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
heart sunshine giving
What nothing earthly gives, or can destroy, The soul's calm sunshine, and the heart-felt joy, Is virtue's prize.
vices sometimes virtue
Sometimes virtue starves while vice is fed.
want vices virtue
Count all th' advantage prosperous Vice attains, 'Tis but what Virtue flies from and disdains: And grant the bad what happiness they would, One they must want--which is, to pass for good.
song children men
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?
color light giving
The lights and shades, whose well-accorded strife gives all the strength and color of our life.
next firsts variety
That each from other differs, first confess; next that he varies from himself no less.
tyrants lust succeed
Still when the lust of tyrant power succeeds, some Athens perishes, or some Tully bleeds.
time sticks trifles
I am satisfied to trifle away my time, rather than let it stick by me.
eye ears taste
Taste, that eternal wanderer, which flies From head to ears, and now from ears to eyes.
two mind taste
Talk what you will of taste, my friend, you'll find two of a face as soon as of a mind.
sympathy blessed men
Never elated while one man's oppress'd; Never dejected while another's blessed.
littles study application
There is no study that is not capable of delighting us after a little application to it.
heaven taught spires
Who taught that heaven-directed spire to rise?
sound speech empty
And empty heads console with empty sound.