Alexander Pope quote: "If, presume not to God to scan; The proper study of Mankind is Man. Plac'd on this isthmus of a middle state, a being darkly wise, and rudely great."

The proper study of Mankind is Man.
ALEXANDER POPE

And, after all, what is a lie? 'Tis but the truth in a masquerade.
ALEXANDER POPE

Blessed is the man who expects nothing, for he shall never be disappointed was the ninth beatitude.
ALEXANDER POPE

The ruling passion, be it what it will. The ruling passion conquers reason still.
ALEXANDER POPE

Hope springs eternal in the human breast: Man never is, but always to be blest.
ALEXANDER POPE

So vast is art, so narrow human wit.
ALEXANDER POPE

The most positive men are the most credulous.
ALEXANDER POPE

Know then thyself, presume not God to scan; The proper study of mankind is man.
ALEXANDER POPE

How happy is the blameless vestal's lot? The world forgetting, by the world forgot.
ALEXANDER POPE

And die of nothing but a rage to live.
ALEXANDER POPE

Act well your part, there all the honour lies.
ALEXANDER POPE

A little learning is a dangerous thing; Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring.
ALEXANDER POPE

The greatest magnifying glasses in the world are a man's own eyes when they look upon his own pe...
ALEXANDER POPE

Never find fault with the absent.
ALEXANDER POPE

A brain of feathers, and a heart of lead.
ALEXANDER POPE

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

On life's vast ocean diversely we sail. Reasons the card, but passion the gale.
ALEXANDER POPE

Charms strike the sight, but merit wins the soul.
ALEXANDER POPE

Fools rush in where angels fear to tread.
ALEXANDER POPE

Scarce any Tale was sooner heard than told;And all who told it, added something new,And all who hear...
ALEXANDER POPE

See skulking Truth to her old cavern fled,
Mountains of Casuistry heap'd o'er her head!
Philos...
ALEXANDER POPE

Good God! how often are we to die before we go quite off this stage? In every friend we lose a part ...
ALEXANDER POPE

Thee too, my Paridel! she mark'd thee there, Stretch'd on the rack of a too easy chair, And h...
ALEXANDER POPE

It is part of the cure to wish to be cured. [Lat., Pars sanitatis velle sanari fruit.]
ALEXANDER POPE

The bookful blockhead, ignorantly read, With loads of learned lumber in his head.
ALEXANDER POPE

'Tis not enough your counsel still be true; Blunt truths more mischief than nice falsehoods do.
ALEXANDER POPE

How index-learning turns no student pale, Yet holds the eel of science by the tale.
ALEXANDER POPE

Reason, however able, cool at best, Cares not for service, or but serves when prest, Stays til...
ALEXANDER POPE

Say first, of God above or man below, What can we reason but from what we know?
ALEXANDER POPE

A man should never be ashamed to own that he is wrong, which is but saying in other words that he is...
ALEXANDER POPE

Lely on animated canvas stole The sleepy eye, that spoke the melting soul.
ALEXANDER POPE

He best can paint them who shall feel them most.
ALEXANDER POPE

Wretches hang that jurymen may dine.
ALEXANDER POPE

But if We have such another victory, we are undone.
ALEXANDER POPE

The heart resolves this matter in a trice, "Men only feel the smart, but not the vice."
ALEXANDER POPE

Virtue, I grant you, is an empty boast; But shall the dignity of vice be lost?
ALEXANDER POPE

Wealth is the product of man's capacity to think.
ALEXANDER POPE

What riches give us let us then inquire: Meat, fire, and clothes. What more? Meat, clothes, and ...
ALEXANDER POPE

Get place and wealth, if possible, with grace; If not, by any means get wealth and place.
ALEXANDER POPE

One science only will one genius fit; so vast is art, so narrow human wit.
ALEXANDER POPE

Zeal is very blind, or badly regulated, when it encroaches upon the rights of others.
ALEXANDER POPE

Poets heap virtues, painters gems, at will, And show their zeal, and hide their want of skill.
ALEXANDER POPE

But Satan now is wiser than of yore, and tempts by making rich, not making poor.
ALEXANDER POPE

Know then this truth, enough for man to know virtue alone is happiness below.
ALEXANDER POPE

Most women have no characters at all.
ALEXANDER POPE

Learn to live well, or fairly make your will;
you played, and loved, and ate, and drunk your fil...
ALEXANDER POPE

Most authors steal their works, or buy.
ALEXANDER POPE

Why did I write? What sin to me unknown dipped me in ink, my parents , or my own?
ALEXANDER POPE

True ease in writing comes from art, not chance, as those move easiest who have learned to dance. 'T...
ALEXANDER POPE

Fix'd like a plan on his peculiar spot, to draw nutrition, propagate, and rot.
ALEXANDER POPE

