120+ Best Alexander Pope Quotes From One Of The Greatest English Poets

"Blessed is he who expects nothing, for he shall never be disappointed" is a hugely famous quote from the poet Alexander Pope.

Alexander Pope was an eminent English poet and writer. Alexander was most renowned for his poems and his sayings that have been used widely in popular culture through the decades and he is also the second most quoted writer in the English language after Shakespeare.

His amusing and ingenious style brought him a lot of praise and recognition. This included his works 'An Essay On Man', 'The Dunciad', 'The Rape Of The Lock', and 'An Essay On Criticism'. A short man under 4 feet tall, he was struck with tuberculosis of the spine at a young age. He, therefore, had a curvature of the spine and despite the ailment, aspired to share his thoughts and talents widely.

Apart from being idolized for his mock-epics, Alexander Pope was most famous for his unconventional and humorous attempts at writing satire. He was a forward-thinker and was set against archaic customs, often opposing them head-on with his phenomenal ability as a satirist, right up until his death on 30 May 1744.

Among all quotes by famous poets, there are a few iconic Alexander Pope quotes that are most widely recognised, including the famous lines, "To err is human; to forgive, divine." After we present you with some notable Alexander Pope quotes from famous Alexander Pope poems, do also have a look at our Lord Alfred Tennyson quotes and 'The Alchemist' quotes for more.

Below we've listed the crème de la crème of Alexander Pope quotes that we all love and recognize. Perhaps the most famous Alexander Pope quote is: "Some people will never learn anything, for this reason, because they understand everything too soon." You will find this quote and many more here!

1. "Blessed is he who expects nothing, for he shall never be disappointed."

-Alexander Pope.

2. "Some people will never learn anything, for this reason, because they understand everything too soon."

-Alexander Pope.

3. "All nature is but art unknown to thee."

-Alexander Pope.

4. "To be angry is to revenge the faults of others on ourselves."

-Alexander Pope.

5. "Fools admire, but men of sense approve."

-Alexander Pope.

6. "Beauties in vain their pretty eyes may roll; Charms strike the sight but merit wins the soul."

-Alexander Pope, 'The Rape Of The Lock'.

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

-Alexander Pope, 'An Essay On Criticism'.

8. "Happy the man whose wish and care a few paternal acres bound, content to breathe his native air in his own ground."

-Alexander Pope.

9. "Of all the causes which conspire to blind man's erring judgment, and misguide the mind, what the weak head with strongest bias rules, is pride, the never-failing vice of fools."

-Alexander Pope.

10. "Passions are the gales of life."

-Alexander Pope.

11. "Praise undeserved, is satire in disguise."

-Alexander Pope.

12. "Our judgments, like our watches, none go just alike, yet each believes his own."

-Alexander Pope.

13. "Of manners gentle, of affections mild; In wit a man; Simplicity, a child."

-Alexander Pope.

14. "An excuse is worse and more terrible than a lie – for an excuse is a lie guarded."

-Alexander Pope.

15. "Remembrance and reflection how allied! What thin partitions sense from thought divide!"

-Alexander Pope.

16. "Fools rush in, where angels fear to tread."

-Alexander Pope, 'An Essay On Criticism'.

17. "Histories are more full of examples of the fidelity of dogs than of friends."

-Alexander Pope.

18. "To wake the soul by tender strokes of art, to raise the genius, and to mend the heart."

-Alexander Pope.

19. "Then say not man's imperfect, Heav'n in fault; Say rather, man's as perfect as he ought."

-Alexander Pope.

20. "So vast is art, so narrow human wit."

-Alexander Pope.

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These Alexander Pope love quotes will reveal to you how well he really understood human intricacies.

21. "Fame, wealth, and honour! What are you to love?"

-Alexander Pope.

22. "Not grace, or zeal, love only was my call, and if I lose thy love, I lose my all."

-Alexander Pope.

23. "How vast a memory has Love!"

-Alexander Pope.

24. "Curse on all laws but those which love has made."

-Alexander Pope.

25. "Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind! Each pray'r accepted, and each wish resign'd."

-Alexander Pope, 'Eloisa To Abelard'.

