Quotes from Alexander Pope

All nature is but art unknown to thee; All chance direction, which thou canst not see; All discord harmony not understood; All partial evil universal good; And, spite of pride, in erring reason's spite, One truth is clear, 'Whatever is, is right.

For who can move when fair Belinda fails?   Not half so fix'd the Trojan could remain, 5   While Anna begg'd and Dido rag'd in vain.   Then grave Clarissa graceful wav'd her fan;   Silence ensu'd, and thus the nymph began.

True wit is Nature to advantage dress'd, What oft was thought, but ne'er so well express'd.

Roar'd for the handkerchief that caus'd his pain.   But see how oft ambitious aims are cross'd,   And chiefs contend 'till all the prize is lost!   The Lock, obtain'd with guilt, and kept with pain,   In ev'ry place is sought, but sought in vain: 110   With such a prize no mortal must be blest,   So heav'n decrees! with heav'n who can contest?

The hungry Judges soon the sentence sign,   And wretches hang that jury-men may dine;   The merchant from th' Exchange returns in peace,   And the long labours of the Toilet cease.   Belinda now, whom thirst of fame invites, 25   Burns to encounter two advent'rous Knights

The difference is too nice - Where ends the virtue or begins the vice.

Hang o'er the Box, and hover round the Ring.   Think what an equipage thou hast in Air, 45   And view with scorn two Pages and a Chair.

Pride where wit fails steps in to our defense, And fills up all the mighty void of sense. If once right reason drives that cloud away, Truth breaks upon us with resistless day Trust not yourself, but your defects to know, Make use of every friend—and every foe.

With varying vanities, from ev'ry part,   They shift the moving Toyshop of their heart; 100   Where wigs with wigs, with sword-knots sword-knots strive,   Beaux banish beaux, and coaches coaches drive.

If, where the rules not far enough extend, (Since rules were made but to promote their end) Some lucky licence answer to the full The intent proposed, that licence is a rule.

Where, one step broken, the great scale's destroyed: From Nature's chain whatever link you strike,  Tenth or ten thousandth, breaks the chain alike. 

Favours to none, to all she smiles extends;   Oft she rejects, but never once offends.

This Nymph, to the destruction of mankind,   Nourish'd two Locks, which graceful hung behind 20   In equal curls, and well conspir'd to deck   With shining ringlets the smooth iv'ry neck.

Learn from the birds what food the thickets yield; Learn from the beasts the physic of the field; Thy arts of building from the bee receive; Learn of the mole to plow, the worm to weave; Learn of the little nautilus to sail, Spread the thin oar, and catch the driving gale

A little knowledge is a dangerous thing.

And grant the bad what happiness they would / One they must want, which is to pass for good.

But sometimes virtue starves, while vice is fed." / What then? Is the reward of virtue bread?

Some less refined, beneath the moon's pale light Pursue the stars that shoot athwart the night

Tis not enough, your counsel still be true; Blunt truths more mischief than nice falsehoods do;

Oh let me live my own! and die so too! ("To live and die is all I have to do:") Maintain a poet's dignity and ease, And see what friends, and read what books I please.

Your silence there is better than your spite, For who can rail so long as they can write?

To me what Nature has in charms denied, Is well by Wit's more lasting flames supplied.

Love taught my tears in sadder notes to flow, And tuned my heart to elegies of woe. I burn, I burn, as when thro' ripen'd corn By driving winds the spreading flames are borne! ... No more my soul a charm in music finds; Music has charms alone for peaceful minds. Soft scenes of solitude no more can please; Love enters there, and I 'm my own disease.

Alone can rival, can succeed to thee. How happy is the blameless vestal's lot! The world forgetting, by the world forgot. Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind!