Top 500 Alexander Pope Quotes (2026 Update)
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151. “Where London’s column, pointing at the skies, Like a tall bully, lifts the head, and lies.”

— Alexander Pope

152. “Whoever thinks a faultless piece to see, Thinks what ne’er was, nor is, nor e’er shall be.”

— Alexander Pope

153. “Not grace, or zeal, love only was my call, And if I lose thy love, I lose my all.”

— Alexander Pope

154. “As some to Church repair, not for the doctrine, but the music there.”

— Alexander Pope

155. “There is a certain majesty in simplicity which is far above all the quaintness of wit.”

— Alexander Pope

156. “Our proper bliss depends on what we blame.”

— Alexander Pope

157. “Fly, dotard, fly! With thy wise dreams and fables of the sky.”

— Alexander Pope

158. “False happiness is like false money; it passes for a time as well as the true, and serves some ordinary occasions; but when it is brought to the touch, we find the lightness and alloy, and feel the loss.”

— Alexander Pope

159. “Heaven forming each on other to depend, A master, or a servant, or a friend, Bids each on other for assistance call, Till one man’s weakness grows the strength of all.”

— Alexander Pope

160. “The fool is happy that he knows no more.”

— Alexander Pope

161. “To rest, the cushion and soft dean invite, who never mentions hell to ears polite.”

— Alexander Pope

162. “Get place and wealth, if possible with grace; if not, by any means get wealth and place.”

— Alexander Pope

163. “Wretches hang that jurymen may dine.”

— Alexander Pope

164. “What Reason weaves, by Passion is undone.”

— Alexander Pope

165. “The sound must seem an echo to the sense.”

— Alexander Pope

166. “Chaste to her husband, frank to all beside, A teeming mistress, but a barren bride.”

— Alexander Pope

167. “But just disease to luxury succeeds, And ev’ry death its own avenger breeds.”

— Alexander Pope

168. “They dream in courtship, but in wedlock wake.”

— Alexander Pope

169. “Hear how the birds, on ev’ry blooming spray, With joyous musick wake the dawning day.”

— Alexander Pope

170. “Wholesome solitude, the nurse of sense!”

— Alexander Pope

171. “How vast a memory has Love!”

— Alexander Pope

172. “So vast is art, so narrow human wit.”

— Alexander Pope

173. “There still remains to mortify a wit The many-headed monster of the pit.”

— Alexander Pope

174. “True self-love and social are the same.”

— Alexander Pope

175. “I lose my patience, and I own it too, When works are censur’d, not as bad but new; While if our Elders break all reason’s laws, These fools demand not pardon but Applause.”

— Alexander Pope

176. “Absent or dead, still let a friend be dear.”

— Alexander Pope

177. “A perfect woman’s but a softer man.”

— Alexander Pope

178. “Better to jump in the water and learn to swim than stand on the shore wondering.”

— Alexander Pope

179. “In death a hero, as in life a friend!”

— Alexander Pope

180. “Lo, what huge heaps of littleness around!”

— Alexander Pope

181. “Tis all in vain to keep a constant pother About one vice and fall into another.”

— Alexander Pope

182. “Let opening roses knotted oaks adorn, And liquid amber drop from every thorn.”

— Alexander Pope

183. “On wings of wind came flying all abroad.”

— Alexander Pope

184. “The most positive men are the most credulous.”

— Alexander Pope

185. “To swear is neither brave, polite, nor wise.”

— Alexander Pope

186. “Rogues in rags are kept in countenance by rogues in ruffles.”

— Alexander Pope

187. “A king may be a tool, a thing of straw; but if he serves to frighten our enemies, and secure our property, it is well enough; a scarecrow is a thing of straw, but it protects the corn.”

— Alexander Pope

188. “Praise from a friend, or censure from a foe, Are lost on hearers that our merits know.”

— Alexander Pope

189. “Virtue she finds too painful an endeavour, content to dwell in decencies for ever.”

— Alexander Pope

190. “Who know but He, whose hand the lightning forms, Who heaves old ocean, and who wings the storms, Pours fierce ambition in a Caesar’s mind.”

— Alexander Pope

191. “If a man’s character is to be abused there’s nobody like a relative to do the business.”

— Alexander Pope

192. “There is nothing meritorious but virtue and friendship.”

— Alexander Pope

193. “To err is human.”

— Alexander Pope

194. “A God without dominion, providence, and final causes, is nothing else but fate and nature.”

— Alexander Pope

195. “To endeavor to work upon the vulgar with fine sense is like attempting to hew blocks with a razor.”

— Alexander Pope

196. “No louder shrieks to pitying heaven are cast, When husbands or lap-dogs breathe their last.”

— Alexander Pope

197. “Oh, blindness to the future! kindly giv’n, That each may fill the circle mark’d by heaven.”

— Alexander Pope

198. “Yes, I am proud; I must be proud to see Men not afraid of God, afraid of me.”

— Alexander Pope

199. “Satire’s my weapon, but I’m too discreet to run amok and tilt at all I meet.”

— Alexander Pope

200. “Two purposes in human nature rule. Self- love to urge, and reason to restrain.”

— Alexander Pope