Best quotes by Alexander Pope

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

Others import yet nobler arts from France, Teach kings to fiddle, and make senates dance.

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.

A gen'rous heart repairs a sland'rous tongue.

Self-love, the spring of motion, acts the soul; Reason's comparing balance rules the whole. Man, but for that no action could attend, And, but for this, were active to no end: Fix'd like a plant on his peculiar spot, To draw nutrition, propagate, and rot; Or, meteor-like, flame lawless thro' the void, Destroying others, by himself destroy'd.

If it be the chief point of friendship to comply with a friends motions and inclinations, he possesses this in a eminent degree; he lies down when I sit, and walks when I walk, which is more than many good friends can pretend to do.

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.

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?

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

I lose my patience, and I own it too, When works are censur'd, not as bad but new; While if our Elders break all reason's laws, These fools demand not pardon but Applause.

Hills peep o'er hills, and Alps on Alps arise.

Women, as they are like riddles in being unintelligible, so generally resemble them in this, that they please us no longer once we know them.

Fortune in men has some small diff'rence made, One flaunts in rags, one flutters in brocade, The cobbler apron'd, and the parson gown'd, The friar hooded, and the monarch crown'd.

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.

The man that loves and laughs must sure do well.

Every woman is at heart a rake.

For critics, as they are birds of prey, have ever a natural inclination to carrion.

To buy books as some do who make no use of them, only because they were published by an eminent printer, is much as if a man should buy clothes that did not fit him, only because they were made by some famous tailor.

Virtuous and vicious every man must be, few in the extreme, but all in the degree.

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.

Yet graceful ease, and sweetness void of pride, Might hide her faults, if belles had faults to hide: If to her share some female errors fall, Look on her face, and you'll forget 'em all.

Wise wretch! with pleasures too refined 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.

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

Expression is the dress of thought, and still Appears more decent as more suitable; A vile conceit in pompous words express'd, Is like a clown in regal purple dress'd.

For forms of government, let fools contest; Whate'er is best administered, is best.

I lisp'd in numbers, for the numbers came.

Heaven forming each on other to depend, A master, or a servant, or a friend, Bids each on other for assistance call, Till one man's weakness grows the strength of all.

Unblemish'd let me live or die unknown; Oh, grant an honest fame, or grant me none!

In adamantine chains shall Death be bound, And Hell's grim tyrant feel th' eternal wound.

Heaven gave to woman the peculiar grace To spin, to weep, and cully human race.

Is there no bright reversion in the sky, For those who greatly think or bravely die?

But those who cannot write, and those who can, All rhyme, and scrawl, and scribble, to a man.

What woeful stuff this madrigal would be, In some starved hackney sonneteer, or me! But let a lord once own the happy lines, How the wit brightens! how the style refines!

When rumours increase, and when there is an abundance of noise and clamour, believe the second report.

That character in conversation which commonly passes for agreeable is made up of civility and falsehood.

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

Nor Fame I slight, nor her favors call.

Dear, damned, distracting town, farewell! Thy fools no more I'll tease: This year in peace, ye critics, dwell, Ye harlots, sleep at ease!

But thinks, admitted to that equal sky, His faithful dog shall bear him company.

Say, will the falcon, stooping from above, Smit with her varying plumage, spare the dove? Admires the jay the insect's gilded wings? Or hears the hawk when Philomela sings?

Who builds a church to God and not to fame, Will never mark the marble with his name.

Age and want sit smiling at the gate.

Who ne'er knew joy but friendship might divide,Or gave his father grief but when he died.

Who pants for glory, finds but short repose; A breath revives him, or a breath o'erthrows.

Heav'n from all creatures hides the book of fate, All but the page prescribed, their present state: From brutes what men, from men what spirits know: Or who could suffer being here below?

Hope springs eternal.

It is observable that the ladies frequent tragedies more than comedies; the reason may be, that in tragedy their sex is deified and adored, in comedy exposed and ridiculed.

But see, the shepherds shun the noonday heat, The lowing herds to murmuring brooks retreat, To closer shades the panting flocks remove; Ye gods! And is there no relief for love?

The good must merit God's peculiar care; But who but God can tell us who they are?

In a sadly pleasing strain, let the warbling lute complain.

He knows to live who keeps the middle state, and neither leans on this side nor on that.

Most authors steal their works, or buy.

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

Tis strange the miser should his cares employTo gain those riches he can ne'er enjoy;Is it less strange the prodigal should wasteHis wealth to purchase what he ne'er can taste?

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?

Vast chain of being! which from God began, Natures ethereal, human, angel, man, Beast, bird, fish, insect, what no eye can see, No glass can reach, from infinite to Thee, From Thee to nothing.

For wit and judgment often are at strife, Though meant each other's aid, like man and wife.

At present we can only reason of the divine justice from what we know of justice in man. When we are in other scenes, we may have truer and nobler ideas of it; but while we are in this life, we can only speak from the volume that is laid open before us.

Learn to live well, or fairly make your will; You've play'd, and lov'd, and ate, and drank your fill: Walk sober off, before a sprightlier age Comes titt'ring on, and shoves you from the stage.

The lot of man - to suffer and to die.

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

There various news I heard of love and strife,Of peace and war, health, sickness, death, and life,Of loss and gain, of famine and of store,Of storms at sea, and travels on the shore,Of prodigies, and portents seen in air,Of fires and plagues, and stars with blazing hair,Of turns of fortune, changes in the state,The fall of favourites, projects of the great,Of aid mismanagements, taxations new:All neither wholly false, nor wholly true.

Tis from high Life high Characters are drawn; A Saint in Crape is twice a Saint in Lawn: A Judge is just, a Chanc'llor juster still; A Gownman learn'd; a Bishop what you will; Wise if a minister; but if a King, More wise, more learn'd, more just, more ev'rything.

How Instinct varies in the grov'ling swine.

Leave not a foot of verse, a foot of stone, A Page, a Grave, that they can call their own; But spread, my sons, your glory thin or thick, On passive paper, or on solid brick.

Some have at first for wits, then poets passed, Turned critics next, and proved plain fools at last.

Fools admire, but men of sense approve.

Envy will merit, as its shade, pursue

When I die, I should be ashamed to leave enough to build me a monument if there were a wanting friend above ground. I would enjoy the pleasure of what I give by giving it alive and seeing another enjoy it.

Thus let me live, unseen, unknown, Thus unlamented let me die, Steal from the world, and not a stone Tell where I lie.

When to the Permanent is sacrificed the Mutable, the prize is thine: the drop returneth whence it came. The Open Path leads to the changeless change - Non-Being, the glorious state of Absoluteness, the Bliss past human thought.

Heaven from all creatures hides the book of Fate.

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

Yes, I am proud; I must be proud to see Men not afraid of God, afraid of me.

How vast a memory has Love!