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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
Deaths
Essayists
Poets
Satirists

Also known as: Pope, Alexander

Random Alexander Pope quote

535 quotes

Thee, bold Longinus! all the Nine inspire,
And bless their Critick with a Poet's Fire.
An ardent Judge, who Zealous in his Trust,
With Warmth gives Sentence, yet is always Just;
Whose own Example strengthens all his Laws,
And Is himself that great Sublime he draws.

O! bless'd with temper, whose unclouded ray
Can make to-morrow cheerful as to-day;
She who can own a sister's charms, or hear
Sighs for a daughter with unwounded ear;
She who ne'er answers till a husband cools,
Or, if she rules him, never shows she rules.
Charms by accepting, by submitting sways,
Yet has her humour most when she obeys.

Pope was not content to satisfy; he desired to excel and therefore always endevoured to do his best; did not court the candour, but dared the judgement of his reader, and, expecting no indulgence from others, he shewed none to himself. He examined lines and words with minute and punctilious observation, and retouched every part with indefatigable diligence, till he had nothing to be forgiven.

You beat your pate, and fancy wit will come;
Knock as you please, there's nobody at home.

Misattributed Credited as Epigram: An Empty House (1727)

A god without dominion, providence, and final causes, is nothing else but Fate and Nature.

Misattributed Isaac Newton: Principia Mathematica (1687)

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

Misattributed

True politeness consists in the being easy one-self, and making every body about one as easy as we can.

Attributed

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

Misattributed

The hidden harmony is better than the obvious.

Misattributed

This is the Jew
That Shakespeare drew.

Attributed

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

Misattributed

Lull'd in the countless chambers of the brain,
Our thoughts are link'd by many a hidden chain.
Awake but one, and lo, what myriads rise!
Each stamps its image as the other flies!

Misattributed

Passions...are the gales of life...

Attributed

Never find fault with the absent.

Misattributed

The sick in body call for aid: the sick
In mind are covetous of more disease;
And when at worst, they dream themselves quite well.
To know ourselves diseased, is half our cure.

Misattributed

Attribution

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