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
wisdom opinion scales
Go, wiser thou! and in thy scale of sense weigh thy opinion against Providence.
winter shining frost
Behold the groves that shine with silver frost, their beauty withered, and their verdure lost!
joy secret sake
O let us still the secret joy partake, To follow virtue even for virtue's sake.
soil bears influence
Court-virtues bear, like gems, the highest rate, Born where Heav'n influence scarce can penetrate. In life's low vale, the soil the virtues like, They please as beauties, here as wonders strike.
kings light degrees
Virtue may choose the high or low degree, 'Tis just alike to virtue, and to me; Dwell in a monk, or light upon a king, She's still the same belov'd, contented thing.
heart sunshine giving
What nothing earthly gives, or can destroy, The soul's calm sunshine, and the heart-felt joy, Is virtue's prize.
blood ems excess
Modest plainness sets off sprightly wit, For works may have more with than does 'em good, As bodies perish through excess of blood.
lines taste chaos
Some to conceit alone their taste confine, And glittering thoughts struck out at ev'ry line; Pleas'd with a work where nothing's just or fit; One glaring chaos and wild heap of wit.
women half charm
Ladies, like variegated tulips, show 'Tis to their changes half their charms we owe.
women looks paradise
Our grandsire, Adam, ere of Eve possesst, Alone, and e'en in Paradise unblest, With mournful looks the blissful scenes survey'd, And wander'd in the solitary shade. The Maker say, took pity, and bestow'd Woman, the last, the best reserv'd of God.
women race heaven
Heaven gave to woman the peculiar grace To spin, to weep, and cully human race.
wise night evil
What so pure, which envious tongues will spare? Some wicked wits have libell'd all the fair, With matchless impudence they style a wife, The dear-bought curse, and lawful plague of life; A bosom serpent, a domestic evil, A night invasion, and a mid-day devil; Let not the wise these sland'rous words regard, But curse the bones of ev'ry living bard.
dream horse men
Horses (thou say'st) and asses men may try, And ring suspected vessels ere they buy; But wives, a random choice, untried they take; They dream in courtship, but in wedlock wake; Then, nor till then, the veil's removed away, And all the woman glares in open day.
judgment strife wit
Wit and judgment often are at strife.