Love seldom haunts the breast where learning lies,
And Venus sets ere Mercury can rise.
Alexander Pope on Valentine's Day
1688–1744 England
← All quotes by Alexander Pope
23 quotes
Say, is not absence death to those who love?
Pastorals (1709)
They dream in Courtship, but in Wedlock wake.
Judges and senates have been bought for gold;
Esteem and love were never to be sold.
Ye Gods! annihilate but space and time,
And make two lovers happy.
Beauties in vain their pretty eyes may roll;
Charms strike the sight, but merit wins the soul.
The Rape of the Lock (1712)
Let such, such only tread this sacred floor,
Who dare to love their country and be poor.
Curse on all laws but those which love has made.
Eloisa to Abelard (1717)
'Tis not a lip, or eye, we beauty call,
But the joint force and full result of all.
An Essay on Criticism (1711)
Fair tresses man's imperial race ensnare,
And beauty draws us with a single hair.
The Rape of the Lock (1717)
Fair tresses man's imperial race insnare,
And beauty draws us with a single hair.
The Rape of the Lock (1712)
Fame, wealth, and honour! what are you to Love?
Eloisa to Abelard (1717)
Nature made every fop to plague his brother,
Just as one beauty mortifies another.
Of all affliction taught a lover yet,
'Tis true the hardest science to forget.
Eloisa to Abelard (1717)
Love, free as air, at sight of human ties,
Spreads his light wings, and in a moment flies.
Ah! what avails it me the flocks to keep,
Who lost my heart while I preserv'd my sheep.
One thought of thee puts all the pomp to flight;
Priests, tapers, temples, swim before my sight.
Eloisa to Abelard (1717)
Not grace, or zeal, love only was my call,
And if I lose thy love, I lose my all.
Eloisa to Abelard (1717)
O Love! for Sylvia let me gain the prize,
And make my tongue victorious as her eyes.
Attribution
Quotes and notes from Wikiquote: Alexander Pope (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.