Alexander Pope Quotes

552 Sourced Quotes

There are certain times when most people are in a disposition of being informed, and 'tis incredible what a vast good a little truth might do, spoken in such seasons.

Alexander Pope
The vanity of human life is like a river, constantly passing away, and yet constantly coming on.

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

Alexander Pope
Oh, when shall Britain, conscious of her claim, Stand emulous of Greek and Roman fame? In living medals see her wars enroll'd, And vanquished realms supply recording gold?

Alexander Pope
But touch me, and no minister so sore.
Whoe'er offends, at some unlucky time
Slides into verse, and hitches in a rhyme,
Sacred to ridicule his whole life long,
And the sad burthen of some merry song.

Alexander Pope
Here she beholds the Chaos dark and deep, Where nameless something's in their causes sleep.

Alexander Pope
And you, my Critics! in the chequer'd shade,
Admire new light thro' holes yourselves have made.

Alexander Pope
Of darkness visible so much be lent, as half to show, half veil, the deep intent.

Alexander Pope
The difference is as great between The optics seeing as the objects seen. All manners take a tincture from our own; Or come discolor'd through out passions shown; Or fancy's beam enlarges, multiplies, Contracts, inverts, and gives ten thousand dyes.

Alexander Pope
There is nothing wanting to make all rational and disinterested people in the world of one religion, but that they should talk together every day.

Alexander Pope
Alas! the small discredit of a bribe Scarce hurts the lawyer, but undoes the scribe.

Alexander Pope
It often happens that those are the best people whose characters have been most injured by slanderers: as we usually find that to be the sweetest fruit which the birds have been picking at.

Alexander Pope
Ask for what end the heavenly bodies shine,
Earth for whose use? Pride answers, 'Tis for mine
For me kind nature wakes her genial power,
Suckles each herb, and spreads out every flower.

Alexander Pope
The finest minds, like the finest metals, dissolve the easiest.

Alexander Pope
Silence! coeval with eternity! thou wert ere Nature's self began to be; thine was the sway ere heaven was formed on earth, ere fruitful thought conceived creation's birth.

Alexander Pope
What then remains, but well our power to use,
And keep good-humor still whate'er we lose?
And trust me, dear, good-humor can prevail,
When airs, and flights, and screams, and scolding fail.

Alexander Pope
The mouse that always trusts to one poor hole Can never be a mouse of any soul.

Alexander Pope
Judges and senates have been bought for gold; Esteem and love were never to be sold.

Alexander Pope
Presumptuous Man! the reason wouldst thou find,Why form'd so weak, so little, and so blind?First, if thou canst, the harder reason guess,Why form'd no weaker, blinder, and no less!Ask of thy mother earth, why oaks are madeTaller or stronger than the weeds they shade?Or ask of yonder argent fields above,Why Jove's Satellites are less than Jove?

Alexander Pope
The most positive men are the most credulous, since they most believe themselves, and advise most with their falsest flatterer and worst enemy--their own self-love.

Alexander Pope
Sickness is a sort of early old age; it teaches us a diffidence in our earthly state.

Alexander Pope
Man, like the generous vine, supported lives; the strength he gains is from the embrace he gives.

Alexander Pope
The soul, uneasy and confin'd from home, Rests and expatiates in a life to come.

Alexander Pope
I begin where most people end, with a full conviction of the emptiness of all sorts of ambition, and the unsatisfactory nature of all human pleasures.

Alexander Pope
What Conscience dictates to be done, Or warns me not to do; This teach me more than Hell to shun, That more than Heav'n pursue.

Alexander Pope
To the Elysian shades dismiss my soul, where no carnation fades.

Alexander Pope
A king may be a tool, a thing of straw; but if he serves to frighten our enemies, and secure our property, it is well enough; a scarecrow is a thing of straw, but it protects the corn.

Alexander Pope
Modest plainness sets off sprightly wit,
For works may have more with than does 'em good,
As bodies perish through excess of blood.

Alexander Pope
A long, exact, and serious comedy; In every scene some moral let it teach, And, if it can, at once both please and preach.

Alexander Pope
All nature mourns, the skies relent in showers; hushed are the birds, and closed the drooping flowers.

Alexander Pope