535 quotes
The people's voice is odd,
It is, and it is not, the voice of God.
And binding Nature fast in fate,
Left free the human will.
The Universal Prayer (1738)
Curse on all laws but those which love has made.
Eloisa to Abelard (1717)
I never knew any man in my life who could not bear another's misfortunes perfectly like a Christian.
Thoughts on Various Subjects (1727)
The grave unites; where e'en the great find rest,
And blended lie th' oppressor and th' oppressed!
Windsor Forest (1713)
Reason's whole pleasure, all the joys of sense,
Lie in three words,—health, peace, and competence.
When Ajax strives some rock's vast weight to throw,
The line too labours, and the words move slow.
An Essay on Criticism (1709)
For diff’rent styles with diff’rent subjects sort,
As sev’ral garbs with country, town, and court.
An Essay on Criticism (1711)
Choose a firm cloud before it fall, and in it
Catch, ere she change, the Cynthia of this minute.
Pleas'd to the last he crops the flowery food,
And licks the hand just rais'd to shed his blood.
'Tis not enough your counsel still be true;
Blunt truths more mischief than nice falsehoods do.
An Essay on Criticism (1709)
A needless Alexandrine ends the song,
That, like a wounded snake, drags its slow length along.
An Essay on Criticism (1709)
Poets heap virtues, painters gems, at will,
And show their zeal, and hide their want of skill.
What dire offence from am'rous causes springs,
What mighty contests rise from trivial things.
The Rape of the Lock (1712)
What dire offence from amorous causes springs,
What mighty contests rise from trivial things.
The Rape of the Lock (1712)
Some place the bliss in action, some in ease,
Those call it pleasure, and contentment these.
In laying out a garden, the first and chief thing to be considered is the genius of the place.
To what base ends, and by what abject ways,
Are mortals urg'd through sacred lust of praise!
An Essay on Criticism (1709)
If faith itself has different dresses worn,
What wonder modes in wit should take their turn?
An Essay on Criticism (1709)
Soft o'er the shrouds aerial whispers breathe,
That seemed but zephyrs to the train beneath.
The Rape of the Lock (1712)