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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

He knows to live who keeps the middle state,
And neither leans on this side nor on that.

Here Ceres' gifts in waving prospect stand,
And nodding tempt the joyful reaper's hand.

Windsor Forest (1713)

The dances ended, all the fairy train
For pinks and daisies search'd the flow'ry plain.

The hog that ploughs not, nor obeys thy call,
Lives on the labours of this lord of all.

Honour and shame from no condition rise;
Act well your part, there all the honour lies.

Like bubbles on the sea of matter borne,
They rise, they break, and to that sea return.

Eye Nature's walks, shoot folly as it flies,
And catch the manners living as they rise.

On all the line a sudden vengeance waits,
And frequent herses shall besiege your gates.

Learn of the little nautilus to sail,
Spread the thin oar, and catch the driving gale.

For I, who hold sage Homer's rule the best,
Welcome the coming, speed the going guest.

Pleasures are ever in our hands or eyes;
And when in act they cease, in prospect rise.

Behold the child, by Nature's kindly law,
Pleas'd with a rattle, tickled with a straw.

Who sees pale Mammon pine amidst his store,
Sees but a backward steward for the poor.

Trust not yourself; but your defects to know,
Make use of ev'ry friend—and ev'ry foe.

An Essay on Criticism (1709)

Who shall decide when doctors disagree,
And soundest casuists doubt, like you and me?

Who reasons wisely is not therefore wise;
His pride in reasoning, not in acting lies.

To happy convents, bosom'd deep in vines,
Where slumber abbots purple as their wines.

For he lives twice who can at once employ
The present well, and e'en the past enjoy.

'Tis use alone that sanctifies expense
And splendor borrows all her rays from sense.

Ladies, like variegated tulips, show
'Tis to their changes half their charms we owe.

Attribution

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