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Oh, sons of earth! attempt ye still to rise. By mountains pil'd on mountains to the skies? Heav'n still with laughter the vain toil surveys, And buries madmen in the heaps they raise.

Alexander Pope

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Alexander Pope
Age: 56 †
Born: 1688
Born: May 21
Died: 1744
Died: May 30
Literary Historian
Poet
Translator
the City
Pope the Poet
Alexander I Pope
Alexander
I Pope
Sky
Sons
Laughter
Toil
Son
Mountains
Buries
Ambition
Attempt
Heav
Mountain
Raise
Heaps
Stills
Vain
Surveys
Earth
Raises
Madmen
Still
Rise
Skies

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Those oft are stratagems which errors seem Nor is it Homer nods, but we that dream.
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Whatever is, is right.
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A mighty maze! But not without a plan.
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No louder shrieks to pitying heaven are cast, When husbands or lap-dogs breathe their last.
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The grave unites where e'en the great find rest, And blended lie th' oppressor and th' oppressed!
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Man, like the generous vine, supported lives the strength he gains is from the embrace he gives.
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A naked lover bound and bleeding lies!
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I am satisfied to trifle away my time, rather than let it stick by me.
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A wit with dunces, and a dunce with wits.
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What dire offence from am'rous causes springs, What mighty contests rise from trivial things.
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Leave not a foot of verse, a foot of stone, A Page, a Grave, that they can call their own But spread, my sons, your glory thin or thick, On passive paper, or on solid brick.
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Dear fatal name! rest ever unreveal'd, Nor pass these lips in holy silence seal'd. Hide it, my heart, within that close disguise, Where mixed with Gods, his lov'd idea lies: O write it not, my hand - the name appears Already written - wash it out, my tears! In vain lost Eloisa weeps and prays, Her heart still dictates, and her hand obeyes.
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Histories are more full of examples of the fidelity of dogs than of friends.
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Devotion's self shall steal a thought from heaven.
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A work of art that contains theories is like an object on which the price tag has been left.
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Oft, as in airy rings they skim the heath, The clamtrous lapwings feel the leaden death Oft, as the mounting larks their notes prepare They fall, and leave their little lives in air.
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Some men's wit is like a dark lantern, which serves their own turn and guides them their own way, but is never known (according to the Scripture phrase) either to shine forth before men, or to glorify their Father in heaven.
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I would not be like those Authors, who forgive themselves some particular lines for the sake of a whole Poem, and vice versa a whole Poem for the sake of some particular lines. I believe no one qualification is so likely to make a good writer, as the power of rejecting his own thoughts.
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Reason's whole pleasure, all the joys of sense, Lie in three words,-health, peace, and competence.
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Our judgments, like our watches, none go just alike, yet each believes his own
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