“Inscriptions here of various Names I view'd,
The greater part by hostile time subdu'd;
Yet wide was spread their fame in ages past,
And Poets once had promis'd they should last.”
Source: The Temple of Fame
“Men, some to business take, some to pleasure take; but every woman is at heart a rake”
Source: Moral essays
“But where th' extreme of vice, was ne'er agreed:
Ask where's the North? at York, 'tis on the Tweed;
In Scotland, at the Orcades; and there,
At Greenland, Zembla, or the Lord knows where:
No creature owns it in the first degree,
But thinks his neighbour farther gone than he!”
Source: An Essay on Man
“Nature to all things fixed the limits fit
And wisely curbed proud man's pretending wit.
As on the land while here the ocean gains.
In other parts it leaves wide sandy plains
Thus in the soul while memory prevails,
The solid power of understanding fails
Where beams of warm imagination play,
The memory's soft figures melt away
One science only will one genius fit,
So vast is art, so narrow human wit
Not only bounded to peculiar arts,
But oft in those confined to single parts
Like kings, we lose the conquests gained before,
By vain ambition still to make them more
Each might his several province well command,
Would all but stoop to what they understand.”
Source: An Essay on Criticism
“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.”
“We may see the small Value God has for Riches, by the People he gives them to."
[Thoughts on Various Subjects, 1727]”
Source: The Prose Works of Alexander Pope: The Major Works 1725-1744, Vol. II
“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.”
Source: An Essay on Man
“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!”
Source: An Essay on Man
“By false learning is good sense defaced”
Source: An Essay on Criticism
“In search of wit these lose their common sense”
Source: An Essay on Criticism
“The Wit of Cheats, the Courage of a Whore,
Are what ten thousand envy and adore:
All, all look up, with reverential Awe,
At crimes that 'scape, or triumph o'er the Law:
While Truth, Worth, Wisdom, daily they decry-`
'Nothing is sacred now but Villainy'
- Epilogue to the Satires, Dialogue I”
“Remembrance and reflection how allied!
What thin partitions Sense from Thought divide!”
Source: Essay on Man and Other Poems
“Some who grow dull religious straight commence
And gain in morals what they lose in sense.”
Source: Minor poems
“Teach me to feel another’s woe,
To hide the fault I see;
That mercy I to others show,
That mercy show to me.
(from The Universal Prayer)”
“Solitude
Happy the man, whose wish and care
A few paternal acres bound,
Content to breathe his native air
In his own ground.
Whose herds with milk, whose fields with bread,
Whose flocks supply him with attire;
Whose trees in summer yield him shade,
In winter fire.
Blest, who can unconcern’dly find
Hours, days, and years, slide soft away
In health of body, peace of mind,
Quiet by day.
Sound sleep by night; study and ease
Together mix’d, sweet recreation,
And innocence, which most does please
With meditation.
Thus let me live, unseen, unknown;
Thus unlamented let me die;
Steal from the world, and not a stone
Tell where I lie.”
“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 made
Taller or stronger than the weeds they shade?
Or ask of yonder argent fields above,
Why Jove's Satellites are less than Jove?”
Source: An Essay on Man
“Know thy own point: this kind, this due degree
Of blindness, weakness, Heav'n bestows on thee.”
“Blessed is he who expects nothing, for he shall never be disappointed.”
“Of these am I, who thy protection claim, A watchful sprite, and Ariel is my name.
Late, as I rang'd the crystal wilds of air,
In the clear mirror of thy ruling star
I saw, alas! some dread event impend,
Ere to the main this morning sun descend,
But Heav'n reveals not what, or how, or where: Warn'd by the Sylph, oh pious maid, beware!”
Source: The Rape of the Lock
“And see, my son! the hour is on its way,
That lifts the Goddess to imperial sway;
This favourite isle, long severed from her reign,
Doveline, she gathers to her wings again”
“Know thyself, presume not God to scan;
The proper study of mankind is man.”
“Then say not man's imperfect, Heav'n in fault;. Say rather, man's as perfect as he ought.”
“Nor public Flame, nor private, dares to shine;
Nor human Spark is left, nor Glimpse divine!
Lo! thy dread Empire, Chaos! is restor’d;
Light dies before thy uncreating word:
Thy hand, great Anarch! lets the curtain fall;
And Universal Darkness buries All.”
Source: The Dunciad
“Natura și legile Naturii zăceau ascunse în beznă: Dumnezeu a spus să fie Newton! și s-a făcut lumină”
“Seas roll to waft me, suns to light me rise; My footstool earth, my canopy the skies.”
Source: The works of Alexander Pope, with notes and illustrations, by himself and others. To which are added, a new life of the author [&c.] by W. Roscoe
“Judge not of actions by their mere effect; Dive to the center, and the cause detect. Great deeds from meanest springs may take their course, And smallest virtues from a mighty source.”