The bookful blockhead ignorantly read,
With loads of learned lumber in his head,
With his own ...
ALEXANDER POPE

I find myself... hoping a total end of all the unhappy divisions of mankind by party-spirit, which a...
ALEXANDER POPE

They dream in courtship, but in wedlock wake.
ALEXANDER POPE

Know then thyself; presume not God to scan; The proper study of mankind is man.
ALEXANDER POPE

'Tis with our judgments as our watches, none Go just alike, yet each believes his own.
ALEXANDER POPE

Bear, like the Turk, no brother near the throne.
ALEXANDER POPE

We are not afraid to entrust the American people with unpleasant facts, foreign ideas, alien philoso...
ALEXANDER POPE

Behold the child, by nature's kindly law, pleased with a rattle, tickled with a straw.
ALEXANDER POPE

Honor and shame from no condition rise; Act well your part, there all the honor lies.
ALEXANDER POPE

Education forms the common mind. Just as the twig is bent, the tree's inclined.
ALEXANDER POPE

Did some more sober critics come abroad? If wrong, I smil'd; if right, I kiss'd the rod.
ALEXANDER POPE

Be not the first by which a new thing is tried, or the last to lay the old aside.
ALEXANDER POPE

In Words, as Fashions, the same Rule will hold;
Alike Fantastick, if too New, or Old;
Be not t...
ALEXANDER POPE

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

A little learning is a dangerous thing.
ALEXANDER POPE

'Tis education forms the common mind. Just as the twig is bent, the tree's inclin'd.
ALEXANDER POPE

Others import yet nobler arts from France, Teach kings to fiddle, and make senates dance.
ALEXANDER POPE

In Faith and Hope the world will disagree, But all mankind's concern is charity.
ALEXANDER POPE

A little knowledge is a dangerous thing. So is a lot.
ALEXANDER POPE

To err is human, to forgive, divine.
ALEXANDER POPE

Sure of their qualities and demanding praise, more go to ruined fortunes than are raised.
ALEXANDER POPE

At every trifle take offense, that always shows great pride or little sense.
ALEXANDER POPE

Fondly we think we honor merit then, When we but praise ourselves in other men.
ALEXANDER POPE

Praise undeserved, is satire in disguise.
ALEXANDER POPE

Blessed is he who expects nothing, for he shall never be disappointed.
ALEXANDER POPE

Men dream of courtship, but in wedlock wake.
ALEXANDER POPE

Let sinful bachelors their woes deplore; full well they merit all they feel, and more: unaw by prece...
ALEXANDER POPE

Lulled in the countless chambers of the brain, our thoughts are linked by many a hidden chain; awake...
ALEXANDER POPE

From pride, from pride, our very reas
ALEXANDER POPE

The ruling passion, be it what it will, The ruling passion conquers reason still.
ALEXANDER POPE

Passions are the gales of life.
ALEXANDER POPE

An obstinate person does not hold opinions; they hold them.
ALEXANDER POPE

All nature is but art unknown to thee.
ALEXANDER POPE

All seems infected that the infected spy,
As all looks yellow to the jaundiced eye.
ALEXANDER POPE

For virtue's self may too much zeal be had; the worst of madmen is a saint run mad.
ALEXANDER POPE

Die and endow a college or a cat.
ALEXANDER POPE

But thousands die without or this or that, die, and endow a college, or a cat: To some, indeed, Heav...
ALEXANDER POPE

Trust not yourself, but your defects to know, make use of every friend and every foe.
ALEXANDER POPE

True wit is nature to advantage dressed, what oft was thought, but never so well expressed.
ALEXANDER POPE

Wit is the lowest form of humor.
ALEXANDER POPE

True politeness consists in being easy one's self, and in making every one about one as easy as one ...
ALEXANDER POPE

Know then thyself, presume not God to scan,
The proper study of Mankind is Man.
Placed on this...
ALEXANDER POPE

A little learning is a dangerous thing. Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring; There shallow d...
ALEXANDER POPE

A little learning is a dangerous thing;
Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring.
There sha...
ALEXANDER POPE

Curse on all laws, but those that love has made.
ALEXANDER POPE

In lazy apathy let stoics boast
Their virtue fix
ALEXANDER POPE

You beat your Pate, and fancy Wit will come: Knock as you please, there's no body at home.
ALEXANDER POPE

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

Let me tell you I am better acquainted with you for a long absence, as men are with themselves for a...
ALEXANDER POPE

Beauties in vain their pretty eyes may roll; charms strike the sight, but merit wins the soul.
ALEXANDER POPE

Never elated when someone's oppressed, never dejected when another one's blessed.
ALEXANDER POPE

True disputants are like true sportsman: their whole delight is in the pursuit.
ALEXANDER POPE

When much dispute has past, we find our tenets just the same as last.
ALEXANDER POPE

