Alexander Pope Quotes

"Authors, like coins, grow dear as they grow old: It is the rust we value, not the gold."

"A brain of feathers, and a heart of lead"

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

"Curse on all laws, but those that love has made."

"Order is Heaven's first law; and this confessed, some are, and must be, greater than the rest, more rich, more wise; but who infers from hence that such are happier, shocks all common sense. Condition, circumstance, is not the thing; bliss is the same in subject or in king."

"All looks yellow to a jaundiced eye."

"At every trifle take offense, that always shows great pride or little sense."

"So vast is art, so narrow human wit."

"The learned is happy, nature to explore; The fool is happy, that he knows no more"

"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."

"They dream in courtship, but in wedlock wake."

"PLeas'd look forward, pleas'd to look behind, And count each birthday with a grateful mind."

"Lo! thy dread empire, Chaos! is restored; dies before thy uncreating word: thy hand, great Anarch! lets the curtain fall; and universal darkness buries all."

"Not always actions show the man; we find who does a kindness is not therefore kind."

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

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

"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."

"Beauties in vain their pretty eyes may roll; charms strike the sight, but merit wins the soul."

"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."

"Never elated when someone's oppressed, never dejected when another one's blessed."