Skip to content

Alexander Pope on Women

1688–1744 England

← All quotes by Alexander Pope

12 quotes

If to her share some female errors fall
Look on her face, and you'll forget 'em all.

The Rape of the Lock (1712)

And mistress of herself, though china fall.

With varying vanities, from ev'ry part,
They shift the moving toyshop of their heart.

The Rape of the Lock (1714)

Heaven gave to woman the peculiar grace
To spin, to weep, and cully human race.

Offend her, and she knows not to forgive;
Oblige her, and she'll hate you while you live.

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

For, as blushing will sometimes make a whore pass for a virtuous woman, so modesty may make a fool seem a man of sense.

Thoughts on Various Subjects (1727)

Men some to business, some to pleasure take;
But every woman is at heart a rake;
Men some to quiet, some to public strife;
But every lady would be queen for life.

Woman's at best a contradiction still.

Most women have no characters at all.

Our grandsire, Adam, ere of Eve possesst,
Alone, and e'en in Paradise unblest,
With mournful looks the blissful scenes survey'd,
And wander'd in the solitary shade.
The Maker saw, took pity, and bestow'd
Woman, the last, the best reserv'd of God.

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.

Attribution

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