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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
Ends
Way
Abject
Base
Lust
Mortals
Praise
Sacred
Ways

More quotes by Alexander Pope

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For lo! the board with cups and spoons is crowned.The berries crackle, and the mill turns round ... At once they gratify their scent and taste.And frequent cups prolong the rich repast... Coffee (which makes the politician wise And see through all things with his half-shut eyes).
Alexander Pope
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She went from opera, park, assembly, play, To morning walks, and prayers three hours a day. To part her time 'twixt reading and bohea, To muse, and spill her solitary tea, Or o'er cold coffee trifle with the spoon, Count the slow clock, and dine exact at noon.
Alexander Pope
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Is it, in Heav'n, a crime to love too well? To bear too tender or too firm a heart, To act a lover's or a Roman's part? Is there no bright reversion in the sky For those who greatly think, or bravely die?
Alexander Pope
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A brave man thinks no one his superior who does him an injury, for he has it then in his power to make himself superior to the other by forgiving it.
Alexander Pope
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Our plenteous streams a various race supply, The bright-eyed perch with fins of Tyrian dye, The silver eel, in shining volumes roll'd, The yellow carp, in scales bedropp'd with gold, Swift trouts, diversified with crimson stains, And pikes, the tyrants of the wat'ry plains.
Alexander Pope
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A perfect woman's but a softer man.
Alexander Pope
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Who sees with equal eye, as God of all, A hero perish or a sparrow fall, Atoms or systems into ruin hurl'd, And now a bubble burst, and now a world.
Alexander Pope
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Envy will merit as its shade pursue, But like a shadow, proves the substance true.
Alexander Pope
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Men, some to business, some to pleasure take But every woman is at heart a rake.
Alexander Pope
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To observations which ourselves we make, we grow more partial for th' observer's sake.
Alexander Pope
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Good God! how often are we to die before we go quite off this stage? In every friend we lose a part of ourselves, and the best part.
Alexander Pope
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Virtuous and vicious every man must be, few in the extreme, but all in the degree.
Alexander Pope
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Who breaks a butterfly on a wheel?
Alexander Pope
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When two people compliment each other with the choice of anything, each of them generally gets that which he likes least.
Alexander Pope
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So man, who here seems principal alone, Perhaps acts second to some sphere unknown Touches some wheel, or verges to some goal 'Tis but a part we see, and not a whole.
Alexander Pope
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Every man has just as much vanity as he wants understanding.
Alexander Pope
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She who ne'er answers till a husband cools, Or, if she rules him, never shows she rules Charms by accepting, by submitting, sways, Yet has her humor most, when she obeys.
Alexander Pope
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But thousands die without or this or that, Die, and endow a college or a cat.
Alexander Pope
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Praise undeserved, is satire in disguise.
Alexander Pope
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Learn from the birds what food the thickets yield Learn from the beasts the physic of the field The arts of building from the bee receive Learn of the mole to plow, the worm to weave.
Alexander Pope