Quotes from Alexander Pope

A patriot is a fool in ev'ry age.

Means not, but blunders round about a meaning;And he whose fustian's so sublimely bad,It is not poetry, but prose run mad.

The Right Divine of Kings to govern wrong.

The people's voice is odd,It is, and it is not, the voice of God.

The way of the Creative works through change and transformation, so that each thing receives its true nature and destiny and comes into permanent accord with the Great Harmony: this is what furthers and what perseveres.

A family is but too often a commonwealth of malignants.

A man should never be ashamed to own he has been wrong, which is but saying, that he is wiser today than he was yesterday.

Amusement is the happiness of those who cannot think.

An honest man is the noblest work of God.

And all who told it added something new, And all who heard it made enlargements too.

At every trifle take offense, that always shows great pride or little sense.

Blessed is the man who expects nothing, for he shall never be disappointed.

Charm strikes the sight, but merit wins the soul.

Fools admire, but men of sense approve.

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.

Hither the heroes and nymphs resort,To taste awhile the pleasures of a courtIn various talk th'instuctive hours they past,Who gave the ball, or paid the visit lastOne speaks the glory of the British Queen,And one describes a charming Indian screenlA third interprets motions, looks and eyesAt every word a reputation dies.

Let me tell you I am better acquainted with you for a long absence, as men are with themselves for a long affliction absence does but hold off a friend, to make one see him the truer.

Lulled in the countless chambers of the brain, our thoughts are linked by many a hidden chain; awake but one, and in, what myriads rise!

Our passions are like convulsion fits, which, though they make us stronger for a time, leave us the weaker ever after.

The general cry is against ingratitude, but the complaint is misplaced, it should be against vanity; none but direct villains are capable of willful ingratitude; but almost everybody is capable of thinking he hath done more that another deserves, while the other thinks he hath received less than he deserves.

What will a child learn sooner than a song?

The world forgetting, by the world forgot. Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind!

Histories are more full of examples of the fidelity of dogs than of friends.

And die of nothing but a rage to live