Alexander Pope
Alexander Pope
Alexander Popewas an 18th-century English poet. He is best known for his satirical verse, as well as for his translation of Homer. Famous for his use of the heroic couplet, he is the second-most frequently quoted writer in The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations, after Shakespeare...
NationalityEnglish
ProfessionPoet
Date of Birth21 May 1688
color light giving
The lights and shades, whose well-accorded strife gives all the strength and color of our life.
next firsts variety
That each from other differs, first confess; next that he varies from himself no less.
tyrants lust succeed
Still when the lust of tyrant power succeeds, some Athens perishes, or some Tully bleeds.
time sticks trifles
I am satisfied to trifle away my time, rather than let it stick by me.
eye ears taste
Taste, that eternal wanderer, which flies From head to ears, and now from ears to eyes.
two mind taste
Talk what you will of taste, my friend, you'll find two of a face as soon as of a mind.
sympathy blessed men
Never elated while one man's oppress'd; Never dejected while another's blessed.
self self-love social
True self-love and social are the same.
spring men self
Self-love, the spring of motion, acts the soul; Reason's comparing balance rules the whole. Man, but for that no action could attend, And, but for this, were active to no end: Fix'd like a plant on his peculiar spot, To draw nutrition, propagate, and rot; Or, meteor-like, flame lawless thro' the void, Destroying others, by himself destroy'd.
reign fickle crowns
Fickle Fortune reigns, and, undiscerning, scatters crowns and chains.
suffering fool pardon
To pardon those absurdities in ourselves which we cannot suffer in others is neither better nor worse than to be more willing to be fools ourselves than to have others so.
fame breaths
What is fame? a fancied life in others' breath.
saint lawns
A saint in crape is twice a saint in lawn.
night dancing age
Oh! if to dance all night, and dress all day, Charm'd the small-pox, or chas'd old age away; . . . . To patch, nay ogle, might become a saint, Nor could it sure be such a sin to paint.