26. "Ah! What avails it me the flocks to keep, who lost my heart while I preserv'd my sheep."

-Alexander Pope.

27. "Love, free as air, at sight of human ties, spreads his light wings, and in a moment flies."

-Alexander Pope.

28. "How loved, how honored once, avails thee not, to whom related, or by whom begot, a heap of dust alone remains of thee, 'tis all thou art, and all the proud shall be!"

-Alexander Pope.

29. "How shall I lose the sin, yet keep the sense, and love the offender, yet detest the offence?"

-Alexander Pope.

30. "Of all affliction taught a lover yet, 'tis true the hardest science to forget."

-Alexander Pope.

31. "No woman ever hates a man for being in love with her, but many a woman hate a man for being a friend to her."

-Alexander Pope.

32. "For when success a lover’s toil attends, few ask, if fraud or force attain’d his ends."

-Alexander Pope.

33. "Ye gods, annihilate but space and time, and make two lovers happy."

-Alexander Pope.

34. "Is not absence death to those who love?"

-Alexander Pope.

35. "Love seldom haunts the breast where learning lies, and Venus sets ere Mercury can rise."

-Alexander Pope.

36. "Now warm in love, now with'ring in my bloom, lost in a convent's solitary gloom!"

-Alexander Pope.

37. "Most critics, fond of some subservient art, still make the whole depend upon a part."

-Alexander Pope, 'An Essay On Criticism'.

38. "Two purposes in human nature rule. Self-love to urge, and reason to restrain."

-Alexander Pope.

39. "And while self-love each jealous writer rules, contending wits become the sport of fools."

-Alexander Pope, 'An Essay On Criticism'.

40. "Thus critics, of less judgment than caprice, curious not knowing, not exact but nice, form short ideas; and offend in arts by a love to parts."

-Alexander Pope, 'An Essay On Criticism'.

We've gathered some of the best poetry quotes from some great poems by Alexander Pope.

41. "How tragedy and comedy embrace; How farce and epic get a jumbled race; How time himself stands still at her command, realms shift their place, and ocean turns to land."

-Alexander Pope, 'The Dunciad'.

42. "The spider's touch, how exquisitely fine! Feels at each thread, and lives along the line."

-Alexander Pope, 'An Essay On Man'.

43. "All are but parts of one stupendous whole, whose body nature is, and God the soul."

-Alexander Pope, 'An Essay On Man'.

44. "A little learning is a dangerous thing; Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring: There shallow draughts intoxicate the brain, and drinking largely sobers us again."

-Alexander Pope, 'A Little Learning'.

45. "This long disease, my life."

-Alexander Pope, 'An Epistle To Dr. Arbuthnot'.

46. "Some have at first for wits, then poets past, turn'd critics next, and prov'd plain fools at last. Some neither can for wits nor critics pass, as heavy mules are neither horse nor ass."

-Alexander Pope, 'An Essay On Criticism'.

47. "Launch not beyond your depth, but be discreet, and mark that point where sense and dullness meet."

-Alexander Pope, 'An Essay On Criticism'.

48. "Be sure yourself and your own reach to know how far your genius taste and learning go."

-Alexander Pope.

49. "Nature and nature's laws lay hid in night: God said, let Newton be! and all was light."

-Alexander Pope.

50. "Men must be taught as if you taught them not, and things unknown propos'd as things forgot."

-Alexander Pope, 'An Essay On Criticism'.

51. "Eye nature's walks, shoot folly as it flies, and catch the manners living as they rise; Laugh where we must, be candid where we can, but vindicate the ways of God to man."

-Alexander Pope, 'An Essay On Man'.

52. "And if the means be just, the conduct true, applause, in spite of trivial faults, is due."

-Alexander Pope, 'An Essay On Criticism'.

53. "Tis not a lip, or eye, we beauty call, but the joint force and full result of all."

-Alexander Pope, 'An Essay On Criticism'.

54. "Brevity is the soul of wit."

-Alexander Pope.

55. "Thus let me live, unseen, unknown; Thus unlamented let me die; Steal from the world, and not a stone, tell where I lie."

-Alexander Pope.

56. "Music resembles poetry, in each, are nameless graces which no methods teach, and which a master hand alone can reach."

