“A perfect judge will read each word of wit with the same spirit that its author writ.”
Source: An Essay on the Genius and Writings of Pope. The second edition, corrected. By Joseph Warton
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Famous Alexander Pope Quotes
“The difference is too nice - Where ends the virtue or begins the vice.”
Source: The Works of Alexander Pope, Esq: Essay on man. Moral essays. An essay on satire
“Honor and shame from no condition rise. Act well your part: there all the honor lies.”
Source: An Essay on Man: In Four Epistles, to Henry St. John, Lord Bolingbroke : to which is Added, The Universal Prayer, with Other Poems
“How happy is the blameless vestal's lot? The world forgetting, by the world forgot.”
“But Satan now is wiser than of yore, and tempts by making rich, not making poor.”
Source: The Works of Alexander Pope, Esq: Life of Alexander Pope. Poems
“The ruling passion, be it what it will. The ruling passion conquers reason still.”
“Be not the first by whom the new are tried, Nor yet the last to lay the old aside.”
Source: The Poetical Works of Alexander Pope
“Praise undeserved, is satire in disguise.”
Source: A reply to an
“A God without dominion, providence, and final causes, is nothing else but fate and nature.”
Source: The Dunciad: In Four Books
“Extremes in nature equal ends produce; In man they join to some mysterious use.”
Source: Moral essays
“Remembrance and reflection how allied. What thin partitions divides sense from thought.”
“'Tis not enough your counsel still be true; Blunt truths more mischief than nice falsehoods do.”
Source: An Essay on Criticism
“Behold the child, by Nature's kindly law pleased with a rattle, tickled with a straw.”
“Know then thyself, presume not God to scan; The proper study of mankind is man.”
“Like Cato, give his little senate laws, and sit attentive to his own applause.”
Source: The works of Alexander Pope, with remarks and illustrations. By G. Wakefield
“Not always actions show the man; we find who does a kindness is not therefore kind.”
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