If I am right, Thy grace impartStill in the right to stay;If I am wrong, O, teach my heartTo find that better way!

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

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.

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

Hope springs eternal in the human breast; Man never Is, but always To be blest. The soul, uneasy, and confin'd from home, Rests and expatiates in a life to come.

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

Wise wretch! with pleasures too refined to please,With too much spirit to be e'er at ease,With too much quickness ever to be taught,With too much thinking to have common thought:You purchase pain with all that joy can give,And die of nothing but a rage to live.

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.

Know then thyself, presume not God to scan,The proper study of mankind is Man.Placed on this isthmus of a middle state,A being darkly wise and rudely great:With too much knowledge for the Sceptic side,With too much weakness for the Stoic's pride,He hangs between, in doubt to act or rest;In doubt to deem himself a God or Beast;In doubt his mind or body to prefer;Born but to die, and reas'ning but to err;Alike in ignorance, his reason such,Whether he thinks too little or too much;Chaos of thought and passion, all confused;Still by himself abused or disabused;Created half to rise, and half to fall;Great lord of all things, yet a prey to all;Sole judge of truth, in endless error hurl'd;The glory, jest, and riddle of the world!Go, wondrous creature! mount where science guides,Go, measure earth, weigh air, and state the tides;Instruct the planets in what orbs to run,Correct old time, and regulate the sun;Go, soar with Plato to th’ empyreal sphere,To the first good, first perfect, and first fair;Or tread the mazy round his followers trod,And quitting sense call imitating God;As Eastern priests in giddy circles run,And turn their heads to imitate the sun.Go, teach Eternal Wisdom how to rule—Then drop into thyself, and be a fool!

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

True Wit is Nature to advantage dress'dWhat oft was thought, but ne'er so well express'd;Something whose truth convinced at sight we find,That gives us back the image of our mind.As shades more sweetly recommend the light,So modest plainness sets off sprightly wit.

The Wit of Cheats, the Courage of a Whore,Are what ten thousand envy and adore:All, all look up, with reverential Awe,At crimes that 'scape, or triumph o'er the Law:While Truth, Worth, Wisdom, daily they decry-`'Nothing is sacred now but Villainy'- Epilogue to the Satires, Dialogue I

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

Remembrance and reflection how allied!What thin partitions Sense from Thought divide!

Music resembles poetry, in eachAre nameless graces which no methods teach,And which a master hand alone can reach.

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. Aspiring to be gods, if angels fell, Aspiring to be angels, men rebel.

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

Some who grow dull religious straight commenceAnd gain in morals what they lose in sense.

Next o'er his books his eyes began to roll,In pleasing memory of all he stole.

In words, as fashions, the same rule will hold;Alike fantastic, if too new, or old:Be not the first by whom the new are tried,Nor yet the last to lay the old aside.

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

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

For he lives twice who can at once employ,The present well, and e’en the past enjoy.

Order is heaven's first law.

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

Oh let me live my own! and die so too! ("To live and die is all I have to do:") Maintain a poet's dignity and ease, And see what friends, and read what books I please.

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

What then remains, but well our power to use,And keep good humour still whate’er we lose?And trust me, dear, good humour can prevail,When airs, and flights, and screams, and scolding fail.Beauties in vain their pretty eyes may roll;Charms strike the sight, but merit wins the soul

To err is human, to forgive, divine.

True wit is nature to advantage dressed;What oft was thought, but ne'er so well expressed.

If it be the chief point of friendship to comply with a friend's notions and inclinations he possesses this is an eminent degree; he lies down when I sit, and walks when I walk, which is more that many good friends can pretend to do.

What Reason weaves, by Passion is undone.

chaos of thought and passion, all confus'd.

Words are like Leaves; and where they most abound,Much Fruit of Sense beneath is rarely found.

While pensive poets painful vigils keep,Sleepless themselves, to give their readers sleep.

Where beams of imagination play,The memory's soft figures melt away.

Trust not yourself; but your defects to know,Make use of ev'ry friend—and ev'ry foe.

Happy the man, whose wish and careA few paternal acres bound,Content to breathe his native airIn his own ground.

