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
needs faces firsts
Vice is a monster of so frightful mien As to be hated needs but to be seen; Yet seen too oft, familiar with her face, We first endure, then pity, then embrace.
change lasts firsts
Be not the first by whom the new are tried, Nor yet the last to lay the old aside.
science trying firsts
New, distant Scenes of endless Science rise: So pleas'd at first, the towring Alps we try,...
angel ambition firsts
Ambition first sprung from your blest abodes: the glorious fault of angels and of gods.
men firsts reason
Say first, of god above or man below; what can we reason but from what we know.
next firsts variety
That each from other differs, first confess; next that he varies from himself no less.
maids letters firsts
Heav'n first taught letters for some wretch's aid, Some banish'd lover, or some captive maid.
firsts merit dignity
Be thou the first true merit to befriend, his praise is lost who stays till all commend.
man plain reason
Why has not man a microscopic eye? For the plain reason man is not a fly.
last lay
Be not the first by which a new thing is tried, or the last to lay the old aside.
blessed expects man ninth shall
Blessed is the man who expects nothing, for he shall never be disappointed" was the ninth beatitude
dream english-poet men
Men dream of courtship, but in wedlock wake.
hid laws lay nature newton
Nature and nature's laws lay hid in night;God said "Let Newton be" and all was light.
chaos curtain darkness dies dread great lets thy universal
Lo! thy dread empire, Chaos! is restored; dies before thy uncreating word: thy hand, great Anarch! lets the curtain fall; and universal darkness buries all.