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Order is Heaven's first law; and this confess,
Some are and must be greater than the rest.
Topic: Order
Source: Essay on Man (ep. IV, l. 49)
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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.
Topic: Order
Source: Windsor Forest (l. 13)
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You purchase pain with all that joy can give,
And die of nothing but a rage to live.
Topic: Pain
Source: Moral Essays (ep. II, l. 99)
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He best can paint them who shall feel them most.
Topic: Painting
Source: Eloisa to Abelard (last line)
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Lely on animated canvas stole
The sleepy eye, that spoke the melting soul.
Topic: Painting
Source: Second Book of Horace (ep. I, l. 149)
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Party is the madness of many, for the gains of a few.
Topic: Party
Source: None
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Search then the ruling passion; there alone,
The wild are constant, and the cunning known;
The fool consistent, and the false sincere;
Priests, princes, women, no dissemblers here.
Topic: Passion
Source: Moral Essays (ep. I, l. 174)
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And you, brave Cobham! to the latest breath
Shall feel your ruling passion strong in death.
Topic: Passion
Source: Moral Essays (ep. I, l. 262)
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In men, we various ruling passions find;
In women two almost divide the kind;
Those only fix'd, they first or last obey.
The love of pleasure, and the love of sway.
Topic: Passion
Source: Moral Essays (ep. II, l. 207)
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The ruling passion, be it what it will,
The ruling passion conquers reason still.
Topic: Passion
Source: Moral Essays (ep. III, l. 153)
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See! from the brake the whirring pheasant springs,
And mounts exulting on triumphant wings:
Short is his joy; he feels the fiery wound,
Flutters in blood, and panting beats the ground.
Topic: Pheasants
Source: Windsor Forest (l. 111)
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Next o'er his books his eyes began to roll,
In pleasing memory of all he stole;
How here he sipp'd, how there he plunder'd snug,
And suck'd all o'er like an industrious bug.
Topic: Plagiarism
Source: The Dunciad (bk. I, l. 127)
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With him most authors steal their works, or buy;
Garth did not write his own Dispensary.
Topic: Plagiarism
Source: Essay on Criticism (l. 618)
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Soon as thy letters trembling I unclose,
That well-known name awakens all my woes.
Topic: Post
Source: Eloisa to Abelard (l. 29)
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Line after line my gushing eye o'erflow,
Led thro' a said variety of woe:
Now warm in love, now with'ring in my bloom,
Lost in a convent's solitary gloom!
Topic: Post
Source: Eloisa to Abelard (l. 35)
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Heav'n first taught letters for some wretch's aid,
Some banish'd lover, or some captive maid.
Topic: Post
Source: Eloisa to Abelard (l. 51)
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Solid pudding against empty praise.
Topic: Praise
Source: The Dunciad (bk. I, l. 54)
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To what base ends, and by what abject ways,
Are mortals urg'd through sacred lust of praise!
Topic: Praise
Source: Essay on Criticism (l. 520)
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Praise undeserved is scandal in disguise.
Topic: Praise
Source: First Epistle of Second Book of Horace
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What the weak head with strongest bias rules,
Is pride, the never-failing vice of fools.
Topic: Pride
Source: Essay on Criticism (l. 203)
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In pride, in reas'ning pride, our error lies;
All quit their sphere and rush into the skies.
Pride still is aiming at the bless'd abodes,
Men would be angels, angels would be gods.
Topic: Pride
Source: Essay on Man (ep. I, l. 124)
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Thus unlamented pass the proud away,
The gaze of fools and pageant of a day;
So perish all, whose breast ne'er learn'd to glow
For others' good, or melt at others' woe.
Topic: Pride
Source: Memory of an Unfortunate Lady (l. 4)
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I'll print it,
And shame the fools.
Topic: Printing
Source: Prologue to Satires (l. 61)
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Not to go back is somewhat to advance, and men must walk, at least, before they dance.
Topic: Progress
Source: None
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One science only will one genius fit,
So vast is art, so narrow human wit.
Topic: Proverbs
Source: Essay of Criticism (pt. I, l. 60)
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To err is human, to forgive, divine.
