Quotes from Alexander Pope

Slave to no sect, who takes no private road, But looks through Nature up to Nature's God.

Genius creates, and taste preserves. Taste is the good sense of genius; without taste, genius is only sublime folly.

The Right Divine of Kings to govern wrong.

Amusement is the happiness of those who cannot think.

Count all th' advantage prosperous Vice attains, 'Tis but what Virtue flies from and disdains: And grant the bad what happiness they would, One they must want--which is, to pass for good.

How happy is the blameless vestal's lot? The world forgetting, by the world forgot.

O happiness! our being's end and aim! Good, pleasure, ease, content! whate'er thy name: That something still which prompts the eternal sigh, For which we bear to live, or dare to die.

Virtue alone is happiness below.

An excuse is worse and more terrible than a lie; for an excuse is a lie guarded.

An honest man's the noblest work of God.

Act well your part, there all the honour lies.

Homer excels all the inventors of other arts in this: that he has swallowed up the honor of those who succeeded him.

The Dying Christian to His Soul (1712) -Vital spark of heav'nly flame! Quit, oh quit, this mortal frame: Trembling, hoping, ling'ring, flying, Oh the pain, the bliss of dying! Stanza 1.

Where beams of imagination play, The memory's soft figures melt away.

Let fortune do her worst, whatever she makes us lose, so long as she never makes us lose our honesty and our independence.

Those move easiest who have learn'd to dance.

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

Honor and shame from no condition rise. Act well your part: there all the honor lies.

Hope springs eternal.

Learn from the birds what food the thickets yield; Learn from the beasts the physic of the field; The arts of building from the bee receive; Learn of the mole to plow, the worm to weave.

An excuse is worse than a lie, for an excuse is a lie, guarded.

Who combats bravely is not therefore brave, He dreads a death-bed like the meanest slave: Who reasons wisely is not therefore wise, - His pride in reasoning, not in acting lies

Love, free as air at sight of human ties, Spreads his light wings, and in a moment flies.

Atheists put on false courage in the midst of their darkness and misaprehensions, like children who, when they fear to go in the dark,will sing or whistle to keep their courage.