Those half-learn'd witlings, num'rous in our isle As half-form'd insects on the banks of Nile

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

Know then thyself; presume not God to scan,The proper study of mankind is Man.Placed on this isthmus of a middle state,A being darkly wise and rudely great:With too much knowledge for the Sceptic side,And too much weakness for the Stoic's pride,He hangs between; in doubt to act or rest;In doubt to deem himself a God or Beast;In doubt his mind or body to prefer;Born but to die, and reas'ning but to err.Alike in ignorance, his reason such,Whether he thinks too little or too much.

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

Heav'n from all creatures hides the book of Fate, All but the page prescrib'd, their present state; From brutes what men, from men what spirits know: Or who could suffer Being here below? The lamb thy riot dooms to bleed to-day, Had he thy Reason, would he skip and play? Pleas'd to the last, he crops the flow'ry food, And licks the hand just rais'd to shed his blood. Oh blindness to the future! kindly giv'n, That each may fill the circle mark'd by Heav'n; Who sees with equal eye, as God of all, A hero perish, or a sparrow fall.

For forms of Government let fools contest. Whate'er is best administered is best.

Nature to all things fixed the limits fitAnd wisely curbed proud man's pretending wit.As on the land while here the ocean gains.In other parts it leaves wide sandy plainsThus in the soul while memory prevails,The solid power of understanding failsWhere beams of warm imagination play,The memory's soft figures melt awayOne science only will one genius fit,So vast is art, so narrow human witNot only bounded to peculiar arts,But oft in those confined to single partsLike kings, we lose the conquests gained before,By vain ambition still to make them moreEach might his several province well command,Would all but stoop to what they understand.

Philosophy, that leaned on Heaven before,Shrinks to her second cause, and is no more.

We may see the small Value God has for Riches, by the People he gives the

Know thy own point: this kind, this due degreeOf blindness, weakness, Heav'n bestows on thee.

The pride of aiming at more knowledge, and pretending to more perfection, is the cause of Man's error and misery.

All this dread order break- for whom? for thee?Vile worm!- oh madness! pride! impiety!

Ye sacred nine

There is no study that is not capable of delighting us, after a little application to it.

Poetic justice, with her lifted scale,Where, in nice balance, truth with gold she weighs,And solid pudding against empty praise. Here she beholds the chaos dark and deep,Where nameless somethings in their causes sleep,Till genial Jacob, or a warm third day,Call forth each mass, a poem, or a play:How hints, like spawn, scarce quick in embryo lie,How new-born nonsense first is taught to cry.

Make use of every friend— and every foe.

Let Sporus tremble — "What? that thing of silk, Sporus, that mere white curd of ass's milk?Satire or sense, alas! can Sporus feel?Who breaks a Butterfly upon a Wheel?"Yet let me flap this Bug with gilded wings,This painted Child of Dirt that stinks and stings; Whose Buzz the Witty and the Fair annoys,Yet Wit ne'er tastes, and Beauty ne'er enjoys,

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?

Inscriptions here of various Names I view'd,The greater part by hostile time subdu'd;Yet wide was spread their fame in ages past,And Poets once had promis'd they should last.

Fools rush in where angels fear to tread.

For when success a lover's toil attends,Few ask, if fraud or force attain'd his ends

Most critics, fond of subservient artstill make the whole depend upon a part.They talk of principles, but notions prizeAnd all to one loved folly sacrifice.

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

I am his Highness' dog at Kew;Pray tell me, sir, whose dog are you?

The difference is too nice - Where ends the virtue or begins the vice.

Like bubbles on the sea of matter borne, they rise, they break, and to that sea return.

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

What dire offence from am'rous causes springs,What mighty contests rise from trivial things,...

How happy is the blameless vestal’s lot!The world forgetting, by the world forgot.Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind!Each pray’r accepted, and each wish resign’d

Death, only death, can break the lasting chain;And here, ev'n then, shall my cold dust remain

For fools admire but men of sense approve.

I never knew any man in my life who could not bear another's misfortunes perfectly like a Christian.

When two people compliment each other with the choice of anything each of them generally gets that which he likes least.

All are but parts of one stupendous whole Whose body Nature is and God the soul.

