Alexander Pope (1688-1744)

Quotes

• 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.

• What will a child learn sooner than a song?

• How happy is the blameless vestal's lot!
  The world forgetting, by the world forgot.
  Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind!
  Each pray'r accepted, and each wish resign'd;

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

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

• Hope springs eternal in the human breast;
  Man never Is, but always To be blest:
  The soul, uneasy and confin'd from home,
  Rests and expatiates in a life to come.

• Man: the glory, jest, and riddle of the world.

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

• A little learning is a dangerous thing; Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring

• The greatest advantage I know of being thought a wit by the world is that it gives me the greater freedom of playing the fool.

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

• Be not the first by whom the new are tried,
  Nor yet the last to lay the old aside.

• Fools admire, but men of sense approve.

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

• Satire's my weapon, but I'm too discreet
  To run amuck, and tilt at all I meet.

• To err is human, to forgive divine.

• Some people will never learn anything because they understand everything too soon.

• Tis education forms the common mind;
  Just as the twig is bent, the tree's inclined.

• One who is too wise an observer of the business of others, like one who is too curious in observing the labor of bees, will often be stung for his curiosity.