Alexander Pope Quotes

So pleas'd at first the tow'ring Alps we try,
Mount o'er the vales, and seem to tread the sky;
Th'eternal snows appear already past,
And the first clouds and mountains seem the last:
But those attain'd, we tremble to survey
The growing labours of the lengthen'd way;
Th'increasing prospect tires our wand'ring eyes,
Hills peep o'er hills, and Alps on Alps arise!

I think it was a generous thought, and one that fow'd from an exalted mind, that it was not improbable but God might be delighted with the various methods of worshipping him, which divided the whole world.

Those half-learn'd witlings, num'rous in our isle
As half-form'd insects on the banks of Nile

One science only will one genius fit/ So vast is art, so narrow human wit

Whatever is, is right.

I never knew any man in my life who could not bear another's misfortunes perfectly like a Christian.

And screams of horror rend th' affrighted skies.
Not louder shrieks to pitying heav'n are cast,
When husbands, or when lapdogs breathe their last;
Or when rich China vessels fall'n from high,
In glitt'ring dust and painted fragments lie! 160

True politeness consists in the being easy one-self, and making every body about one as easy as we can.

Learn from the birds what food the thickets yield;
Learn from the beasts the physic of the field;
Thy arts of building from the bee receive;
Learn of the mole to plow, the worm to weave;
Learn of the little nautilus to sail,
Spread the thin oar, and catch the driving gale

Our judgments, like our watches, none
go just alike, yet each believes his own

Some made coxcombs Nature meant but fools

To endeavour to work upon the vulgar with fine sense, is like attempting to hew blocks with a razor.

Words are like Leaves; and where they most abound,
Much Fruit of Sense beneath is rarely found.

A perfect judge will read each work of wit
With the same spirit that its author writ
Survey the whole nor seek slight faults to find
Where nature moves and rapture warms the mind,
Nor lose for that malignant dull delight
The generous pleasure to be charmed with wit
But in such lays as neither ebb nor flow,
Correctly cold and regularly low
That, shunning faults, one quiet tenor keep;
We cannot blame indeed — but we may sleep.
In wit, as nature, what affects our hearts
Is not the exactness of peculiar parts,
'Tis not a lip, or eye, we beauty call,

Do good by stealth, and blush to find it fame.