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Now lap-dogs give themselves the rousing shake, And sleepless lovers, just at twelve, awake.
Alexander Pope -
The hungry judges soon the sentence sign, And wretches hang that jurymen may dine.
Alexander Pope
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What beck'ning ghost, along the moonlight shade Invites my steps, and points to yonder glade?
Alexander Pope -
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?
Alexander Pope -
I never knew any man in my life who could not bear another's misfortunes perfectly like a Christian.
Alexander Pope -
Lo these were they, whose souls the Furies steel'd, And curs'd with hearts unknowing how to yield. Thus unlamented pass the proud away, The gaze of fools, and pageant of a day! So perish all, whose breast ne'er learn'd to glow For others' good, or melt at others' woe.
Alexander Pope -
'Blessed is the man who expects nothing, for he shall never be disappointed' was the ninth Beatitude which a man of wit (who, like a man of wit, was a long time in gaol) added to the eighth.
Alexander Pope -
Ignobly vain, and impotently great.
Alexander Pope
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Party is the madness of many, for the gain of a few.
Alexander Pope -
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.
Alexander Pope -
There, take (says Justice), take ye each a shell: We thrive at Westminster on fools like you; 'T was a fat oyster,-live in peace,-adieu.
Alexander Pope -
Each finding like a friendSomething to blame, and something to commend.
Alexander Pope -
Well, if our author in the wife offendsHe has a husband that will make amends;He draws him gentle, tender, and forgiving,And sure such kind good creatures may be living.
Alexander Pope -
A person who is too nice an observer of the business of the crowd, like one who is too curious in observing the labour of the bees, will often be stung for his curiosity.
Alexander Pope
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The garlands fade, the vows are worn away; So dies her love, and so my hopes decay.
Alexander Pope -
Is it, in Heav'n, a crime to love too well? To bear too tender, or too firm a heart, To act a lover's or a Roman's part? Is there no bright reversion in the sky, For those who greatly think, or bravely die?
Alexander Pope -
Hark! they whisper; angels say, Sister spirit, come away!
Alexander Pope -
If I am right, Thy grace import Still in the right to stay; If I am wrong, oh teach my heart To find that better way!
Alexander Pope -
I would not be like those Authors, who forgive themselves some particular lines for the sake of a whole Poem, and vice versa a whole Poem for the sake of some particular lines. I believe no one qualification is so likely to make a good writer, as the power of rejecting his own thoughts.
Alexander Pope -
To err is human, to forgive divine.
Alexander Pope
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The flying Rumours gather'd as they roll'd, Scarce any Tale was sooner heard than told; And all who told it, added something new, And all who heard it, made Enlargements too, In ev'ry Ear it spread, on ev'ry Tongue it grew.
Alexander Pope -
Who ne'er knew joy but friendship might divide, Or gave his father grief but when he died.
Alexander Pope -
For modes of faith let graceless zealots fight;His can't be wrong whose life is in the right.
Alexander Pope -
I think it was a generous thought, and one that fow'd from an exalted mind, that it was not improbable but God might be delighted with the various methods of worshipping him, which divided the whole world.
Alexander Pope