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To what base ends, and by what abject ways, Are mortals urg'd through sacred lust of praise!

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
Lust
Mortals
Praise
Sacred
Ways
Ends
Abject
Way
Base

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A God without dominion, providence, and final causes, is nothing else but fate and nature.
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Nature and nature's laws lay hid in the night. God said, Let Newton be! and all was light!
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First follow Nature, and your judgment frame By her just standard, which is still the same: Unerring nature, still divinely bright, One clear, unchanged, and universal light, Life, force, and beauty must to all impart, At once the source, and end, and test of art.
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A naked lover bound and bleeding lies!
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Whate'er the passion, knowledge, fame, or pelf, Not one will change his neighbor with himself.
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Music the fiercest grief can charm, And fate's severest rage disarm. Music can soften pain to ease, And make despair and madness please Our joys below it can improve, And antedate the bliss above.
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Never find fault with the absent.
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Not to go back is somewhat to advance, and men must walk, at least, before they dance.
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Some place the bliss in action, some in ease, Those call it pleasure, and contentment these.
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I never knew any man in my life who could not bear another's misfortunes perfectly like a Christian.
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Whether with Reason, or with Instinct blest, Know, all enjoy that pow'r which suits them best.
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Learning is like mercury, one of the most powerful and excellent things in the world in skillful hands in unskillful, the most mischievous.
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But see, Orion sheds unwholesome dews Arise, the pines a noxious shade diffuse Sharp Boreas blows, and nature feels decay, Time conquers all, and we must time obey.
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In various talk th' instructive hours they past, Who gave the ball, or paid the visit last One speaks the glory of the British queen, And one describes a charming Indian screen A third interprets motions, looks, and eyes At every word a reputation dies.
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Interspersed in lawn and opening glades, Thin trees arise that shun each others' shades.
Alexander Pope
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The most positive men are the most credulous.
Alexander Pope
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For I, who hold sage Homer's rule the best, Welcome the coming, speed the going guest.
Alexander Pope
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Do good by stealth, and blush to find it fame.
Alexander Pope
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Of little use, the man you may suppose, Who says in verse what others say in prose Yet let me show a poet's of some weight, And (though no soldier) useful to the state, What will a child learn sooner than a song? What better teach a foreigner the tongue? What's long or short, each accent where to place And speak in public with some sort of grace?
Alexander Pope
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Tis thus the mercury of man is fix'd, Strong grows the virtue with his nature mix'd.
Alexander Pope