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
expression dresses
Expression is the dress of thought.
writing men scribbles
But those who cannot write, and those who can, All rhyme, and scrawl, and scribble, to a man.
father people may
Therefore they who say our thoughts are not our own because they resemble the Ancients, may as well say our faces are not our own, because they are like our Fathers: And indeed it is very unreasonable, that people should expect us to be Scholars, and yet be angry to find us so.
arrogance quality praise
Sure of their qualities and demanding praise, more go to ruined fortunes than are raised.
law may dine
Wretches hang that jurymen may dine.
instinct swine vary
How Instinct varies in the grov'ling swine.
voice people odd
The people's voice is odd, It is, and it is not, the voice of God.
self social god-and-nature
Thus God and nature linked the gen'ral frame, And bade self-love and social be the same.
future circles heaven
Oh, blindness to the future! kindly giv'n, That each may fill the circle mark'd by heaven.
wings hawks dove
Say, will the falcon, stooping from above, Smit with her varying plumage, spare the dove? Admires the jay the insect's gilded wings? Or hears the hawk when Philomela sings?
two pudding boards
Live like yourself, was soon my lady's word, And lo! two puddings smok'd upon the board.
wall echoes
And more than echoes talk along the walls.
suits reason instinct
Whether with Reason, or with Instinct blest, Know, all enjoy that pow'r which suits them best.
envy brave mind
Envy, to which th' ignoble mind's a slave, Is emulation in the learn'd or brave.