295 Famous Quotes by Alexander Pope
5/21/1688 - 5/30/1744
Professions:
Information:
About Alexander Pope
Alexander Pope was an 18th-century English poet, best known for his satirical verse and for his translation of Homer. Famous for his use of the heroic couplet, he is the third-most frequently quoted writer in The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations, after Shakespeare and Tennyson.
|
The infant, on opening his eyes, ought to see his country, and to
the hour of his death never lose sight of it.
[Fr., Un enfant en ouvrant ses yeux doit voir la patrie, et
jusqu'a la mort ne voir qu'elle.]
Love of country
Quotes, by Alexander Pope , Source: On his Grotto at Twickenham
|
All Nature is but art unknown to thee;
All chance direction, which thou canst not see;
All discord, harmony not understood;
All partial evil, universal good;
And spite of pride, in erring reason's spite,
One truth is clear, Whatever is is right.
Right
Quotes, by Alexander Pope , Source: Essay on Man (ep. I, l. 289)
|
Always do right. That will gratify some of the people and
astonish the rest.
Right
Quotes, by Alexander Pope , Source: Essay on Man (ep. I, l. 289)
|
|
Nature made every fop to plague his brother,
Just as one beauty mortifies another.
Foppery
Quotes, by Alexander Pope , Source: Satire IV (l. 258)
|
Oh her white breast a sparkling cross she wore,
Which Jews might kiss and Infidels adore.
Jewels
Quotes, by Alexander Pope , Source: Rape of the Lock (canto II, l. 7)
|
Th' embroider'd suit at least he deem'd his prey;
That suit an unpaid tailor snatched away.
Tailors
Quotes, by Alexander Pope , Source: The Dunciad (bk. II, l. 117)
|
|
All fame is foreign, but of true desert;
Plays round the head, but comes not to the heart:
One self approving hour whole years out-weighs
Of stupid starers, and of loud huzzas;
And more true joy Marcellus exil'd feels,
Than Caesar with a senate at his heels.
Self-examination
Quotes, by Alexander Pope , Source: Essay on Man (ep. IV, l. 253)
|
|
|
|
What dire Offence from am'rous Causes springs,
What mighty Contests rise from trivial Things.
Results
Quotes, by Alexander Pope , Source: Rape of the Lock (canto I, l. 1)
|
|
In the nice bee, what sense so subtly true
From pois'nous herbs extracts the healing dew?
Bees
Quotes, by Alexander Pope , Source: Essay on Man (ep. I, 219)
|
The spider's touch, how exquisitely fine!
Feels at each thread, and lives along the line.
Spiders
Quotes, by Alexander Pope , Source: Essay on Man (ep. I, l. 217)
|
|
To what base ends, and by what abject ways,
Are mortals urg'd through sacred lust of praise!
Praise
Quotes, by Alexander Pope , Source: Essay on Criticism (l. 520)
|
|
|
Some positive persisting fops we know,
Who, if once wrong, will needs be always so;
But you with pleasure own your errors past,
And make each day a critique on the last.
Errors
Quotes, by Alexander Pope , Source: Essay on Criticism (pt. III, l. 9)
|
Of fight or fly,
This choice is left ye, to resist or die.
Choice
Quotes, by Alexander Pope , Source: Homer's Odyssey (bk. XXII, l. 79)
|
Order is Heaven's first law; and this confess,
Some are and must be greater than the rest.
Order
Quotes, by Alexander Pope , Source: Essay on Man (ep. IV, l. 49)
|
Not chaos-like together crush'd and bruis'd,
But, as the world, harmoniously confused:
Where order in variety we see,
And where tho' all things differ, all agree.
Order
Quotes, by Alexander Pope , Source: Windsor Forest (l. 13)
|
Destroy all creatures for thy sport or gust,
Yet cry, if man's unhappy, God's unjust.
Providence
Quotes, by Alexander Pope , Source: Essay on Man (ep. I, l. 117)
|
Who finds not Providence all good and wise,
Alike in what it gives, and what denies.
Providence
Quotes, by Alexander Pope , Source: Essay on Man (ep. I, l. 205)
|
