True ease in writing comes from art, not chance,
As those move easiest who have learn'd to dance.
Quotes from An Essay on Criticism — Alexander Pope
1688–1744 England
← All quotes by Alexander Pope
56 quotes
Be not the first by whom the new are tried,
Nor yet the last to lay the old aside.
An Essay on Criticism (1709)
The bookful blockhead, ignorantly read,
With loads of learned lumber in his head.
An Essay on Criticism (1709)
To err is human, to forgive divine.
An Essay on Criticism (1711)
At every trifle scorn to take offence;
That always shows great pride or little sense.
An Essay on Criticism (1709)
Soft is the strain when zephyr gently blows.
An Essay on Criticism (1709)
Ten censure wrong for one who writes amiss.
An Essay on Criticism (1709)
The sound must seem an echo to the sense.
An Essay on Criticism (1709)
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)
Some praise at morning what they blame at night,
But always think the last opinion right.
An Essay on Criticism (1709)
We think our fathers fools, so wise we grow;
Our wiser sons, no doubt, will think us so.
An Essay on Criticism (1709)
What the weak head with strongest bias rules,
Is pride, the never-failing vice of fools.
An Essay on Criticism (1709)
Fear not the anger of the wise to raise;
Those best can bear reproof who merit praise.
An Essay on Criticism (1709)
One science only will one genius fit,
So vast is art, so narrow human wit.
An Essay on Criticism (1709)
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)
'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)
To what base ends, and by what abject ways,
Are mortals urg'd through sacred lust of praise!
An Essay on Criticism (1709)
Attribution
Quotes and notes from Wikiquote: Alexander Pope (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.