-Alexander Pope, 'An Essay On Criticism'.

57. "Some valuing those of their own side or mind, still make themselves the measure of mankind; Fondly we think we honour merit then, when we but praise ourselves in other men."

-Alexander Pope, 'An Essay On Criticism'.

58. "He, who supreme in judgment, as in wit, might boldly censure, as he boldly writ."

-Alexander Pope.

59. "Pride, where wit fails, steps in to our defence, and fills up all the mighty void of sense!"

-Alexander Pope.

60. "Some praise at morning what they blame at night, but always think the last opinion right."

-Alexander Pope, 'An Essay on Criticism'.

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Here are a few unique quotes from one of Pope's great satires that is famous for its use of heroic couplets.

61. "Order is heaven's first law."

-Alexander Pope, 'An Essay On Man'.

62. "And, spite of pride, in erring reason's spite, one truth is clear: Whatever is, is right."

-Alexander Pope, 'An Essay On Man'.

63. "All nature is but art, unknown to thee; All chance, direction, which thou canst not see; All discord, harmony not understood; All partial evil, universal good."

-Alexander Pope, 'An Essay On Man'.

64. "Do good by stealth, and blush to find it fame."

-Alexander Pope, 'An Essay On Man'.

65. "Aspiring to be gods, if angels fell, aspiring to be angels, men rebel."

-Alexander Pope, 'An Essay On Man'.

66. "Our proper bliss depends on what we blame."

-Alexander Pope, 'An Essay On Man'.

67. "And just as short of reason he must fall, Who thinks all made for one, not one for all."

-Alexander Pope, 'An Essay On Man'.

68. "Where one step broken, the great scale’s destroyed."

-Alexander Pope, 'An Essay On Man'.

69. "In pride, in reasoning pride, our error lies; All quit their sphere and rush into the skies. Pride still is aiming at the blest abodes, men would be angels, angels would be gods."

-Alexander Pope, 'An Essay On Man'.

70. "But sometimes virtue starves, while vice is fed. What then? Is the reward of virtue bread?"

-Alexander Pope, 'An Essay On Man'.

71. "Remembrance and reflection how allied! What thin partitions sense from thought divide!"

-Alexander Pope, 'An Essay On Man'.

72. "And grant the bad what happiness they would; One they must want, which is to pass for good."

-Alexander Pope, 'An Essay On Man'.

73. "Know, Nature’s children all divide her care; The fur that warms a monarch, warmed a bear."

-Alexander Pope, 'An Essay On Man'.

74. "Born but to die, and reas'ning but to err. Alike in ignorance, his reason such, whether he thinks too little or too much."

-Alexander Pope, 'An Essay On Man'.

75. "The fool is happy that he knows no more."

-Alexander Pope, 'An Essay On Man'.

76. "What if the foot, ordained the dust to tread, Or hand, to toil, aspired to be the head? What if the head, the eye, or ear repined to serve mere engines to the ruling mind?"

-Alexander Pope, 'An Essay On Man'.

77. "What reason weaves, by passion is undone."

-Alexander Pope, 'An Essay On Man'.

78. "For modes of faith let graceless zealots fight, his can't be wrong whose life is in the right."

-Alexander Pope, 'An Essay On Man'.

79. "All forms that perish other forms supply – like bubbles on the sea of matter borne, they rise, they break, and to that sea return."

-Alexander Pope, 'An Essay On Man'.

80. "Honor and shame from no condition rise. Act well your part – there all the honor lies."

-Alexander Pope, 'An Essay On Man'.

If you're out of inspiration and need some witty quotes to get you going, these Alexander Pope Quotes will do just the trick.

81. "On life's vast ocean diversely we sail. Reason's the card, but passion the gale."

-Alexander Pope.

82. "True disputants are like true sportsmen: their whole delight is in the pursuit."

-Alexander Pope.

83. "Men must be taught as if you taught them not, and things unknown proposed as things forgot."

-Alexander Pope.

84. "A man should never be ashamed to own that he has been in the wrong, which is but saying in other words, that he is wiser today than he was yesterday."

-Alexander Pope.

85. "Like following life through creatures you dissect, you lose it in the moment you detect."

