Alexander Pope Men Quotations

Some old men, continually praise the time of their youth. In fact, you would almost think that there were no fools in their days, but unluckily they themselves are left as an example.

Hope springs eternal in the human breast: Man never is, but always To be Blest.

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.

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

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

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

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

Of Manners gentle, of Affections mild; In Wit a man; Simplicity, a child.

Man never thinks himself happy, but when he enjoys those things which others want or desire.

Men would be angels, angels would be gods.

If a man's character is to be abused there's nobody like a relative to do the business.

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

Extremes in nature equal ends produce; In man they join to some mysterious use.

Not always actions show the man; we find who does a kindness is not therefore kind.

Fondly we think we honor merit then, when we but praise ourselves in other men.

An honest man's the noblest work of God.

Never was it given to mortal man - To lie so boldly as we women can.

Men dream of courtship, but in wedlock wake.

For wit and judgment often are at strife, Though meant each other's aid, like man and wife.

And each blasphemer quite escape the rod, Because the insult's not on man, but God?

Nor in the critic let the man be lost.

To buy books as some do who make no use of them, only because they were published by an eminent printer, is much as if a man should buy clothes that did not fit him, only because they were made by some famous tailor.

So man, who here seems principal alone, Perhaps acts second to some sphere unknown Touches some wheel, or verges to some goal; 'Tis but a part we see, and not a whole.

Fine sense and exalted sense are not half so useful as common sense. There are forty men of wit for one man of sense; and he that will carry nothing about him but gold, will be every day at a loss for want of readier change.

Heav'n from all creatures hides the book of fate, All but the page prescribed, their present state: From brutes what men, from men what spirits know: Or who could suffer being here below?

The man that loves and laughs must sure do well.

Praise is like ambergrease: a little whiff of it, and by snatches, is very agreeable; but when a man holds a whole lump of it to your nose, it is a stink, and strikes you down.

A good-natured man has the whole world to be happy out of.

No, make me mistress to the man I love; If there be yet another name more free More fond than mistress, make me that to thee!

Heaven forming each on other to depend, A master, or a servant, or a friend, Bids each on other for assistance call, Till one man's weakness grows the strength of all.

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

The proper study of Mankind is Man.

Every man has just as much vanity as he wants understanding.

Why has not Man a microscopic eye? For this plain reason, Man is not a Fly. Say what the use, were finer optics giv'n, T' inspect a mite, not comprehend the heav'n.

Fair tresses man's imperial race ensnare; And beauty draws us with a single hair.

T is true,t is certain; man though dead retains, Part of himself: the immortal mind remains.

Men, some to business, some to pleasure take; But every woman is at heart a rake.

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.

In men, we various ruling passions find; In women, two almost divide the kind Those, only fixed, they first or last obey, The love of pleasure, and the love of sway.

Where's the man who counsel can bestow, still pleased to teach, and yet not proud to know.

Old men, for the most part, are like old chronicles that give you dull but true accounts of times past, and are worth knowing only on that score.

A brave man thinks no one his superior who does him an injury, for he has it then in his power to make himself superior to the other by forgiving it.

Cursed be the verse, how well so e'er it flow, That tends to make one worthy man my foe.

Say first, of god above or man below; what can we reason but from what we know.

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.

Whenever I find a great deal of gratitude in a poor man, I take it for granted there would be as much generosity if he were a rich man.

There should be, methinks, as little merit in loving a woman for her beauty as in loving a man for his prosperity; both being equally subject to change.

So upright Quakers please both man and God.

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.

Then from the Mint walks forth the man of rhyme, Happy to catch me, just at dinner-time.

Fortune in men has some small diff'rence made, One flaunts in rags, one flutters in brocade, The cobbler apron'd, and the parson gown'd, The friar hooded, and the monarch crown'd.

There is but one way I know of conversing safely with all men; that is, not by concealing what we say or do, but by saying or doing nothing that deserves to be concealed.

The character of covetousness, is what a man generally acquires more through some niggardliness or ill grace in little and inconsiderable things, than in expenses of any consequence.

Monuments, like men, submit to fate.

Such as are still observing upon others are like those who are always abroad at other men's houses, reforming everything there while their own runs to ruin.

We ought, in humanity, no more to despise a man for the misfortunes of the mind than for those of the body, when they are such as he cannot help; were this thoroughly considered we should no more laugh at a man for having his brains cracked than for having his head broke.

Horses (thou say'st) and asses men may try, And ring suspected vessels ere they buy; But wives, a random choice, untried they take; They dream in courtship, but in wedlock wake; Then, nor till then, the veil's removed away, And all the woman glares in open day.

Presumptuous Man! the reason wouldst thou find,Why form'd so weak, so little, and so blind?First, if thou canst, the harder reason guess,Why form'd no weaker, blinder, and no less!Ask of thy mother earth, why oaks are madeTaller or stronger than the weeds they shade?Or ask of yonder argent fields above,Why Jove's Satellites are less than Jove?

Physicians are in general the most amiable companions and the best friends, as well as the most learned men I know.

While man exclaims, "See all things for my use!" "See man for mine!" replies a pamper'd goose.

Self-love, the spring of motion, acts the soul; Reason's comparing balance rules the whole. Man, but for that no action could attend, And, but for this, were active to no end: Fix'd like a plant on his peculiar spot, To draw nutrition, propagate, and rot; Or, meteor-like, flame lawless thro' the void, Destroying others, by himself destroy'd.

Man, like the generous vine, supported lives; the strength he gains is from the embrace he gives.

Of little use, the man you may suppose, Who says in verse what others say in prose; Yet let me show a poet's of some weight, And (though no soldier) useful to the state, What will a child learn sooner than a song? What better teach a foreigner the tongue? What's long or short, each accent where to place And speak in public with some sort of grace?

Never elated while one man's oppress'd; Never dejected while another's blessed.

The lot of man - to suffer and to die.

Tis thus the mercury of man is fix'd, Strong grows the virtue with his nature mix'd.

A perfect woman's but a softer man.

Yes, I am proud; I must be proud to see Men not afraid of God, afraid of me.

A man of business may talk of philosophy; a man who has none may practice it.

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

I think a good deal may be said to extenuate the fault of bad Poets. What we call a Genius, is hard to be distinguish'd by a man himself, from a strong inclination: and if his genius be ever so great, he can not at first discover it any other way, than by giving way to that prevalent propensity which renders him the more liable to be mistaken.

Destroy all creatures for thy sport or gust, Yet cry, if man's unhappy, God's unjust.

At present we can only reason of the divine justice from what we know of justice in man. When we are in other scenes, we may have truer and nobler ideas of it; but while we are in this life, we can only speak from the volume that is laid open before us.

Eve left Adam, to meet the Devil in private.

But those who cannot write, and those who can, All rhyme, and scrawl, and scribble, to a man.

Some men's wit is like a dark lantern, which serves their own turn and guides them their own way, but is never known (according to the Scripture phrase) either to shine forth before men, or to glorify their Father in heaven.

Some judge of authors' names, not works, and then Nor praise nor blame the writings, but the men.

Virtuous and vicious every man must be, few in the extreme, but all in the degree.

Of all the causes which conspire to blind Man's erring judgement, and misguide the mind, What the weak head with strongest bias rules, Is PRIDE, the never-failing vice of fools.

Fools admire, but men of sense approve.