Alexander Pope Quotes

Education forms the common mind. Just as the twig is bent, the tree's inclined.
~ Alexander Pope


Extremes in nature equal ends produce; In man they join to some mysterious use.
~ Alexander Pope


Fondly we think we honor merit then, When we but praise ourselves in other men.
~ Alexander Pope


Fools admire, but men of sense approve.
~ Alexander Pope


Fools rush in where angels fear to tread.
~ Alexander Pope


For fools rush in where angels fear to tread.
~ Alexander Pope


For Forms of Government let fools contest; whatever is best administered is best.
~ Alexander Pope


For modes of faith let graceless zealots fight, His can't be wrong whose life is in the right.
~ Alexander Pope


Genius creates, and taste preserves. Taste is the good sense of genius; without taste, genius is only sublime folly.
~ Alexander Pope


Gentle dullness ever loves a joke.
~ Alexander Pope


Get place and wealth, if possible with grace; if not, by any means get wealth and place.
~ Alexander Pope


Happy the man whose wish and care a few paternal acres bound, content to breathe his native air in his own ground.
~ Alexander Pope


Health consists with temperance alone.
~ Alexander Pope


Not always actions show the man; we find who does a kindness is not therefore kind.
~ Alexander Pope


Not to go back is somewhat to advance, and men must walk, at least, before they dance.
~ Alexander Pope


Of Manners gentle, of Affections mild; In Wit a man; Simplicity, a child.
~ Alexander Pope


On life's vast ocean diversely we sail. Reasons the card, but passion the gale.
~ Alexander Pope


On wrongs swift vengeance waits.
~ Alexander Pope


The difference is too nice - Where ends the virtue or begins the vice.
~ Alexander Pope


The greatest magnifying glasses in the world are a man's own eyes when they look upon his own person.
~ Alexander Pope


The hungry judges soon the sentence sign, and wretches hang that jurymen may dine.
~ Alexander Pope


The learned is happy, nature to explore; The fool is happy, that he knows no more.
~ Alexander Pope


The most positive men are the most credulous.
~ Alexander Pope


The world forgetting, by the world forgot.
~ Alexander Pope


The worst of madmen is a saint run mad.
~ Alexander Pope


There is a certain majesty in simplicity which is far above all the quaintness of wit.
~ Alexander Pope


They dream in courtship, but in wedlock wake.
~ Alexander Pope


Those move easiest who have learn'd to dance.
~ Alexander Pope


Tis but a part we see, and not a whole.
~ Alexander Pope


'Tis education forms the common mind; just as the twig is bent the tree's inclined.
~ Alexander Pope


'Tis not enough your counsel still be true; Blunt truths more mischief than nice falsehoods do.
~ Alexander Pope


To be angry is to revenge the faults of others on ourselves.
~ Alexander Pope


To err is human; to forgive, divine.
~ Alexander Pope

The proper study of Mankind is Man.
~ Alexander Pope


The ruling passion, be it what it will. The ruling passion conquers reason still.
~ Alexander Pope


The same ambition can destroy or save, and make a patriot as it makes a knave.
~ Alexander Pope


The vulgar boil, the learned roast, an egg.
~ Alexander Pope


The way of the Creative works through change and transformation, so that each thing receives its true nature and destiny and comes into permanent accord with the Great Harmony: this is what furthers and what perseveres.
~ Alexander Pope


One science only will one genius fit; so vast is art, so narrow human wit.
~ Alexander Pope


And die of nothing but a rage to live.
~ Alexander Pope


And, after all, what is a lie? 'Tis but the truth in a masquerade.
~ Alexander Pope


At ev'ry word a reputation dies.
~ Alexander Pope


Be not the first by whom the new are tried, Nor yet the last to lay the old aside.
~ Alexander Pope


To observations which ourselves we make, we grow more partial for th' observer's sake.
~ Alexander Pope


True ease in writing comes from art, not chance, as those who move easiest have learned to dance.
~ Alexander Pope


True politeness consists in being easy one's self, and in making every one about one as easy as one can.
~ Alexander Pope


Trust not yourself, but your defects to know, make use of every friend and every foe.
~ Alexander Pope


Virtue she finds too painful an endeavour, content to dwell in decencies for ever.
~ Alexander Pope


What some call health, if purchased by perpetual anxiety about diet, isn't much better than tedious disease.
~ Alexander Pope


Who shall decide when doctors disagree, And soundest casuists doubt, like you and me?
~ Alexander Pope


Whoever thinks a faultless piece to see, Thinks what ne'er was, nor is, nor e'er shall be.
~ Alexander Pope


