passion
Our passions are like convulsion fits, which, though they make us stronger for a time, leave us the weaker ever after.
Pope, Alexander
Passion
All nature is but art unknown to thee.
Pope, Alexander
Nature
It is with our judgments as with our watches: no two go just alike, yet each believes his own.
Pope, Alexander
Judgment and Judges
No one should be ashamed to admit they are wrong, which is but saying, in other words, that they are wiser today than they were yesterday.
Pope, Alexander
Humility
Curse on all laws, but those that love has made.
Pope, Alexander
Law and Lawyers
A little knowledge is a dangerous thing. Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring; There shallow draughts intoxicate the brain; And drinking largely sobers us again.
Pope, Alexander
Learning
Remembrance and reflection how allied. What thin partitions divides sense from thought.
Pope, Alexander
Memory
Histories are more full of examples of the fidelity of dogs than of friends.
Pope, Alexander
Loyalty
Act well your part; there all honor lies.
Pope, Alexander
Honor
For virtue s self may too much zeal be had; the worst of madmen is a saint run mad.
Pope, Alexander
Insanity
Die and endow a college or a cat.
Pope, Alexander
Inheritance
They dream in courtship, but in wedlock wake.
Pope, Alexander
Marriage
Lulled in the countless chambers of the brain, our thoughts are linked by many a hidden chain; awake but one, and in, what myriads rise!
Pope, Alexander
Memory
If, presume not to God to scan; The proper study of Mankind is Man. Plac d on this isthmus of a middle state, a being darkly wise, and rudely great.
Pope, Alexander
Humankind
But thousands die without or this or that, die, and endow a college, or a cat: To some, indeed, Heaven grants the happier fate, Tenrich a bastard, or a son they hate.
Pope, Alexander
Inheritance
Praise undeserved, is satire in disguise.
Pope, Alexander
Praise
You beat your Pate, and fancy Wit will come: Knock as you please, there s no body at home.
Pope, Alexander
Inspiration
At every trifle take offense, that always shows great pride or little sense.
Pope, Alexander
Pride
Order is Heaven s first law; and this confessed, some are, and must be, greater than the rest, more rich, more wise; but who infers from hence that such are happier, shocks all common sense. Condition, circumstance, is not the thing; bliss is the same in subject or in king.
Pope, Alexander
Order
Not to go back is somewhat to advance, and men must walk, at least, before they dance.
Pope, Alexander
Progress
Men dream of courtship, but in wedlock wake.
Pope, Alexander
Men
One who is too wise an observer of the business of others, like one who is too curious in observing the labor of bees, will often be stung for his curiosity.
Pope, Alexander
Observation
Pride is still aiming at the best houses: Men would be angels, angels would be gods. Aspiring to be gods, if angels fell; aspiring to be angels men rebel.
Pope, Alexander
Pride
Charm strikes the sight, but merit wins the soul.
Pope, Alexander
Merit
I find myself... hoping a total end of all the unhappy divisions of mankind by party-spirit, which at best is but the madness of many for the gain of a few.
Pope, Alexander
Politicians and Politics
All looks yellow to a jaundiced eye.
Pope, Alexander
Prejudice
Two purposes in human nature rule. Self-love to urge, and reason to restrain.
Pope, Alexander
Motivation
By foreign hands thy humble grave adorned; By strangers honored, and by strangers mourned.
Pope, Alexander
Strangers
A man should never be ashamed to own that he is wrong, which is but saying in other words that he is wiser today than he was yesterday.
Pope, Alexander
Mistakes
An obstinate person does not hold opinions; they hold them.
Pope, Alexander
Opinions
Teach me to feel another s woe. To hide the fault I see: That the mercy I show to others; that mercy also show to me.
Pope, Alexander
Mercy
Trust not yourself, but your defects to know, make use of every friend and every foe.
Pope, Alexander
Self-knowledge
Learn to live well, or fairly make your will; you played, and loved, and ate, and drunk your fill: walk sober off; before a sprightlier age comes tittering on, and shoves you from the stage: leave such to trifle with more grace and ease, whom Folly pleases, and whose Follies please.