Till tired he sleeps and life's poor play is o'er.

Men would be angels Angels would be gods.

There St. John mingles with my friendly bowl The feat of reason and the flow of soul.

Thus education forms the common mind Just as the twig is bent the tree's inclined.

'Tis education forms the common mind Just as the twig is bent the tree's inclined.

To err is human to forgive divine.

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

To err is human to forgive divine.

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

The feast of reason and the flow of soul.

For fools rush in where angels fear to tread.

The world forgetting by the world forgot.

How shall I love the sin yet keep the sense And love the offender yet detest the offence?

To err is human to forgive divine.

To err is human to forgive divine.

There is nothing meritorious but virtue and friendship.

He mounts the storm and walks upon the wind.

And all who told it added something new And all who heard it made enlargements too.

Amusement is the happiness of those who cannot think.

False happiness is like false money it passes for a long time as well as the true and serves some ordinary occasions but when it is brought to the touch we find the lightness and alloy and feel the loss.

The learned is happy nature to explore the fool is happy that he knows no more.

The learned is happy nature to explore the fool is happy that he knows no more.

The learned is happy nature to explore the fool is happy that he knows no more.

The learned is happy nature to explore the fool is happy that he knows no more.

The learned is happy nature to explore the fool is happy that he knows no more.

The learned is happy nature to explore the fool is happy that he knows no more.

The learned is happy nature to explore the fool is happy that he knows no more.

The learned is happy nature to explore the fool is happy that he knows no more.

I have as little fear that God will damn a man that has charity as I hope that the priests can save one who has not.

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

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

An honest man's the noblest work of God.

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

Hope springs eternal in the human breast.

Hope springs eternal in the human breast.

For I who hold sage Homer's rule the best Welcome the coming speed the going guest.

Thou wert my guide philosopher and friend.

Alive ridiculous and dead forgot?

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

The learned is happy nature to explore the fool is happy that he knows no more.

A little learning is a dangerous thing Drink deep or taste not the Pierian spring Their shallow draughts intoxicate the brain And drinking largely sobers us again.

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

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

A perfect judge will read each word of wit with the same spirit that its author writ.

What dire offence from am'rous causes springs. What mighty contests rise from trivial things.

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

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

Eve left Adam to meet the Devil in private.

Light quirks of music broken and uneven make the soul dance upon a jig of heaven.

Light quirks of music broken and uneven Make the soul dance upon a jig to Heav'n.

All gardening is landscape painting.

Blessed be he who expects nothing for he shall never be disappointed.

How happy is the blameless vestal's lot! The world forgetting by the world forgot.

Thus let me live unseen unknown Thus unlamented let me die Steal from the world and not a stone Tell where I lie.

An obstinate man does not hold opinions but they hold him.

Order is Heaven's first law.

Men would be angels angels would be gods.

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

The ruling passion be it what it will The ruling passion conquers reason still.

Whoever thinks a faultless piece to see. Thinks what ne'er was nor is nor e'er shall be.

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

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

All seems infected that the infected spy as all looks yellow to the jaundiced eye.

Hunger is insolent and will be fed.

Some praise at morning what they blame at night.

If I am right Thy grace impart Still in the right to stay If I am wrong O teach my heart To find that better way!

In pride in reas'ning pride our error lies All quit their sphere and rush into the skies. Pride still is aiming at the bless'd abodes Men would be angels angels would be gods.

He that would pun would pick a pocket.

The feast of reason and the flow of soul.

One truth is clear Whatever is is right.

Then marble soften'd into life grew warm.

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

Get place and wealth if possible with grace If not by any means get wealth and place.

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

What so tedious as a twice-told tale?

Not to go back is somewhat to advance. And men must walk at least before they dance.

Get place and wealth if possible with grace If not by any means get wealth and place.

All other goods by fortune's hand are given: A wife is the peculiar gift of Heav'n.

True wit is Nature to advantage dress'd What oft was thought but ne'er so well express'd.

True wit is nature to advantage dress'd What oft was thought but ne'er so well expressed.

Offend her and she knows not to forgive Oblige her and she'll hate you while you live.

Woman's at best a contradiction still.

They dream in courtship but in wedlock wake.

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

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