Quotes by Pope, Alexander

"Like Cato, give his little senate laws, and sit attentive to his own applause."

Pope, Alexander on tyranny   

"On wrongs swift vengeance waits."

Pope, Alexander on vengeance   

"Virtuous and vicious everyone must be; few in extremes, but all in degree."

Pope, Alexander on virtue   

"To endeavor to work upon the vulgar with fine sense is like attempting to hew blocks with a razor."

Pope, Alexander on vulgarity   

"But Satan now is wiser than of yore, and tempts by making rich, not making poor."

Pope, Alexander on wealth   

"True wit is nature to advantage dressed, what oft was thought, but never so well expressed."

Pope, Alexander on wit   

"Most women have no characters at all."

Pope, Alexander on women   

"Most authors steal their works, or buy."

Pope, Alexander on writers and writing   

"Ten censure wrong, for one that writes amiss."

Pope, Alexander on writers and writing   

"Why did I write? What sin to me unknown dipped me in ink, my parents , or my own?"

Pope, Alexander on writers and writing   

"True ease in writing comes from art, not chance, as those move easiest who have learned to dance. 'Tis not enough no harshness gives offence. The sound must seem an echo to the sense."

Pope, Alexander on writers and writing   

"Fools admire, but men of sense approve."

Pope, Alexander on admiration   

"Behold the child, by nature's kindly law, pleased with a rattle, tickled with a straw."

Pope, Alexander on children   

"I am his Highness dog at Kew; pray tell me, sir, whose dog are you?"

Pope, Alexander on class   

"True politeness consists in being easy one's self, and in making every one about one as easy as one can."

Pope, Alexander on courtesy   

"Blest paper-credit! last and best supply! That lends corruption lighter wings to fly!"

Pope, Alexander on credit   

"Did some more sober critics come abroad? If wrong, I smil'd; if right, I kiss'd the rod."

Pope, Alexander on criticism   

"A person who is too nice an observer of the business of the crowd, like one who is too curious in observing the labor of bees, will often be stung for his curiosity."

Pope, Alexander on curiosity   

"Scarce any Tale was sooner heard than told;And all who told it, added something new,And all who heard it, made Enlargements too,In evry Ear it spread, on evry Tongue it grew. "

Pope, Alexander on uncategorised   

"In Words, as Fashions, the same Rule will hold;Alike Fantastick, if too New, or Old;Be not the first by whom the New are tryd,Nor yet the last to lay the Old aside. "

Pope, Alexander on uncategorised   

"To err is human, to forgive, divine."

Pope, Alexander on
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"Do good by stealth, and blush to find it fame."

Pope, Alexander on action