-Alexander Pope.

86. "Tis but a part we see, and not a whole."

-Alexander Pope.

87. "Be not the first by whom the new are tried, nor yet the last to lay the old aside."

-Alexander Pope.

88. "The vanity of human life is like a river, constantly passing away, and yet constantly coming on."

-Alexander Pope.

89. "You purchase pain with all that joy can give and die of nothing but a rage to live."

-Alexander Pope.

90. "Authors are partial to their wit"

-Alexander Pope, 'An Essay On Criticism'.

91. "The ruling passion, be it what it will, the ruling passion conquers reason still."

-Alexander Pope.

92. "The world forgetting, by the world forgot."

-Alexander Pope.

93. "The proper study of mankind is man."

-Alexander Pope.

94. "The most positive men are the most credulous, since they most believe themselves, and advise most with their falsest flatterer and worst enemy – their own self-love."

-Alexander Pope.

95. "The difference is too nice; where ends the virtue or begins the vice."

-Alexander Pope.

96. "From Nature’s chain whatever link you strike – tenth or ten thousandth – breaks the chain alike."

-Alexander Pope.

97. "Not to go back is somewhat to advance, and men must walk, at least, before they dance."

-Alexander Pope.

98. "If once right reason drives that cloud away, truth breaks upon us with resistless day."

-Alexander Pope.

99. "Blest who can unconcern’dly find, hours, days, and years slide soft away, in health of body, peace of mind"

-Alexander Pope.

100. "Make use of every friend – and every foe."

-Alexander Pope.

Stir up the inner intellectual in you by glancing through these food-for-thought quotes by Alexander Pope.

101. "We think our fathers fools, so wise we grow; Our wiser sons, no doubt, will think us so."

-Alexander Pope, 'An Essay On Criticism'.

102. "What's fame? a fancy'd life in other's breath. A thing beyond us, even before our death."

-Alexander Pope.

103. "Words are like leaves; and where they most abound, much fruit of sense beneath is rarely found."

-Alexander Pope, 'An Essay On Criticism'.

104. "In search of wit these lose their common sense."

-Alexander Pope, 'An Essay On Criticism'.

105. "He who tells a lie is not sensible of how great a task he undertakes; for he must be forced to invent twenty more to maintain that one."

-Alexander Pope.

106. "Trust not yourself, but your defects to know."

-Alexander Pope.

107. "One science only will one genius fit."

-Alexander Pope, 'An Essay On Criticism'.

108. "In faith and hope the world will disagree, but all mankind's concern is charity."

-Alexander Pope.

109. "Hope springs eternal in the human breast; Man never is, but always to be blest."

-Alexander Pope, 'An Essay On Man'.

110. "Tis use alone that sanctifies expense, and splendor borrows all her rays from sense."

-Alexander Pope, 'Moral Essays'.

111. "Many men have been capable of doing a wise thing – more a cunning thing, but very few a generous thing."

-Alexander Pope.

112. "Your silence there is better than your spite, for who can rail so long as they can write?"

-Alexander Pope, 'An Essay On Criticism'.

113. “By false learning is good sense defaced”

-Alexander Pope, 'An Essay On Criticism'.

114. "Teach me to feel another's woe, to hide the fault I see, that mercy I to others show, that mercy show to me."

-Alexander Pope.

115. "The soul, uneasy, and confin'd from home, rests and expatriates in a life to come."

-Alexander Pope.

116. "Tis hard to say, if greater want of skill, appear in writing or in judging ill."

-Alexander Pope, 'An Essay On Criticism'.

117. "A work of art that contains theories is like an object on which the price tag has been left."

-Alexander Pope.

118. "Maintain a poet's dignity and ease, and see what friends, and read what books I please."

-Alexander Pope.

119. "Blunt truths more mischief than nice falsehoods do."

-Alexander Pope.

120. "Knowledge of the world is as irrelevant in art as it is in a love affair."

-Alexander Pope.

Here at Kidadl, we have carefully curated lots of interesting family-friendly quotes for everyone to enjoy! If you liked our suggestions for the best Alexander Pope quotes then why not take a look at these Toni Morrison quotes, or Alice Walker quotes?