Alexander Pope Quotes

What dire offence from am'rous causes springs,
What mighty contests rise from trivial things,...

Order is heaven's first law.

Know thyself, presume not God to scan;
The proper study of mankind is man.

Whatever is, is right.

While pensive poets painful vigils keep,
Sleepless themselves, to give their readers sleep.

Brevity is the soul of wit.

All forms that perish other forms supply,
(By turns we catch the vital breath and die)
Like bubbles on the sea of matter borne,
They rise, they break, and to that sea return.

Yet graceful ease, and sweetness void of pride,
Might hide her faults, if belles had faults to hide:
If to her share some female errors fall,
Look on her face, and you'll forget 'em all.

chaos of thought and passion, all confus'd.

Thus let me live, unseen, unknown;
Thus unlamented let me die;
Steal from the world, and not a stone
Tell where I lie.

Authors are partial to their wit, 'tis true,
But are not critics to their judgment, too?

Dear fatal name! rest ever unreveal'd,
Nor pass these lips in holy silence seal'd.
Hide it, my heart, within that close disguise,
Where mixed with Gods, his lov'd idea lies:
O write it not, my hand - the name appears
Already written - wash it out, my tears!
In vain lost Eloisa weeps and prays,
Her heart still dictates, and her hand obeyes.

The world forgetting by the world forgot.

In words, as fashions, the same rule will hold;
Alike fantastic, if too new, or old:
Be not the first by whom the new are tried,
Nor yet the last to lay the old aside.

To be angry is to revenge the faults of others on ourselves.