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Alexander Pope Quotes

1688–1744 England

Alexander Pope (21 May 1688 – 30 May 1744) was a poet and satirist of the Augustan period and one of its greatest artistic exponents. Considered the foremost English poet of the early 18th century and a master of the heroic couplet, he is best known for satirical and discursive poetry.

England
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Also known as: Pope, Alexander

Random Alexander Pope quote

535 quotes

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

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

Together let us beat this ample field,
Try what the open, what the covert yield.

There Affectation, with a sickly mien,
Shows in her cheek the roses of eighteen.

The Rape of the Lock (1712)

In Faith and Hope the world will disagree,
But all mankind's concern is charity.

Envy, to which th' ignoble mind's a slave,
Is emulation in the learn'd or brave.

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

Accept a miracle; instead of wit,—
See two dull lines by Stanhope's pencil writ.

But Satan now is wiser than of yore,
And tempts by making rich, not making poor.

For, as blushing will sometimes make a whore pass for a virtuous woman, so modesty may make a fool seem a man of sense.

Thoughts on Various Subjects (1727)

Music resembles poetry: in each
Are nameless graces which no methods teach
And which a master-hand alone can reach.

An Essay on Criticism (1709)

Say first, of God above or man below,
What can we reason but from what we know?

Pour the full tide of eloquence along,
Serenely pure, and yet divinely strong.

Fix'd like a plant on his peculiar spot,
To draw nutrition, propagate and rot.

Be niggards of advice on no pretense;
For the worst avarice is that of sense.

An Essay on Criticism (1709)

But thousands die without or this or that,
Die, and endow a college or a cat.

And all your courtly civet cats can vent
Perfume to you, to me is excrement.

See sin in state, majestically drunk;
Proud as a peeress, prouder as a punk.

Each finding like a friend
Something to blame, and something to commend.

Epistle to Mr. Jervas (1717)

What ill-starr'd rage
Divides a friendship long confirm'd by age?

Attribution

Quotes and notes from Wikiquote: Alexander Pope (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.