I am his Highness dog at Kew; pray tell me, sir, whose dog are you?
ALEXANDER POPE

Hither the heroes and nymphs resort,
To taste awhile the pleasures of a court;
In various talk...
ALEXANDER POPE

Men would be angels, angels would be gods.
ALEXANDER POPE

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

I was not born for courts and great affairs, but I pay my debts, believe and say my prayers.
ALEXANDER POPE

Health consists with temperance alone.
ALEXANDER POPE

Act well your part; there all honor lies.
ALEXANDER POPE

An honest man's the noblest work of God.
ALEXANDER POPE

Satan is wiser now than before, and tempts by making rich instead of poor.
ALEXANDER POPE

For Forms of Government let fools contest; whatever is best administered is best.
ALEXANDER POPE

And all who told it added something new, and all who heard it, made enlargements too.
ALEXANDER POPE

We think our fathers fools, so wise we grow. Our wiser sons, no doubt will think us so.
ALEXANDER POPE

The worst of madmen is a saint run mad.
ALEXANDER POPE

Many people are capable of doing a wise thing, more a cunning thing, but very few a generous thing.
ALEXANDER POPE

How shall I lose the sin, yet keep the sense, and love the offender, yet detest the offence?
ALEXANDER POPE

To err is human; to forgive, divine.
ALEXANDER POPE

The hungry judges soon the sentence sign, and wretches hang that jurymen may dine.
ALEXANDER POPE

It is with our judgments as with our watches: no two go just alike, yet each believes his own.
ALEXANDER POPE

Damn with faint praise, assent with civil leer,
And without sneering teach the rest to sneer; ALEXANDER POPE

By foreign hands thy humble grave adorned; By strangers honored, and by strangers mourned.
ALEXANDER POPE

To endeavor to work upon the vulgar with fine sense is like attempting to hew blocks with a razor.
ALEXANDER POPE

Our rural ancestors, with little blest,
Patient of labour when the end was rest,
Indulged th...
ALEXANDER POPE

Order is Heaven's first law; and this confessed, some are, and must be, greater than the rest, more ...
ALEXANDER POPE

Teach me to feel another's woe. To hide the fault I see: That the mercy I show to others; that mercy...
ALEXANDER POPE

Histories are more full of examples of the fidelity of dogs than of friends.
ALEXANDER POPE

An excuse is worse than a lie, for an excuse is a lie, guarded.
ALEXANDER POPE

Who breaks a butterfly on a wheel?
ALEXANDER POPE

One who is too wise an observer of the business of others, like one who is too curious in observing ...
ALEXANDER POPE

Why has not man a microscopic eye? For the plain reason man is not a fly.
ALEXANDER POPE

How happy is the blameless vestal's lot? The world forgetting, by the world forgot.
ALEXANDER POPE

Lo! thy dread empire, Chaos! is restored; dies before thy uncreating word: thy hand, great Anarch! l...
ALEXANDER POPE

Fools admire, but men of sense approve.
ALEXANDER POPE

On wrongs swift vengeance waits.
ALEXANDER POPE

Blest paper-credit! last and best supply! That lends corruption lighter wings to fly!
ALEXANDER POPE

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

The starving chemist in his golden views Supremely blest.
ALEXANDER POPE

Here Ceres' gifts in waving prospect stand, And nodding tempt the joyful reaper's hand.
ALEXANDER POPE

Our rural ancestors with little blest, Patient of labour when the end was rest, Indulg'd the d...
ALEXANDER POPE

In cold December fragrant chaplets blow, And heavy harvests nod beneath the snow.
ALEXANDER POPE

The vulgar boil, the learned roast, an egg.
ALEXANDER POPE

Choose a firm cloud before it fall, and in it Catch, ere she change, the Cynthia of this minute.
ALEXANDER POPE

Condition, circumstance, is not the thing; Bliss is the same in subject or in king.
ALEXANDER POPE

To Kerke the narre, from God more farre.
ALEXANDER POPE

Who builds a church to God, and not to Fame, Will never mark the marble with his Name.
ALEXANDER POPE

No silver saints, by dying misers giv'n, Here brib'd the rage of ill-requited heav'n; But such...
ALEXANDER POPE

On life's vast ocean diversely we sail. Reasons the card, but passion the gale.
ALEXANDER POPE

There goes a saying, and 'twas shrewdly said, Old fish at table, but young flesh in bed.
ALEXANDER POPE

Ask you what provocation I have had? The strong antipathy of good to bad.
ALEXANDER POPE

Learn of the little nautilus to sail, Spread the thin oar, and catch the driving gale.
ALEXANDER POPE

The blest to-day is as completely so, As who began a thousand years ago.
ALEXANDER POPE

Our proper bliss depends on what we blame.
ALEXANDER POPE

Hear how the birds, on ev'ry blooming spray, With joyous musick wake the dawning day.
ALEXANDER POPE

