Alexander Pope Quotes
The greatest magnifying glasses in the world are a man's own eyes when they look upon his own person.
Teach me to feel another's woe, to hide the fault I see, that mercy I to others show, that mercy show to me.
The best way to prove the clearness of our mind, is by showing its faults; as when a stream discovers the dirt at the bottom, it convinces us of the transparency and purity of the water.
Chiefs who no more in bloody fights engage, But wise through time, and narrative with age, In summer-days like grasshoppers rejoice - A bloodless race, that send a feeble voice.
While pensive poets painful vigils keep, Sleepless themselves, to give their readers sleep.
See! From the brake the whirring pheasant springs, And mounts exulting on triumphant wings; Short is his joy! He feels the fiery wound, Flutters in blood, and panting beats the ground.
No louder shrieks to pitying heaven are cast, When husbands or lap-dogs breathe their last.
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.
Seas roll to waft me, suns to light me rise; My footstool earth, my canopy the skies.
The most positive men are the most credulous, since they most believe themselves, and advise most with their falsest flatterer and worst enemy--their own self-love.
Modest plainness sets off sprightly wit, For works may have more with than does 'em good, As bodies perish through excess of blood.
Of all the causes which conspire to blind Man's erring judgement, and misguide the mind, What the weak head with strongest bias rules, Is PRIDE, the never-failing vice of fools.
He who tells a lie is not sensible of how great a task he undertakes; for he must be forced to invent twenty more to maintain that one.
Say, will the falcon, stooping from above, Smit with her varying plumage, spare the dove? Admires the jay the insect's gilded wings? Or hears the hawk when Philomela sings?
Some people will never learn anything, for this reason, because they understand everything too soon.
True wit is nature to advantage dressed; What oft was thought, but ne'er so well expressed.
How shall I lose the sin, yet keep the sense, and love the offender, yet detest the offence?
A pear-tree planted nigh: 'Twas charg'd with fruit that made a goodly show, And hung with dangling pears was every bough.
And soften'd sounds along the waters die: Smooth flow the waves, the zephyrs gently play.
Calm, thinking villains, whom no faith could fix, Of crooked counsels and dark politics.
A little learning is a dangerous thing; drink of it deeply, or taste it not, for shallow thoughts intoxicate the brain, and drinking deeply sobers us again.