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
Alexander Pope quotes about
angels english-poet fear fools rush
For fools rush in where angels fear to tread.
curse law-and-lawyers love
Curse on all laws, but those that love has made.
sound speech empty
And empty heads console with empty sound.
reign fickle crowns
Fickle Fortune reigns, and, undiscerning, scatters crowns and chains.
expression poetry dresses
Pretty conceptions, fine metaphors, glittering expressions, and something of a neat cast of verse are properly the dress, gems, or loose ornaments of poetry.
vices sometimes virtue
Sometimes virtue starves while vice is fed.
numbers lisp
I lisp'd in numbers, for the numbers came.
villain praise censure
The villain's censure is extorted praise.
errors judging world
Sole judge of Truth, in endless Error hurled: / The glory, jest, and riddle of the world!
expression dresses
Expression is the dress of thought.
rogues rags ruffles
Rogues in rags are kept in countenance by rogues in ruffles.
convince-us water mind
The best way to prove the clearness of our mind, is by showing its faults; as when a stream discovers the dirt at the bottom, it convinces us of the transparency and purity of the water.
instruments ill mischief
When to mischief mortals bend their will, how soon they find it instruments of ill.
being-strong exercise mind
In lazy apathy let stoics boast, their virtue fix'd: 't is fix'd as in a frost; contracted all, retiring to the breast; but strength of mind is exercise, not rest.