“A long, exact, and serious comedy; In every scene some moral let it teach, And, if it can, at once both please and preach.”
Source: Poetical works
“There still remains to mortify a wit The many-headed monster of the pit.”
“Be niggards of advice on no pretense; For the worst avarice is that of sense.”
Source: An Essay on Criticism
“Where grows?--where grows it not? If vain our toil, We ought to blame the culture, not the soil.”
Source: The Poetical Works of Alexander Pope
“Oh, sons of earth! attempt ye still to rise. By mountains pil'd on mountains to the skies? Heav'n still with laughter the vain toil surveys, And buries madmen in the heaps they raise.”
Source: The Works of Alexander Pope Esq
“Who know but He, whose hand the lightning forms, Who heaves old ocean, and who wings the storms, Pours fierce ambition in a Caesar's mind.”
Source: The Works of Alexander Pope: With a Memoir of the Author, Notes, and Critical Notes on Each Poem
“What can ennoble sots, or slaves, or cowards? Alas! not all the blood, of all the Howards.”
Source: An Essay on Man: In Four Epistles, to H. St. John, Lord Bolingbroke
“Hear how the birds, on ev'ry blooming spray, With joyous musick wake the dawning day.”
“Our proper bliss depends on what we blame.”
Source: The Works: Including Several Hundred Unpublished Letters, and Other New Materials
“The blest to-day is as completely so, As who began a thousand years ago.”
Source: The poetical works of Alexander Pope. With memoir, critical diss., and explanatory notes. The text ed. by C.C. Clarke
“Learn of the little nautilus to sail, Spread the thin oar, and catch the driving gale.”
Source: The Works of Alexander Pope, Esq: In Six Volumes Complete. With His Last Corrections, Additions, and Improvements; Together with All His Notes, as They Were Delivered to the Editor a Little Before His Death: Printed Verbatim from the Octavo Edition of Mr. Warburton
“Judges and senates have been bought for gold; Esteem and love were never to be sold.”
Source: The Works: Including Several Hundred Unpublished Letters, and Other New Materials
“Alas! the small discredit of a bribe Scarce hurts the lawyer, but undoes the scribe.”
Source: The Poetical Works of Alexander Pope: Epistle to Dr. Arbuthnot, being the prologue to the satires. Satires, epistles, and odes of Horace imitated. Epitaphs. The Dunciad, in four books
“Of fight or fly, This choice is left ye, to resist or die.”
Source: The Poetical Works of Alexander Pope. Edited by the Rev. H. F. Cary, Etc
“No silver saints, by dying misers giv'n, Here brib'd the rage of ill-requited heav'n; But such plain roofs as Piety could raise, And only vocal with the Maker's praise.”
Source: Poems
“At length corruption, like a general flood (So long by watchful ministers withstood), Shall deluge all; and avarice, creeping on, Spread like a low-born mist, and blot the sun.”
Source: The Poetical Works of Alexander Pope
“Others import yet nobler arts from France, Teach kings to fiddle, and make senates dance.”
Source: The Works of Alexander Pope, Esq., with Notes and Illustrations, by Himself and Others. To which are Added, a New Life of the Author, an Estimate of His Poetical Character and Writings, and Occasional Remarks by William Roscoe, Esq
“Of darkness visible so much be lent, as half to show, half veil, the deep intent.”
Source: The Works of Alexander Pope, Esq., with Notes and Illustrations, by Himself and Others. To which are Added, a New Life of the Author, an Estimate of His Poetical Character and Writings, and Occasional Remarks by William Roscoe, Esq
“But just disease to luxury succeeds, And ev'ry death its own avenger breeds.”
Source: The Poetical Works of Alexander Pope: In Three Volumes Complete, with His Last Corrections, Additions, and Improvements, Together with All His Notes as They Were Delivered to the Editor a Little Before His Death
“The doubtful beam long nods from side to side.”
Source: The poetical works of Alexander Pope. Revised and arranged expressly for the use of young people, by W.C. Macready
“Not half so swift the trembling doves can fly, When the fierce eagle cleaves the liquid sky; Not half so swiftly the fierce eagle moves, When thro' the clouds he drives the trembling doves.”
Source: Delphi Complete Works of Alexander Pope (Illustrated)
“And little eagles wave their wings in gold.”
Source: Poetical Works, with Life of the Author and Notes
“Live like yourself, was soon my lady's word, And lo! two puddings smok'd upon the board.”
Source: The poetical works of Alexander Pope: with a life
“And more than echoes talk along the walls.”
Source: Poetical Works, with Life of the Author and Notes
