Top 500 Alexander Pope Quotes (2023 Update)
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201. “Lo! the poor Indian! whose untutor’d mind Sees God in clouds, or hears him in the wind; His soul proud Science never taught to stray Far as the solar walk or milky way.”

— Alexander Pope

202. “Why did I write? whose sin to me unknown Dipt me in ink, my parents’, or my own? As yet a child, nor yet a fool to fame, I lisp’d in numbers, for the numbers came.”

— Alexander Pope

203. “Blest paper-credit! last and best supply! That lends corruption lighter wings to fly!”

— Alexander Pope

204. “Heav’n from all creatures hides the book of fate, All but the page prescribed, their present state: From brutes what men, from men what spirits know: Or who could suffer being here below?”

— Alexander Pope

205. “Expression is the dress of thought, and still Appears more decent as more suitable; A vile conceit in pompous words express’d, Is like a clown in regal purple dress’d.”

— Alexander Pope

206. “Of darkness visible so much be lent, as half to show, half veil, the deep intent.”

— Alexander Pope

207. “Love seldom haunts the breast where learning lies, And Venus sets ere Mercury can rise.”

— Alexander Pope

208. “The people’s voice is odd, It is, and it is not, the voice of God.”

— Alexander Pope

209. “What woeful stuff this madrigal would be, In some starved hackney sonneteer, or me! But let a lord once own the happy lines, How the wit brightens! how the style refines!”

— Alexander Pope

210. “And hence one master-passion in the breast, Like Aaron’s serpent, swallows up the rest.”

— Alexander Pope

211. “From Nature’s chain whatever link you strike, Tenth or ten thousandth, breaks the chain alike.”

— Alexander Pope

212. “Trust not yourself, but your defects to know, make use of every friend and every foe.”

— Alexander Pope

213. “Be thou the first true merit to befriend, his praise is lost who stays till all commend.”

— Alexander Pope

214. “What then remains, but well our power to use, And keep good-humor still whate’er we lose? And trust me, dear, good-humor can prevail, When airs, and flights, and screams, and scolding fail.”

— Alexander Pope

215. “Religion blushing, veils her sacred fires, And unawares Morality expires.”

— Alexander Pope

216. “Those oft are stratagems which errors seem Nor is it Homer nods, but we that dream;.”

— Alexander Pope

217. “What nothing earthly gives, or can destroy, The soul’s calm sunshine, and the heart-felt joy, Is virtue’s prize.”

— Alexander Pope

218. “The greatest magnifying glasses in the world are a man’s own eyes when they look upon his own person.”

— Alexander Pope

219. “Heaven gave to woman the peculiar grace To spin, to weep, and cully human race.”

— Alexander Pope

220. “Woman’s at best a contradiction still.”

— Alexander Pope

221. “Vast chain of being! which from God began, Natures ethereal, human, angel, man, Beast, bird, fish, insect, what no eye can see, No glass can reach, from infinite to Thee, From Thee to nothing.”

— Alexander Pope

222. “Did some more sober critics come abroad? If wrong, I smil’d; if right, I kiss’d the rod.”

— Alexander Pope

223. “When to mischief mortals bend their will, how soon they find it instruments of ill.”

— Alexander Pope

224. “A perfect judge will read each word of wit with the same spirit that its author writ.”

— Alexander Pope

225. “Like Cato, give his little senate laws, and sit attentive to his own applause.”

— Alexander Pope

226. “Of Manners gentle, of Affections mild; In Wit a man; Simplicity, a child.”

— Alexander Pope

227. “Some are bewildered in the maze of schools, And some made coxcombs nature meant but fools.”

— Alexander Pope

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

— Alexander Pope

229. “Ask you what provocation I have had? The strong antipathy of good to bad.”

— Alexander Pope

230. “Curse on all laws but those which love has made.”

— Alexander Pope

231. “Some have at first for wits, then poets passed, Turned critics next, and proved plain fools at last.”

— Alexander Pope

232. “Oh, when shall Britain, conscious of her claim, Stand emulous of Greek and Roman fame? In living medals see her wars enroll’d, And vanquished realms supply recording gold?”

— Alexander Pope

233. “How index-learning turns no student pale, Yet holds the eel of science by the tail!”

— Alexander Pope

234. “In pride, in reas’ning pride, our error lies; All quit their sphere and rush into the skies. Pride still is aiming at the bless’d abodes, Men would be angels, angels would be gods.”

— Alexander Pope

235. “Go, wiser thou! and in thy scale of sense weigh thy opinion against Providence.”

— Alexander Pope

236. “But thinks, admitted to that equal sky, His faithful dog shall bear him company.”

— Alexander Pope

237. “The learned is happy, nature to explore; The fool is happy, that he knows no more.”

— Alexander Pope

238. “In every work regard the writer’s end, Since none can compass more than they intend.”

— Alexander Pope

239. “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.”

— Alexander Pope

240. “Index-learning turns no student pale, Yet holds the eel of Science by the tail. Index-learning is a term used to mock pretenders who acquire superficial knowledge merely by consulting indexes.”

— Alexander Pope

241. “A brain of feathers, and a heart of lead.”

— Alexander Pope

242. “Every man has just as much vanity as he wants understanding.”

— Alexander Pope

243. “The bookful blockhead, ignorantly read With loads of learned lumber in his head.”

— Alexander Pope

244. “Truth shines the brighter, clad in verse.”

— Alexander Pope

245. “Every woman is at heart a rake.”

— Alexander Pope

246. “Search then the ruling passion; there alone, The wild are constant, and the cunning known; The fool consistent, and the false sincere; Priests, princes, women, no dissemblers here.”

— Alexander Pope

247. “To be, contents his natural desire, He asks no angel’s wing, no seraph’s fire; But thinks, admitted to that equal sky, His faithful dog shall bear him company. Go wiser thou! and in thy scale of sense Weigh thy opinion against Providence.”

— Alexander Pope

248. “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.”

— Alexander Pope

249. “Ten censure wrong for one who writes amiss.”

— Alexander Pope

250. “Men, some to business, some to pleasure take; But every woman is at heart a rake.”

— Alexander Pope