Topic: Proverbs
Source: Essay on Criticism
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Envy will merit as its shade pursue,
But like a shadow, proves the substance true.
Topic: Proverbs
Source: Essay on Criticism (pt. II, l. 266)
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Men would be angels, angels would be gods.
Topic: Proverbs
Source: Essay on Man (ep. I, l. 126)
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Hope springs eternal in the human breast,
Man never is, but always to be blest.
Topic: Proverbs
Source: Essay on Man (ep. I, l. 95)
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Chaos of thought and passion all confused.
Topic: Proverbs
Source: Essay on Man (ep. II, l. 13)
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Manners with Fortunes, Humours turn with Climes,
Tenets with Books, and Principles with Times.
Topic: Proverbs
Source: Moral Essays (ep. I, pt. II)
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Damn with faint praise, assent with civil leer,
And without sneering teach the rest to sneer;
Willing to wound, and yet afraid to strike,
Just hint a fault, and hesitate dislike;
Alike reserv'd to blame, or to commend,
A tim'rous foe, and a suspicious friend.
Topic: Proverbs
Source: Prologue to Satires (l. 201)
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So obliging that he ne'er obliged.
Topic: Proverbs
Source: Prologue to Satires (l. 207)
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No creature smarts so little as a fool.
Topic: Proverbs
Source: Prologue to Satires (l. 84)
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One murder made a villain,
Millions a hero.
Topic: Proverbs
Source: Prologue to Satires (l. 84)
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He that fights and runs away,
Will live to fight another day;
For he that runs may fight again,
Which he can never do that's slain.
Deeper to wound she shuns the fight;
She drops her arms, to gain the field:
Secures her conquest by her flight:
And triumphs when she seems to yield.
Topic: Proverbs
Source: Prologue to Satires (l. 84)
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Love and life are for to-day.
Topic: Proverbs
Source: Prologue to Satires (l. 84)
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Love, well thou know'st no partnership allows,
Cupid averse rejects divided vows.
Topic: Proverbs
Source: Prologue to Satires (l. 84)
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Such as she is, who died to-day,
Such thou alas! mayst be to-morrow.
Topic: Proverbs
Source: Prologue to Satires (l. 84)
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To John I owed great obligation:
But John unhandsomely thought fit
To publish it to all the nation;
Sure John and I are more than quit.
Topic: Proverbs
Source: Prologue to Satires (l. 84)
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Destroy all creatures for thy sport or gust,
Yet cry, if man's unhappy, God's unjust.
Topic: Providence
Source: Essay on Man (ep. I, l. 117)
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Who finds not Providence all good and wise,
Alike in what it gives, and what denies.
Topic: Providence
Source: Essay on Man (ep. I, l. 205)
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Warms in the sun, refreshes in the breeze,
Glows in the stars, and blossoms in the trees.
Topic: Providence
Source: Essay on Man (ep. I, l. 271)
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Who sees with equal eye, as God of all,
A hero perish, or a sparrow fall,
Atoms or systems into ruin hurl'd,
And now a bubble burst, and now a world.
Topic: Providence
Source: Essay on Man (ep. I, l. 87)
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Say first, of God above or man below,
What can we reason but from what we know?
Topic: Reason
Source: Essay on Man (ep. I, l. 17)
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Reason, however able, cool at best,
Cares not for service, or but serves when prest,
Stays till we call, and then not often near.
Topic: Reason
Source: Essay on Man (ep. III, l. 85)
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Who reasons wisely is not therefore wise;
His pride in reasoning, not in acting lies.
Topic: Reason
Source: Moral Essays (ep. 1, l. 117)
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The learn'd reflect on what before they knew.
Topic: Reflection
Source: Essay on Criticism (pt. III, l. 180)
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In various talk th' instructive hours they past,
Who gave the ball, or paid the visit last;
One speaks the glory of the British queen,
And one describes a charming Indian screen;
A third interprets motions, looks, and eyes;
At every word a reputation dies.
Topic: Reputation
Source: Rape of the Lock (pt. III, l. 11), this stanza not found in his printed works
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What dire Offence from am'rous Causes springs,
What mighty Contests rise from trivial Things.
Topic: Results
Source: Rape of the Lock (canto I, l. 1)
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