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Alexander Pope on Funny

1688–1744 England

← All quotes by Alexander Pope

11 quotes

A wit with dunces, and a dunce with wits.

For wit and judgment often are at strife,
Though meant each other's aid, like man and wife.

An Essay on Criticism (1709)

True wit is nature to advantage dress'd,
What oft was thought, but ne'er so well expressed.

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)

How the wit brightens! how the style refines!

An Essay on Criticism (1709)

Satire's my weapon, but I'm too discreet
To run amuck and tilt at all I meet.

There are, to whom my satire seems too bold;
Scarce to wise Peter complaisant enough,
And something said of Chartres much too rough.

So modest plainness sets off sprightly wit,
For works may have more wit than does 'em good,
As bodies perish through excess of blood.

An Essay on Criticism (1709)

Some men's wit is like a dark lantern, which serves their own turn and guides them their own way, but is never known (according to the Scripture phrase) either to shine forth before men, or to glorify their Father in heaven.

Satire or sense, alas! Can Sporus feel?
Who breaks a butterfly upon a wheel?

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)

Attribution

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