Alexander Pope - Wise Quotes

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A wise physician, skill'd our wounds to heal, is more than armies to the public weal.

Alexander Pope
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.

Alexander Pope
Fly, dotard, fly! With thy wise dreams and fables of the sky.

Alexander Pope
But if you'll prosper, mark what I advise, Whom age, and long experience render wise.

Alexander Pope
Coffee, which makes the politician wise,
And see through all things with his half-shut eyes.

Alexander Pope
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 Cæsar 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.

Alexander Pope
We think our Fathers Fools, so wise we grow;
Our wiser Sons, no doubt, will think us so.

Alexander Pope
For lo! the board with cups and spoons is crowned.The berries crackle, and the mill turns round... At once they gratify their scent and taste.And frequent cups prolong the rich repast... Coffee (which makes the politician wise And see through all things with his half-shut eyes).

Alexander Pope
Many men have been capable of doing a wise thing, more a cunning thing, but very few a generous thing.

Alexander Pope
Who combats bravely is not therefore brave, He dreads a death-bed like the meanest slave: Who reasons wisely is not therefore wise,- His pride in reasoning, not in acting lies.

Alexander Pope
Wise wretch! with pleasures too refin'd 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
Who finds not Providence all good and wise, Alike in what it gives, and what denies.

Alexander Pope
Mark what unvary'd laws preserve each state, Laws wise as Nature, and as fixed as Fate.

Alexander Pope
What so pure, which envious tongues will spare?
Some wicked wits have libell'd all the fair,
With matchless impudence they style a wife,
The dear-bought curse, and lawful plague of life;
A bosom serpent, a domestic evil,
A night invasion, and a mid-day devil;
Let not the wise these sland'rous words regard,
But curse the bones of ev'ry living bard.

Alexander Pope
Fear not the anger of the wise to raise; Those best can bear reproof who merit praise.

Alexander Pope
Chiefs who no more in bloody fights engage, But wise through time, and narrative with age, In summer-days like grasshoppers rejoice - A bloodless race, that send a feeble voice.

Alexander Pope