Alexander Pope
Alexander Pope
Alexander Popewas an 18th-century English poet. He is best known for his satirical verse, as well as for his translation of Homer. Famous for his use of the heroic couplet, he is the second-most frequently quoted writer in The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations, after Shakespeare...
NationalityEnglish
ProfessionPoet
Date of Birth21 May 1688
art genius study
Persons of genius, and those who are most capable of art, are always most fond of nature: as such are chiefly sensible, that all art consists in the imitation and study of nature.
empathy lazy frost
In lazy apathy let stoics boast, their virtue fixed, 'tis fixed as in a frost.
bird woe merit
Let sinful bachelors their woes deplore; full well they merit all they feel, and more: unaw by precepts, human or divine, like birds and beasts, promiscuously they join.
heart men rakes
Men, some to business, some to pleasure take; But every woman is at heart a rake.
dog curiosity littles
How do we know that we have a right to kill creatures that we are so little above, as dogs, for our curiosity or even for some use to us?
faults overcoming advantage
It is not so much the being exempt from faults, as having overcome them, that is an advantage to us.
fall air preparation
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.
writing goddess
And write about it, Goddess, and about it!
cease knows seasons
The season when to come, and when to go, to sing, or cease to sing, we never know.
favors dignity fame
Nor Fame I slight, nor her favors call
thinking amusement
Amusement is the happiness of those who cannot think.
too-late may aging
When we are young, we are slavishly employed in procuring something whereby we may live comfortably when we grow old; and when we are old, we perceive it is too late to live as we proposed.
soul speed sigh
Speed the soft intercourse from soul to soul, And waft a sigh from Indus to the Pole.
feelings matter principles
Genuine religion is not so much a matter of feeling as a matter of principle.