Great Alexander Pope Quotes

Alexander Pope was an English poet of 18^th century. He was best known for his classic poem “The Rape of the Lock” as well as for his translation of Homer’s Ilaid. Few of the popular quotes by Alexander Pope are listed here.

1. “Passions are the gales of life.” - Alexander Pope
2. “Charm strikes the sight, but merit wins the soul.” - Alexander Pope
3. “A little learning is a dangerous thing. Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring; There shallow draughts intoxicate the brain; And drinking largely sobers us again.” - Alexander Pope
4. “Fools admire, but men of sense approve.” - Alexander Pope
5. “Education forms the common mind. Just as the twig is bent, the tree’s inclined.” - Alexander Pope
6. “The hidden harmony is better than the obvious.” - Alexander Pope
7. “Fools rush in where Angels fear to tread.” - Alexander Pope
8. “Remembrance and reflection how allied. What thin partitions divides sense from thought.” - Alexander Pope
9. “To err is human, to forgive is divine.” - Alexander Pope
10. “Blessed is the man who expects nothing, for he shall never be disappointed was the ninth beatitude.” - Alexander Pope
11. “A man should never be ashamed to own that he is wrong, which is but saying in other words that he is wiser today than he was yesterday.” - Alexander Pope
12. “Act well your part; there all honor lies.” - Alexander Pope
13. “How happy is the blameless vestal’s lot? The world forgetting, by the world forgot.” - Alexander Pope
14. “Not to go back is somewhat to advance, and men must walk, at least, before they dance.” - Alexander Pope
15. “Many people are capable of doing a wise thing, more a cunning thing, but very few a generous thing.” - Alexander Pope
16. “Teach me to feel another’s woe. To hide the fault I see: That the mercy I show to others; that mercy also show to me.” - Alexander Pope
17. “You beat your Pate, and fancy Wit will come: Knock as you please, there’s no body at home.” - Alexander Pope
18. “Praise undeserved, is satire in disguise.” - Alexander Pope
19. “An honest man’s the noblest work of God.” - Alexander Pope
20. “The ruling passion, be it what it will, The ruling passion conquers reason still.” - Alexander Pope
21. “I am his Highness dog at Kew; pray tell me, sir, whose dog are you?” - Alexander Pope
22. “Beauties in vain their pretty eyes may roll; charms strike the sight, but merit wins the soul.” - Alexander Pope
23. “True politeness consists in being easy one’s self, and in making every one about one as easy as one can.” - Alexander Pope
24. “I was not born for courts and great affairs, but I pay my debts, believe and say my prayers.” - Alexander Pope
25. “Something there is more needful than expense, And something previous ev’n to taste - ’tis sense” - Alexander Pope
26. “Honor and shame from no condition rise; Act well your part, there all the honor lies.” - Alexander Pope
27. “One science only will one genius fit; so vast is art, so narrow human wit.” - Alexander Pope
28. “Never elated when someone’s oppressed, never dejected when another one’s blessed.” - Alexander Pope
29. “On life’s vast ocean diversely we sail. Reasons the card, but passion the gale.” - Alexander Pope
30. “Trust not yourself, but your defects to know, make use of every friend and every foe.” - Alexander Pope
31. “Be not the first by which a new thing is tried, or the last to lay the old aside.” - Alexander Pope
32. “Let me tell you I am better acquainted with you for a long absence, as men are with themselves for a long affliction: absence does but hold off a friend, to make one see him the truer.” - Alexander Pope
33. “Did some more sober critics come abroad? If wrong, I smil’d; if right, I kiss’d the rod.” - Alexander Pope
34. “A person who is too nice an observer of the business of the crowd, like one who is too curious in observing the labor of bees, will often be stung for his curiosity.” - Alexander Pope
35. “Behold the child, by nature’s kindly law, pleased with a rattle, tickled with a straw.” - Alexander Pope
36. “Virtuous and vicious everyone must be; few in extremes, but all in degree.” - Alexander Pope
37. “Blest paper-credit! last and best supply! That lends corruption lighter wings to fly!” - Alexander Pope
38. “On wrongs swift vengeance waits.” - Alexander Pope
39. “Lo! thy dread empire, Chaos! is restored; dies before thy uncreating word: thy hand, great Anarch! lets the curtain fall; and universal darkness buries all.” - Alexander Pope
40. “Health consists with temperance alone.” - Alexander Pope
41. “True wit is nature to advantage dressed, what oft was thought, but never so well expressed.” - Alexander Pope
42. “The hungry judges soon the sentence sign, and wretches hang that jurymen may dine.” - Alexander Pope
43. “They dream in courtship, but in wedlock wake.” - Alexander Pope
44. “Know then thyself, presume not God to scan; The proper study of mankind is man.” - Alexander Pope
45. “For Forms of Government let fools contest; whatever is best administered is best.” - Alexander Pope
46. “True ease in writing comes from art, not chance, as those move easiest who have learned to dance. ‘Tis not enough no harshness gives offence. The sound must seem an echo to the sense.” - Alexander Pope
47. “And all who told it added something new, and all who heard it, made enlargements too.” - Alexander Pope
