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Fine sense and exalted sense are not half so useful as common sense. There are forty men of wit for one man of sense and he that will carry nothing about him but gold, will be every day at a loss for want of readier change.

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
Sense
Forty
Change
Useful
Nothing
Carry
Every
Gold
Men
Loss
Fine
Readier
Common
Exalted
Half
Wit

More quotes by Alexander Pope

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Presumptuous Man! the reason wouldst thou find,Why form'd so weak, so little, and so blind?First, if thou canst, the harder reason guess,Why form'd no weaker, blinder, and no less!Ask of thy mother earth, why oaks are madeTaller or stronger than the weeds they shade?Or ask of yonder argent fields above,Why Jove's Satellites are less than Jove?
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Then sculpture and her sister arts revived stones leaped to form, and rocks began to live.
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The meeting points the sacred hair dissever From the fair head, forever, and forever! Then flashed the living lightning from her eyes, And screams of horror rend th' affrighted skies.
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Behold the child, by Nature's kindly law pleased with a rattle, tickled with a straw.
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What then remains, but well our power to use, And keep good-humor still whate'er we lose? And trust me, dear, good-humor can prevail, When airs, and flights, and screams, and scolding fail.
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All other goods by fortune's hand are given, A wife is the peculiar gift of Heaven.
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Praise is like ambergrease: a little whiff of it, and by snatches, is very agreeable but when a man holds a whole lump of it to your nose, it is a stink, and strikes you down.
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To rest, the cushion and soft dean invite, who never mentions hell to ears polite.
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Never find fault with the absent.
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Trace Science, then, with Modesty thy guide, First strip off all her equipage of Pride, Deduct what is but Vanity or Dress, Or Learning's Luxury or idleness, Or tricks, to show the stretch of the human brain Mere curious pleasure or ingenious pain.
Alexander Pope
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Heav'n from all creatures hides the book of fate, All but the page prescribed, their present state: From brutes what men, from men what spirits know: Or who could suffer being here below?
Alexander Pope
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Soft o'er the shrouds aerial whispers breathe, That seemed but zephyrs to the train beneath.
Alexander Pope
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Heav'n first taught letters for some wretch's aid, Some banish'd lover, or some captive maid.
Alexander Pope
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Why did I write? whose sin to me unknown Dipt me in ink, my parents', or my own? As yet a child, nor yet a fool to fame, I lisp'd in numbers, for the numbers came.
Alexander Pope
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The mouse that always trusts to one poor hole Can never be a mouse of any soul.
Alexander Pope
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Taste, that eternal wanderer, which flies From head to ears, and now from ears to eyes.
Alexander Pope
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The vanity of human life is like a river, constantly passing away, and yet constantly coming on.
Alexander Pope
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The lamb thy riot dooms to bleed today, Had he thy reason, would he skip and play? Pleas'd to the last he crops the flow'ry food, And licks the hand just rais'd to shed his blood.
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Do good by stealth, and blush to find it fame.
Alexander Pope
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If it be the chief point of friendship to comply with a friends motions and inclinations, he possesses this in a eminent degree he lies down when I sit, and walks when I walk, which is more than many good friends can pretend to do.
Alexander Pope