Alexander Pope Quotes
Not half so swift the trembling doves can fly, When the fierce eagle cleaves the liquid sky; Not half so swiftly the fierce eagle moves, When thro' the clouds he drives the trembling doves.
Others import yet nobler arts from France, Teach kings to fiddle, and make senates dance.
What can ennoble sots, or slaves, or cowards? Alas! not all the blood, of all the Howards.
Pleasures are ever in our hands or eyes; And when in act they cease, in prospect rise.
Some judge of authors' names, not works, and then nor praise nor blame the writings, but the men.
The nicest constitutions of government are often like the finest pieces of clock-work, which, depending on so many motions, are therefore more subject to be out of order.
Whenever I find a great deal of gratitude in a poor man, I take it for granted there would be as much generosity if he were a rich man.
Praise from a friend, or censure from a foe, Are lost on hearers that our merits know.
Do you find yourself making excuses when you do not perform? Shed the excuses and face reality. Excuses are the loser's way out. They will mar your credibility and stunt your personal growth.
And you, my Critics! in the chequer'd shade, Admire new light thro' holes yourselves have made.
To wake the soul by tender strokes of art, To raise the genius, and to mend the heart
Like bubbles on the sea of matter borne, they rise, they break, and to that sea return.
A perfect judge will read each word of wit with the same spirit that its author writ.
Vices and virtues are of a strange nature, for the more we have, the fewer we think we have.
Physicians are in general the most amiable companions and the best friends, as well as the most learned men I know.
When we are young, we are slavishly employed in procuring something whereby we may live comfortably when we grow old; and when we are old, we perceive it is too late to live as we proposed.
The grave unites; where e'en the great find rest, And blended lie th' oppressor and th' oppressed!
Love, Hope, and Joy, fair pleasure's smiling train, Hate, Fear, and Grief, the family of pain, These mix'd with art, and to due bounds confin'd Make and maintain the balance of the mind.
Get your enemy to read your works in order to mend them, for your friend is so much your second self that he will judge too like you.
Man, like the generous vine, supported lives; the strength he gains is from the embrace he gives.
Fear not the anger of the wise to raise; Those best can bear reproof who merit praise.
Persons of genius, and those who are most capable of art, are always most fond of nature: as such are chiefly sensible, that all art consists in the imitation and study of nature.
It is not so much the being exempt from faults, as having overcome them, that is an advantage to us.
Whoever thinks a faultless piece to see, Thinks what ne'er was, nor is, nor e'er shall be.
Cursed be the verse, how well so e'er it flow, That tends to make one worthy man my foe.
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.
With the mistake your life goes in reverse. Now you can see exactly what you did Wrong yesterday and wrong the day before And each mistake leads back to something worse.