Pope, Alexander
Retirement
The hungry judges soon the sentence sign, and wretches hang that jurymen may dine.
Pope, Alexander
Trials
On life s vast ocean diversely we sail. Reasons the card, but passion the gale.
Pope, Alexander
Reason
One science only will one genius fit; so vast is art, so narrow human wit.
Pope, Alexander
Science and Scientists
Like Cato, give his little senate laws, and sit attentive to his own applause.
Pope, Alexander
Tyranny
There goes a saying, and twas shrewdly said, Old fish at table, but young flesh in bed.
Pope, Alexander
Sex
Honor and shame from no condition rise; Act well your part, there all the honor lies.
Pope, Alexander
Character
Men would be angels, angels would be gods.
Pope, Alexander
Ambition
And all who told it added something new, and all who heard it, made enlargements too.
Pope, Alexander
Gossip
Let me tell you I am better acquainted with you for a long absence, as men are with themselves for a long affliction: absence does but hold off a friend, to make one see him the truer.
Pope, Alexander
Absence
Sure of their qualities and demanding praise, more go to ruined fortunes than are raised.
Pope, Alexander
Arrogance
Behold the child, by nature s kindly law, pleased with a rattle, tickled with a straw.
Pope, Alexander
Children
Education forms the common mind. Just as the twig is bent, the tree s inclined.
Pope, Alexander
Education
Did some more sober critics come abroad? If wrong, I smil d; if right, I kiss d the rod.
Pope, Alexander
Critics and Criticism
We are not afraid to entrust the American people with unpleasant facts, foreign ideas, alien philosophies, and competitive values. For a nation that is afraid to let its people judge the truth and falsehood in an open market is a nation that is afraid of its people.
Pope, Alexander
America
True disputants are like true sportsman: their whole delight is in the pursuit.
Pope, Alexander
Argument
When much dispute has past, we find our tenets just the same as last.
Pope, Alexander
Argument
The hidden harmony is better than the obvious.
Pope, Alexander
Arts and Artists
Beauties in vain their pretty eyes may roll; charms strike the sight, but merit wins the soul.
Pope, Alexander
Beauty
The scripture in times of disputes is like an open town in times of war, which serves in differently the occasions of both parties.
Pope, Alexander
Bible
Fools admire, but men of sense approve.
Pope, Alexander
Admiration
Never elated when someone s oppressed, never dejected when another one s blessed.
Pope, Alexander
Attitude
Some old men, continually praise the time of their youth. In fact, you would almost think that there were no fools in their days, but unluckily they themselves are left as an example.
Pope, Alexander
Age and Aging
Let sinful bachelors their woes deplore; full well they merit all they feel, and more: unaw by precepts, human or divine, like birds and beasts, promiscuously they join.
Pope, Alexander
Bachelor
But Satan now is wiser than of yore, and tempts by making rich, not making poor.
Pope, Alexander
Wealth
Most women have no characters at all.
Pope, Alexander
Women
True wit is nature to advantage dressed, what oft was thought, but never so well expressed.
Pope, Alexander
Wit
Most authors steal their works, or buy.
Pope, Alexander
Writers and Writing
Ten censure wrong, for one that writes amiss.
Pope, Alexander
Writers and Writing
Why did I write? What sin to me unknown dipped me in ink, my parents , or my own?
Pope, Alexander
Writers and Writing
On wrongs swift vengeance waits.
Pope, Alexander
Vengeance
Virtuous and vicious everyone must be; few in extremes, but all in degree.
Pope, Alexander
Virtue
To endeavor to work upon the vulgar with fine sense is like attempting to hew blocks with a razor.
Pope, Alexander
Vulgarity
True ease in writing comes from art, not chance, as those move easiest who have learned to dance. Tis not enough no harshness gives offence. The sound must seem an echo to the sense.
Pope, Alexander
Writers and Writing