Ye flowers that drop, forsaken by the spring, Ye birds that, left by summer, cease to sing, Ye...
ALEXANDER POPE

Where round some mould'ring tow'r pale ivy creeps, And low-brow'd rocks hang nodding o'er the deep...
ALEXANDER POPE

Accept a miracle; instead of wit,-- See two dull lines by Stanhope's pencil writ.
ALEXANDER POPE

I choose a block of marble and chop off whatever I don't need.
ALEXANDER POPE

In pride, in reas'ning pride, our error lies; All quit their sphere and rush into the skies. P...
ALEXANDER POPE

A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.
ALEXANDER POPE

Eternal smiles his emptiness betray, As shallow streams run dimpling all the way.
ALEXANDER POPE

Fire in each eye, and papers in each hand, They rave, recite, and madden round the land.
ALEXANDER POPE

Hence the fool's paradise, the statesman's scheme, The air-built castle, and the golden dream, ...
ALEXANDER POPE

In the nice bee, what sense so subtly true From pois'nous herbs extracts the healing dew?
ALEXANDER POPE

What dire Offence from am'rous Causes springs, What mighty Contests rise from trivial Things.
ALEXANDER POPE

No question is ever settled Until it is settled right.
ALEXANDER POPE

See Christians, Jews, one heavy sabbath keep, And all the western world believe and sleep.
ALEXANDER POPE

Where London's column, pointing at the skies, Like a tall bully, lifts the head and lies.
ALEXANDER POPE

One science only will one genius fit, So vast is art, so narrow human wit.
ALEXANDER POPE

True politeness consists in being easy one's self, and in making every one about one as easy as one ...
ALEXANDER POPE

Be not the first by whom the new are tried, Nor yet the last to lay the old aside.
ALEXANDER POPE

Pleas'd to the last he crops the flowery food, And licks the hand just rais'd to shed his blood.
ALEXANDER POPE

One who is too wise an observer of the business of others, like one who is too curious in observing...
ALEXANDER POPE

The longer I live the more I see that I am never wrong about anything, and that all the pains that ...
ALEXANDER POPE

Judges and senates have been bought for gold; Esteem and love were never to be sold.
ALEXANDER POPE

Alas! the small discredit of a bribe Scarce hurts the lawyer, but undoes the scribe.
ALEXANDER POPE

How glowing guilt exalts the keen delight!
ALEXANDER POPE

Obliged by hunger and request of friends.
ALEXANDER POPE

Like Cato, give his little senate laws, And sit attentive to his own applause.
ALEXANDER POPE

The hungry judges soon the sentence sign, And wretches hang that jurymen may dine.
ALEXANDER POPE

What beck'ning ghost along the moonlight shade Invites my steps, and points to yonder glade?
ALEXANDER POPE

Soft o'er the shrouds aerial whispers breathe, That seemed but zephyrs to the train beneath.
ALEXANDER POPE

And soften'd sounds along the waters die: Smooth flow the waves, the zephyrs gently play.
ALEXANDER POPE

Lull'd by soft zephyrs thro' the broken pane.
ALEXANDER POPE

Soft is the strain when zephyr gently blows.
ALEXANDER POPE

The balmy zephyrs, silent since her death, Lament the ceasing of a sweeter breath.
ALEXANDER POPE

I have more zeal than wit.
ALEXANDER POPE

Zeal then, not charity, became the guide.
ALEXANDER POPE

The doubtful beam long nods from side to side.
ALEXANDER POPE

Not chaos-like together crush'd and bruis'd, But, as the world, harmoniously confused: Where o...
ALEXANDER POPE

Order is Heaven's first law; and this confess, Some are and must be greater than the rest.
ALEXANDER POPE

For fools admire, but me of sense approve.
ALEXANDER POPE

Blessed is he who expects nothing for he shall never be disappointed.
ALEXANDER POPE

At length corruption, like a general flood (So long by watchful ministers withstood), Shall de...
ALEXANDER POPE

You purchase pain with all that joy can give, And die of nothing but a rage to live.
ALEXANDER POPE

One who is too wise an observer of the business of others, like one who is too curious in observing...
ALEXANDER POPE

Worth makes the man, and want of it the fellow; The rest is all but leather and prunello.
ALEXANDER POPE

Fine by defect, and delicately weak.
ALEXANDER POPE

Heaven forming each on other to depend, A master, or a servant, or a friend, Bids each on othe...
ALEXANDER POPE

If, presume not to God to scan; The proper study of Mankind is Man. Plac'd on this isthmus of a middle state, a being darkly wise, and rudely great.

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Alexander Pope

If, presume not to God to scan; The proper study of Mankind is Man. Plac'd on this isthmus of a middle state, a being darkly wise, and rudely great.

Alexander Pope

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