An Essay on Man

"Honour and shame from no condition rise; Act well your part, there all the honour lies."

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

"What can ennoble sots or slaves or cowards? Alas! not all the blood of all the Howards."

"What's Fame? a fancied life in others' breath, A thing beyond us, ev'n before our death."

"A wit's a feather, and a chief a rod; An honest man's the noblest work of God."

"Plays round the head, but comes not to the heart. One self-approving hour whole years outweighs Of stupid starers and of loud huzzas; And more true joy Marcellus exil'd feels Than Cæsar with a senate at his heels. In parts superior what advantage lies? Tell (for you can) what is it to be wise? 'T is but to know how little can be known; To see all others' faults, and feel our own."

"Truths would you teach, or save a sinking land? All fear, none aid you, and few understand."

"If parts allure thee, think how Bacon shin'd, The wisest, brightest, meanest of mankind! Or ravish'd with the whistling of a name, See Cromwell, damn'd to everlasting fame!"

"Know then this truth (enough for man to know), — Virtue alone is happiness below."

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

"Slave to no sect, who takes no private road, But looks through Nature up to Nature's God."

"Form'd by thy converse, happily to steer From grave to gay, from lively to severe."

"Say, shall my little bark attendant sail, Pursue the triumph and partake the gale?"

"Thou wert my guide, philosopher, and friend."

"That virtue only makes our bliss below, And all our knowledge is ourselves to know."

"The Essay on Man was a work of great labour and long consideration, but certainly not the happiest of Pope's performances. The subject is perhaps not very proper for poetry, and the poet was not sufficiently master of his subject; metaphysical morality was to him a new study, he was proud of his acquisitions, and, supposing himself master of great secrets, was in haste to teach what he had not learned."

"Never were penury of knowledge and vulgarity of sentiment so happily disguised."