Wit is the lowest form of humor.
~ Alexander Pope


Woman's at best a contradiction still.
~ Alexander Pope


Beauties in vain their pretty eyes may roll; charms strike the sight, but merit wins the soul.
~ Alexander Pope


Behold the child, by Nature's kindly law pleased with a rattle, tickled with a straw.
~ Alexander Pope


Blessed is the man who expects nothing, for he shall never be disappointed was the ninth beatitude.
~ Alexander Pope


But blind to former as to future fate, what mortal knows his pre-existent state?
~ Alexander Pope


But Satan now is wiser than of yore, and tempts by making rich, not making poor.
~ Alexander Pope


Charms strike the sight, but merit wins the soul.
~ Alexander Pope


Order is heaven's first law.
~ Alexander Pope


Our passions are like convulsion fits, which, though they make us stronger for a time, leave us the weaker ever after.
~ Alexander Pope


Party-spirit at best is but the madness of many for the gain of a few.
~ Alexander Pope


Passions are the gales of life.
~ Alexander Pope


Histories are more full of examples of the fidelity of dogs than of friends.
~ Alexander Pope


Man never thinks himself happy, but when he enjoys those things which others want or desire.
~ Alexander Pope


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


Men must be taught as if you taught them not, and things unknown proposed as things forgot.
~ Alexander Pope


Men would be angels, angels would be gods.
~ Alexander Pope


A God without dominion, providence, and final causes, is nothing else but fate and nature.
~ Alexander Pope


A little learning is a dangerous thing; Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring.
~ Alexander Pope


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.
~ Alexander Pope


A wit with dunces, and a dunce with wits.
~ Alexander Pope


A work of art that contains theories is like an object on which the price tag has been left.
~ Alexander Pope


Act well your part, there all the honour lies.
~ Alexander Pope


All are but parts of one stupendous whole, Whose body Nature is, and God the soul.
~ Alexander Pope


All nature is but art unknown to thee.
~ Alexander Pope


An honest man's the noblest work of God.
~ Alexander Pope


And all who told it added something new, and all who heard it, made enlargements too.
~ Alexander Pope


Nature and nature's laws lay hid in the night. God said, Let Newton be! and all was light!
~ Alexander Pope


Never elated when someone's oppressed, never dejected when another one's blessed.
~ Alexander Pope


Never find fault with the absent.
~ Alexander Pope


Never was it given to mortal man - To lie so boldly as we women can.
~ Alexander Pope


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.
~ Alexander Pope


No woman ever hates a man for being in love with her, but many a woman hate a man for being a friend to her.
~ Alexander Pope


Honor and shame from no condition rise. Act well your part: there all the honor lies.
~ Alexander Pope


Hope springs eternal in the human breast: Man never is, but always To be Blest.
~ Alexander Pope


Hope travels through, nor quits us when we die.
~ Alexander Pope


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.
~ Alexander Pope


If a man's character is to be abused there's nobody like a relative to do the business.
~ Alexander Pope


In words, as fashions, the same rule will hold; Alike fantastic, if too new, or old: Be not the first by whom the new are tried, Nor yet the last to lay the old aside.
~ Alexander Pope


Is pride, the never-failing vice of fools.
~ Alexander Pope


Know then this truth, enough for man to know virtue alone is happiness below.
~ Alexander Pope


Know then thyself, presume not God to scan; The proper study of mankind is man.
~ Alexander Pope


Like Cato, give his little senate laws, and sit attentive to his own applause.
~ Alexander Pope


Lo, what huge heaps of littleness around!
~ Alexander Pope


Lo! The poor Indian, whose untutored mind sees God in clouds, or hears him in the wind.
~ Alexander Pope


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!
~ Alexander Pope


How happy is the blameless vestal's lot? The world forgetting, by the world forgot.
~ Alexander Pope


Praise undeserved, is satire in disguise.
~ Alexander Pope


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.
~ Alexander Pope


Remembrance and reflection how allied. What thin partitions divides sense from thought.
~ Alexander Pope


Satan is wiser now than before, and tempts by making rich instead of poor.
~ Alexander Pope


Slave to no sect, who takes no private road, But looks through Nature up to Nature's God.
~ Alexander Pope


So vast is art, so narrow human wit.
~ Alexander Pope


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.
~ Alexander Pope


Some people will never learn anything, for this reason, because they understand everything too soon.
~ Alexander Pope


Teach me to feel another's woe, to hide the fault I see, that mercy I to others show, that mercy show to me.
~ Alexander Pope


The bookful blockhead, ignorantly read With loads of learned lumber in his head.
~ Alexander Pope


How prone to doubt, how cautious are the wise!
~ Alexander Pope


How shall I lose the sin, yet keep the sense, and love the offender, yet detest the offence?
~ Alexander Pope