Pope, Alexander (Alexander Pope)

Wise Wretch! with pleasures too refined to please,

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

A man should never be ashamed to own he has been in the wrong, which is but saying, in other words, that he is wiser today than he was yesterday.
-- 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 work of art that contains theories is like an object on which the price tag has been left.
-- Alexander Pope

Achilles absent was Achilles still.
-- Alexander Pope

And love the offender, yet detest the offence.
-- Alexander Pope

And what he greatly thought, he nobly dar
-- Alexander Pope

And wine can of their wits the wise beguile, Make the sage frolic, and the serious smile.
-- Alexander Pope

Authors, like coins, grow dear as they grow old.
-- Alexander Pope

Be thou the first true merit to befriend, his praise is lost who stays till all commend.
-- Alexander Pope

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

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

For too much rest itself becomes a pain.
-- Alexander Pope

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

Gentle of speech, beneficent of mind.
-- Alexander Pope

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

Give me again my hollow tree, A crust of bread, and liberty.
-- Alexander Pope

He who tells a lie is not sensible of how great a task he undertakes; for he must be forced to invent twenty more to maintain that one.
-- Alexander Pope

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

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

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

I am his Highness
-- Alexander Pope

In every friend we lose a part of ourselves, and the best part.
-- 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

In youth and beauty wisdom is but rare!
-- Alexander Pope

Injustice, swift, erect, and unconfin
-- Alexander Pope

Is not absence death to those who love?
-- Alexander Pope

It is not strength, but art, obtains the prize, And to be swift is less than to be wise. 'Tis more by art than force of num
-- Alexander Pope

It is with narrow-souled people as with narrow necked bottles: the less they have in them, the more noise they make in pouring it out.
-- Alexander Pope

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

Learn to live well, or fairly make your will; you played, and loved, and ate, and drunk your fill: walk sober off; before a sprightlier age comes tittering on, and shoves you from the stage: leave such to trifle with more grace and ease, whom Folly pleases, and whose Follies please.
-- Alexander Pope

Lend, lend your wings! I mount! I fly! O grave! where is thy victory? O death! where is thy sting?
-- Alexander Pope

Let me tell you I am better acquainted with you for a long absence, as men are with themselves for a long affliction: absence does but hold off a friend, to make one see him the truer.
-- Alexander Pope

In every friend we lose a part of ourselves, and the best part.
-- 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

In youth and beauty wisdom is but rare!
-- Alexander Pope

Injustice, swift, erect, and unconfin
-- Alexander Pope

Is not absence death to those who love?
-- Alexander Pope

It is not strength, but art, obtains the prize, And to be swift is less than to be wise. 'Tis more by art than force of num
-- Alexander Pope

It is with narrow-souled people as with narrow necked bottles: the less they have in them, the more noise they make in pouring it out.
-- Alexander Pope

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

Learn to live well, or fairly make your will; you played, and loved, and ate, and drunk your fill: walk sober off; before a sprightlier age comes tittering on, and shoves you from the stage: leave such to trifle with more grace and ease, whom Folly pleases, and whose Follies please.
-- Alexander Pope

Lend, lend your wings! I mount! I fly! O grave! where is thy victory? O death! where is thy sting?
-- Alexander Pope

Let me tell you I am better acquainted with you for a long absence, as men are with themselves for a long affliction: absence does but hold off a friend, to make one see him the truer.
-- Alexander Pope

Never find fault with the absent.
-- Alexander Pope

Not hate, but glory, made these chiefs contend; And each brave foe was in his soul a friend.
-- Alexander Pope

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

Of all the causes which conspire to blind, Man
-- 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

One simile that solitary shines, In the dry desert of a thousand lines.
-- Alexander Pope

One who is too wise an observer of the business of others, like one who is too curious in observing the labor of bees, will often be stung for his curiosity.
-- 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

Persuasive speech, and more persuasive sighs, Silence that spoke, and eloquence of eyes.
-- Alexander Pope

Praise undeserved, is satire in disguise.
-- Alexander Pope

Praise undeserv'd is scandal in disguise.
-- Alexander Pope

Pride is still aiming at the best houses: Men would be angels, angels would be gods. Aspiring to be gods, the angels fell; aspiring to be angels men rebel.
-- Alexander Pope

Reason
-- 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

Short is my date, but deathless my renown.
-- 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

Ten censure wrong, for one that writes amiss.
-- Alexander Pope

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

The hidden harmony is better than the obvious.
-- Alexander Pope

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

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

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

Tis education forms the common mind, Just as the twig is bent, the tree's incln'd.
-- Alexander Pope

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

Tis true,
-- Alexander Pope

Tis with our judgments as our watches - none, Go just alike, yet each believes his own.
-- Alexander Pope

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

To know ourselves diseased is half our cure.
-- 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 move easiest who have learn'd to dance.'T is not enough no harshness gives offence� The sound must seem an echo to the sense.
-- 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

Two friends, two bodies with one soul inspir
-- Alexander Pope

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

What's fame? a fancy'd life in other's breath. A thing beyond us, even before our death.
-- Alexander Pope

Who breaks a butterfly on a wheel?
-- Alexander Pope

Who dies in youth and vigour, dies the best.
-- 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