Alexander pope quotes

The people's voice is odd, It is, and it is not, the voice of God.

Never find fault with the absent.

Amusement is the happiness of those who cannot think.

Words are like Leaves; and where they most abound, Much Fruit of Sense beneath is rarely found.

Men must be taught as if you taught them not, and things unknown proposed as things forgot.

Sleep and death, two twins of winged race, Of matchless swiftness, but of silent pace.

Do you find yourself making excuses when you do not perform? Shed the excuses and face reality. Excuses are the loser's way out. They will mar your credibility and stunt your personal growth.

Some praise at morning what they blame at night, but always think the last opinion right.

Where'er you walk cool gales shall fan the glade, Trees where you sit shall crowd into a shade. Where'er you tread the blushing flowers shall rise, And all things flourish where you turn your eyes.

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

When we are young, we are slavishly employed in procuring something whereby we may live comfortably when we grow old; and when we are old, we perceive it is too late to live as we proposed.

Truth needs not flowers of speech.

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

Our proper bliss depends on what we blame.

To wake the soul by tender strokes of art, To raise the genius, and to mend the heart

The world is a thing we must of necessity either laugh at or be angry at; if we laugh at it, they say we are proud; if we are angry at it, they say we are ill-natured.

As the twig is bent, so grows the tree.

There is but one way I know of conversing safely with all men; that is, not by concealing what we say or do, but by saying or doing nothing that deserves to be concealed.

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

There is a majesty in simplicity.

Condition, circumstance, is not the thing; Bliss is the same in subject or in king.

Now hollow fires burn out to black, And lights are fluttering low: Square your shoulders, lift your pack And leave your friends and go. O never fear, lads, naught's to dread, Look not to left nor right: In all the endless road you tread There's nothing but the night.

All other goods by fortune's hand are given, A wife is the peculiar gift of Heaven.

The only time you run out of chances is when you stop taking them

All seems infected that th' infected spy, As all looks yellow to the jaundiced eye.

The world forgetting, by the world forgot. Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind! Each pray'r accepted, and each wish resign'd

There should be, methinks, as little merit in loving a woman for her beauty as in loving a man for his prosperity; both being equally subject to change.

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

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

As with narrow-necked bottles; the less they have in them, the more noise they make in pouring out.

Love, free as air, at sight of human ties, Spreads his light wings, and in a moment flies.

What is fame? a fancied life in others' breath.

Fame can never make us lie down contentedly on a deathbed.

All looks yellow to a jaundiced eye that habitually compares everything to something better. But by changing that habit to comparing everything to something worse, even making it a game, that person can find gratitude, relief and happiness where-ever they go and whatever they experience, guaranteed!

As some to Church repair, not for the doctrine, but the music there.

Curse on all laws but those which love has made.

It often happens that those are the best people whose characters have been most injured by slanderers: as we usually find that to be the sweetest fruit which the birds have been picking at.

What will a child learn sooner than a song?

A little learning is a dangerous thing.

Act well your part, there all the honour lies.

The best way to prove the clearness of our mind, is by showing its faults; as when a stream discovers the dirt at the bottom, it convinces us of the transparency and purity of the water.

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

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

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.

I begin where most people end, with a full conviction of the emptiness of all sorts of ambition, and the unsatisfactory nature of all human pleasures.

In this commonplace world every one is said to be romantic who either admires a fine thing or does one.

For what I have publish'd, I can only hope to be pardon'd; but for what I have burned, I deserve to be prais'd.

Who builds a church to God and not to fame, Will never mark the marble with his name.

The laughers are a majority.

Do good by stealth, and blush to find it fame.

Is not absence death to those who love?

'Tis not a lip, or eye, we beauty call, But the joint force and full result of all.

Fear not the anger of the wise to raise; Those best can bear reproof who merit praise.

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!

See how the World its Veterans rewards! A Youth of Frolics, an old Age of Cards; Fair to no purpose, artful to no end, Young without Lovers, old without a Friend; A Fop their Passion, but their Prize a Sot; Alive ridiculous, and dead forgot.

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

Who dare to love their country, and be poor.

Expression is the dress of thought.

Charm strikes the sight, but merit wins the soul.

An obstinate person does not hold opinions; they hold them.

Fine sense and exalted sense are not half so useful as common sense.

To err is human; to forgive, divine.

