Top 744 Quotes & Sayings by Alexander Pope - Page 13

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

Search then the ruling passion; there alone, The wild are constant, and the cunning known; The fool consistent, and the false sincere; Priests, princes, women, no dissemblers here.

Know then, unnumber'd Spirits round thee fly, The light Militia of the lower sky.

Learn from the beasts the physic of the field.

Reason, however able, cool at best, Cares not for service, or but serves when prest, Stays till we call, and then not often near.

And bear about the mockery of woe To midnight dances and the public show.

In various talk th' instructive hours they past, Who gave the ball, or paid the visit last; One speaks the glory of the British queen, And one describes a charming Indian screen; A third interprets motions, looks, and eyes; At every word a reputation dies.

Heav'n first taught letters for some wretch's aid, Some banish'd lover, or some captive maid.

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

To what base ends, and by what abject ways, Are mortals urg'd through sacred lust of praise!

Hills peep o'er hills, and Alps on Alps arise.

E'en Sunday shines no Sabbath day to me.

Satire or sense, alas! Can Sporus feel? Who breaks a butterfly upon a wheel?

Who sees pale Mammom pine amidst his store, Sees but a backward steward for the poor.

Then marble, soften'd into life, grew warm.

The hog that ploughs not, not obeys thy call, Lives on the labours of this lord of all.

Tis use alone that sanctifies expense And splendor borrow all her rays from sense.

Oh! blest with temper, whose unclouded ray Can make to-morrow cheerful as to-day.

See the wild Waste of all-devouring years! How Rome her own sad Sepulchre appears, With nodding arches, broken temples spread! The very Tombs now vanish'd like their dead!

But would you sing, and rival Orpheus' strain. The wond'ring forests soon should dance again; The moving mountains hear the powerful call. And headlong streams hand listening in their fall!

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

Silence! coeval with eternity! thou wert ere Nature's self began to be; thine was the sway ere heaven was formed on earth, ere fruitful thought conceived creation's birth.

Fame, wealth, and honour! what are you to Love?

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