48. ‘By foreign hands thy humble grave adorned; By strangers honored, and by strangers mourned.” - Alexander Pope
49. “Curse on all laws, but those that love has made.” - Alexander Pope
50. “Like Cato, give his little senate laws, and sit attentive to his own applause.” - Alexander Pope
51. “At every word a reputation dies.” - Alexander Pope
52. “Histories are more full of examples of the fidelity of dogs than of friends.” - Alexander Pope
53. “Let sinful bachelors their woes deplore; full well they merit all they feel, and more: unaw by precepts, human or divine, like birds and beasts, promiscuously they join.” - Alexander Pope
54. “An obstinate person does not hold opinions; they hold them.” - Alexander Pope
55. “Pride is still aiming at the best houses: Men would be angels, angels would be gods. Aspiring to be gods, if angels fell; aspiring to be angels men rebel.” - Alexander Pope
56. “Most authors steal their works, or buy.” - Alexander Pope
57. “How shall I lose the sin, yet keep the sense, and love the offender, yet detest the offence?” - Alexander Pope
58. “Satan is wiser now than before, and tempts by making rich instead of poor.” - Alexander Pope
59. “Happy the man whose wish and care a few paternal acres bound, content to breathe his native air in his own ground.” - Alexander Pope
60. “We think our fathers fools, so wise we grow. Our wiser sons, no doubt will think us so.” - Alexander Pope
61. “To be angry is to revenge the faults of others on ourselves.” - Alexander Pope
62. “What’s fame? a fancy’d life in other’s breath. A thing beyond us, even before our death.” - Alexander Pope
63. “It is with our judgments as with our watches: no two go just alike, yet each believes his own.” - Alexander Pope
64. “Know then this truth, enough for man to know virtue alone is happiness below.” - Alexander Pope
65. “No one should be ashamed to admit they are wrong, which is but saying, in other words, that they are wiser today than they were yesterday.” - Alexander Pope
66. “Why did I write? What sin to me unknown dipped me in ink, my parents, or my own?” - Alexander Pope
67. “Good God! how often are we to die before we go quite off this stage? In every friend we lose a part of ourselves, and the best part.” - Alexander Pope
68. “The worst of madmen is a saint run mad.” - Alexander Pope
69. “Sure of their qualities and demanding praise, more go to ruined fortunes than are raised.” - Alexander Pope
70. “Who breaks a butterfly on a wheel?” - Alexander Pope
71. “All nature is but art unknown to thee.” - Alexander Pope
72. “Ten censure wrong, for one that writes amiss.” - Alexander Pope
73. “Some old men, continually praise the time of their youth. In fact, you would almost think that there were no fools in their days, but unluckily they themselves are left as an example.” - Alexander Pope
74. “Fondly we think we honor merit then, When we but praise ourselves in other men.” - Alexander Pope
75. “To endeavor to work upon the vulgar with fine sense is like attempting to hew blocks with a razor.” - Alexander Pope
76. “All looks yellow to a jaundiced eye.” - Alexander Pope
77. “Why has not man a microscopic eye? For the plain reason man is not a fly.” - Alexander Pope
78. “True disputants are like true sportsman: their whole delight is in the pursuit.” - Alexander Pope
79. “An excuse is worse than a lie, for an excuse is a lie, guarded.” - Alexander Pope
80. “Two purposes in human nature rule. Self-love to urge, and reason to restrain.” - Alexander Pope
81. “Scarce any Tale was sooner heard than told;And all who told it, added something new, And all who heard it, made Enlargements too, In evry Ear it spread, on evry Tongue it grew.” - Alexander Pope
82. “Men dream of courtship, but in wedlock wake.” - Alexander Pope
83. “Lulled in the countless chambers of the brain, our thoughts are linked by many a hidden chain; awake but one, and in, what myriads rise!” - Alexander Pope
84. “Fix’d like a plan on his peculiar spot, to draw nutrition, propagate, and rot.” - Alexander Pope
85. “All seems infected that the infected spy, as all seems yellow through the jaundiced eye.” - Alexander Pope
86. “Men would be angels, angels would be gods.” - Alexander Pope
87. “If, presume not to God to scan; The proper study of Mankind is Man. Plac’d on this isthmus of a middle state, a being darkly wise, and rudely great.” - Alexander Pope
88. “Die and endow a college or a cat.” - Alexander Pope
89. “When much dispute has past, we find our tenets just the same as last.” - Alexander Pope
90. “At every trifle take offense, that always shows great pride or little sense.” - Alexander Pope
91. “I find myself… hoping a total end of all the unhappy divisions of mankind by party-spirit, which at best is but the madness of many for the gain of a few.” - Alexander Pope
92. “For virtue’s self may too much zeal be had; the worst of madmen is a saint run mad.” - Alexander Pope
93. “Our passions are like convulsion fits, which, though they make us stronger for a time, leave us the weaker ever after.” - Alexander Pope
94. “Most women have no characters at all.” - Alexander Pope
95. “One who is too wise an observer of the business of others, like one who is too curious in observing the labor of bees, will often be stung for his curiosity.” - Alexander Pope

Above were some great quotes by Alexander Pope, we hope that you must have enjoyed reading them.