Top 500 Alexander Pope Quotes (2023 Update)
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201. “From Nature’s chain whatever link you strike, Tenth or ten thousandth, breaks the chain alike.”

— Alexander Pope

202. “Expression is the dress of thought.”

— Alexander Pope

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

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

— Alexander Pope

206. “But see, Orion sheds unwholesome dews; Arise, the pines a noxious shade diffuse; Sharp Boreas blows, and nature feels decay, Time conquers all, and we must time obey.”

— Alexander Pope

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

— Alexander Pope

208. “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

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

— Alexander Pope

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

— Alexander Pope

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

— Alexander Pope

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

— Alexander Pope

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

— Alexander Pope

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

— Alexander Pope

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

— Alexander Pope

216. “Authors, like coins, grow dear as they grow old.”

— Alexander Pope

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

— Alexander Pope

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

— Alexander Pope

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

— Alexander Pope

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

— Alexander Pope

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

— Alexander Pope

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

— Alexander Pope

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

— Alexander Pope

224. “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

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

— Alexander Pope

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

— Alexander Pope

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

— Alexander Pope

228. “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

229. “You beat your Pate, and fancy Wit will come: Knock as you please, there’s no body at home.”

— Alexander Pope

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

— Alexander Pope

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

— Alexander Pope

232. “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

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

— Alexander Pope

234. “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

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

— Alexander Pope

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

— Alexander Pope

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

— Alexander Pope

238. “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

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

— Alexander Pope

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

— Alexander Pope

241. “And seem to walk on wings, and tread in air.”

— Alexander Pope

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

— Alexander Pope

243. “How shall I lose the sin, yet keep the sense, and love the offender, yet detest the offence?”

— Alexander Pope

244. “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

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

— Alexander Pope

246. “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

247. “The vanity of human life is like a river, constantly passing away, and yet constantly coming on.”

— Alexander Pope

248. “Learn to live well, or fairly make your will; You’ve play’d, and lov’d, and ate, and drank your fill: Walk sober off, before a sprightlier age Comes titt’ring on, and shoves you from the stage.”

— Alexander Pope

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

— Alexander Pope

250. “Wretches hang that jurymen may dine.”

— Alexander Pope