535 quotes
The stoic husband was the glorious thing.
The man had courage, was a sage, 'tis true,
And lov'd his country.
Epilogue to Rowe's Jane Shore (1714)
O Love! for Sylvia let me gain the prize,
And make my tongue victorious as her eyes.
Father of all! in every age,
In every clime adored,
By saint, by savage, and by sage,
Jehovah, Jove, or Lord!
The Universal Prayer (1738)
How happy is the blameless vestal's lot!
The world forgetting, by the world forgot.
Eloisa to Abelard (1717)
O Death, all eloquent! you only prove
What dust we dote on, when 'tis man we love.
Eloisa to Abelard (1717)
Destroy his fib, or sophistry—in vain!
The creature's at his dirty work again.
Hark! the numbers soft and clear,
Gently steal upon the ear;
Now louder, and yet louder rise
And fill with spreading sounds the skies.
Dear, damned, distracting town, farewell!
Thy fools no more I'll tease:
This year in peace, ye critics, dwell,
Ye harlots, sleep at ease!
A Farewell to London (1715)
But would you sing, and rival Orpheus' strain.
The wond'ring forests soon should dance again;
The moving mountains hear the powerful call,
And headlong streams hang listening in their fall!
I think it was a generous thought, and one that fow'd from an exalted mind, that it was not improbable but God might be delighted with the various methods of worshipping him, which divided the whole world.
Is it, in Heav'n, a crime to love too well?
To bear too tender, or too firm a heart,
To act a lover's or a Roman's part?
Is there no bright reversion in the sky,
For those who greatly think, or bravely die?
The Works of Mr. Alexander Pope (1717)
Just where the breath of life his nostrils drew,
A charge of snuff the wily virgin threw;
The gnomes direct, to every atom just,
The pungent grains of titillating dust,
Sudden, with starting tears each eye o'erflows,
And the high dome re-echoes to his nose.
The Rape of the Lock (1712)
Good-humor only teaches charms to last,
Still makes new conquests and maintains the past.
Awake, my St. John! leave all meaner things
To low ambition and the pride of Kings.
Soon as thy letters trembling I unclose,
That well-known name awakens all my woes.
Eloisa to Abelard (1717)
True, conscious Honour is to feel no sin,
He's arm'd without that's innocent within;
Be this thy screen, and this thy wall of Brass.
So by false learning is good sense defac'd;
Some are bewilder'd in the maze of schools,
And some made coxcombs Nature meant but fools.
An Essay on Criticism (1709)
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.
Thoughts on Various Subjects (1727)
The most positive men are the most credulous...
Thoughts on Various Subjects (1727)
Thou Great First Cause, least understood.