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

— Alexander Pope An Essay on Criticism (1709)

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Wikiquote does not flag this quote as disputed or misattributed.

Source: An Essay on Criticism (1709), Part II, line 97. "Wit is that which has been often thought, but never before was well expressed." As paraphrased by Johnson, Life of Cowley.
Work: An Essay on Criticism, 1709
Source quality: Secondhand citation Quoted from another book or article rather than from the original.

More by Alexander Pope

A man of business may talk of philosophy; a man who has none may practice it.

Thoughts on Various Subjects (1727)

Party is the madness of many, for the gain of a few.

Thoughts on Various Subjects (1727)

For fools rush in where angels fear to tread.

An honest man's the noblest work of God.

True ease in writing comes from art, not chance,
As those move easiest who have learn'd to dance.

An Essay on Criticism (1711)

Words are like leaves; and where they most abound, much fruit of sense beneath is rarely found.

The hungry judges soon the sentence sign,
And wretches hang that jurymen may dine.

The Rape of the Lock (1712)

Say, is not absence death to those who love?

Pastorals (1709)

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Topics

Funny

More quotes by Alexander Pope

Nature and Nature's laws lay hid in night:
God said, "Let Newton be!" and all was light.

Histories are more full of Examples of the Fidelity of dogs than of Friends.

Absent or dead, still let a friend be dear.

Love seldom haunts the breast where learning lies,
And Venus sets ere Mercury can rise.

The mouse that always trusts to one poor hole
Can never be a mouse of any soul.

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Laughter is the closest thing to the grace of God.

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Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Alexander Pope (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.