Alexander Pope Quotes

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

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

"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."

"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."

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

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

"And all who told it added something new, and all who heard it, made enlargements too."

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

"Aurora now, fair daughter of the dawn, Sprinkled with rosy light the dewy lawn."

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

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

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

"Blest paper-credit! last and best supply! That lends corruption lighter wings to fly!"

"But blind to former as to future fate, What mortal knows his pre-existent state?"

"But honest instinct comes a volunteer; Sure never to o'er-shoot, but just to hit, While still too wide or short in human wit."

"Did some more sober critics come abroad? If wrong, I smil'd; if right, I kiss'd the rod."

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

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

"Fondly we think we honor merit then, When we but praise ourselves in other men."

"For Forms of Government let fools contest; whatever is best administered is best."

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

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

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

"Good God! how often are we to die before we go quite off this stage? In every friend we lose a part of ourselves, and the best part."

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

"Histories are more full of examples of the fidelity of dogs than of friends."

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

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

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

"I am his Highness dog at Kew; pray tell me, sir, whose dog are you?"

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

"If, presume not to God to scan; The proper study of Mankind is Man. Plac'd on this isthmus of a middle state, a being darkly wise, and rudely great."

"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."

"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."

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

"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."

"Like Cato, give his little senate laws, and sit attentive to his own applause."

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

"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!"

"Nature and Nature's laws lay hid in night: God said, "Let Newton be!" and all was light."

"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."

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

"Of Manners gentle, of Affections mild; In Wit a man; Simplicity, a child."

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

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

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

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

"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."

"Remembrance and reflection how allied. What thin partitions divides sense from thought."

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

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

"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."

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

"Teach me to feel another's woe,To hide the fault I see,That mercy I to others show,That mercy show to me."

"The appearance and disappearance of the Universe are pictured as an outbreathing and inbreathing of "the Great Breath," which is eternal, and which, being Motion, is one of the three aspects of the Absolute - Abstract Space and Duration being the other two."

"The bookful blockhead, ignorantly read With loads of learned lumber in his head."

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

"The ruling passion, be it what it will. The ruling passion conquers reason still."

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

"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."

"There goes a saying, and 'twas shrewdly said, "Old fish at table, but young flesh in bed.""

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

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

"To be angry is to revenge the faults of others on ourselves."

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

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

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

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

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

"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."

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

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

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