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

The grave unites; where e'en the great find rest, And blended lie th' oppressor and th' oppressed!

True wit is nature to advantage dressed; What oft was thought, but ne'er so well expressed.

What then remains, but well our power to use, And keep good-humor still whate'er we lose? And trust me, dear, good-humor can prevail, When airs, and flights, and screams, and scolding fail.

Of all the causes which conspire to blind Man's erring judgement, and misguide the mind, What the weak head with strongest bias rules, Is PRIDE, the never-failing vice of fools.

An excuse is worse and more terrible than a lie; for an excuse is a lie guarded.

The greatest magnifying glasses in the world are a man's own eyes when they look upon his own person.

A family is but too often a commonwealth of malignants.

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

Let fortune do her worst, whatever she makes us lose, so long as she never makes us lose our honesty and our independence.

Two purposes in human nature rule. Self- love to urge, and reason to restrain.

We may see the small value God has for riches, by the people he gives them to.

Expression is the dress of thought, and still Appears more decent as more suitable; A vile conceit in pompous words express'd, Is like a clown in regal purple dress'd.

A king is a mortal god on earth, unto whom the living God hath lent his own name as a great honour; but withal told him, he should die like a man, lest he should be proud, and flatter himself that God hath with his name imparted unto him his nature also. JOHN LOCKE, "Of a King", The Conduct of the Understanding: Essays, Moral, Economical, and Political A king may be a tool, a thing of straw; but if he serves to frighten our enemies, and secure our property, it is well enough: a scarecrow is a thing of straw, but it protects the corn.

Tis but a part we see, and not a whole.

Praise from a friend, or censure from a foe, Are lost on hearers that our merits know.

Every professional was once an amateur.

To swear is neither brave, polite, nor wise.

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

Passions are the gales of life.

Learning is like mercury, one of the most powerful and excellent things in the world in skillful hands; in unskillful, the most mischievous.

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

He who serves his brother best gets nearer God than all the rest.

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

A disputant no more cares for the truth than the sportsman for the hare.

Conceit is to nature what paint is to beauty; it is not only needless, but it impairs what it would improve.

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.

Women use lovers as they do cards; they play with them a while, and when they have got all they can by them, throw them away, call for new ones, and then perhaps lose by the new all they got by the old ones.

The vanity of human life is like a river, constantly passing away, and yet constantly coming on.

Vice is a monster of so frightful mien As to be hated needs but to be seen; Yet seen too oft, familiar with her face, We first endure, then pity, then embrace.

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

Love the offender, yet detest the offense.

The nicest constitutions of government are often like the finest pieces of clock-work, which, depending on so many motions, are therefore more subject to be out of order.

We ought, in humanity, no more to despise a man for the misfortunes of the mind than for those of the body, when they are such as he cannot help; were this thoroughly considered we should no more laugh at a man for having his brains cracked than for having his head broke.

Eve left Adam, to meet the Devil in private.

This long disease, my life.

Vices and virtues are of a strange nature, for the more we have, the fewer we think we have.

Whenever I find a great deal of gratitude in a poor man, I take it for granted there would be as much generosity if he were a rich man.

What Reason weaves, by Passion is undone.

Never was it given to mortal man - To lie so boldly as we women can.

A little learning is a dangerous thing; drink of it deeply, or taste it not, for shallow thoughts intoxicate the brain, and drinking deeply sobers us again.

Fools rush in where angels fear to tread.

The most positive men are the most credulous.

Beauty draws us with a single hair.

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.

Why did I write? What sin to me unknown dipped me in ink, my parents , or my own?

Whether the charmer sinner it, or saint it, If folly grow romantic, I must paint it.

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

These riches are possess'd, but not enjoy'd!

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

O peace! how many wars were waged in thy name.

Get your enemy to read your works in order to mend them, for your friend is so much your second self that he will judge too like you.

Strength of mind is exercise, not rest.

In faith and hope the world will disagree, but all mankind's concern is charity.

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

A youth of frolic, an old age of cards.

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

Our judgments, like our watches, none go just alike, yet each believes his own

All nature is but art unknown to thee.

With the mistake your life goes in reverse. Now you can see exactly what you did Wrong yesterday and wrong the day before And each mistake leads back to something worse.

Simplicity is the mean between ostentation and rusticity.

What is it to be wise? 'Tis but to know how little can be known, To see all others' faults, and feel our own.

Cavil you may, but never criticise.