Great Throughts Treasury

This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.

Alexander Pope

English Poet, Satirist

"Know then thyself, presume not God to scan; the proper study of Mankind is Man."

"Men dream in courtship, but in wedlock wake!"

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

"Order is heaven’s first law."

"Party-spirit at best is but the madness of many for the gain of a few."

"Praise undeserv'd is scandal in disguise."

"Seas but join the regions they divide."

"Sickness is a sort of early old age; it teaches us a diffidence in our earthly state."

"The feast of reason and the flow of the soul."

"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."

"The most positive men are the most credulous."

"The world recedes; it disappears; heav’n opens on my eyes; my ears with sounds seraphic ring: Lend, lend your wings! I mount! I fly! O Grave! where is thy victory? O Death! where is thy sting?"

"There is nothing that is meritorious but virtue and friendship; and, indeed, friendship itself is only a part of virtue."

"Honor and shame from no condition rise; act well you part: there all the honor lies."

"One truth is clear; whatever is, is right."

"To err is human, to forgive divine."

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

"A little learning is a dangerous thing."

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

"The ruling passion, being what it will... The ruling passion conquers reason still."

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