"She who ne'er answers till a husband cools, Or, if she rules him, never shows she rules; Charms by accepting, by submitting, sways, Yet has her humor most, when she obeys."

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

"See how the world its veterans rewards! A youth of frolics, an old age of cards."

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

"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."

"Virtue she finds too painful an endeavour, Content to dwell in decencies forever."

""With ev'ry pleasing, ev'ry prudent part, Say, what can Chloe want?" — She wants a heart."

"Atossa, cursed with every granted prayer, Childless with all her children, wants an heir; To heirs unknown descends the unguarded store, Or wanders heaven-directed to the poor."

"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."

"Chaste to her husband, frank to all beside, A teeming mistress, but a barren bride."

"Fine by defect, and delicately weak."

"Choose a firm cloud before it fall, and in it Catch, ere she change, the Cynthia of this minute."

"Whether the charmer sinner it or saint it, If folly grow romantic, I must paint it."

"Nothing so true as what you once let fall, "Most women have no characters at all"."

"And you, brave Cobham! to the latest breath Shall feel your ruling passion strong in death."

""Odious! in woollen! 't would a saint provoke", Were the last words that poor Narcissa spoke."

"Manners with fortunes, humours turn with climes, Tenets with books, and principles with times."

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

"'Tis from high life high characters are drawn; A saint in crape is twice a saint in lawn."

"Who combats bravely is not therefore brave, He dreads a death-bed like the meanest slave: Who reasons wisely is not therefore wise,— His pride in reasoning, not in acting lies."

"Not always actions show the man: we find Who does a kindness is not therefore kind."

"In vain sedate reflections we would make When half our knowledge we must snatch, not take."

"Like following life through creatures you dissect, You lose it in the moment you detect."

"That each from other differs, first confess; Next, that he varies from himself no less."

"The fate of all extremes is such, Men may read, as well as books, too much. To observations which ourselves we make, We grow more partial for th' observer's sake."

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

"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."

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"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!"

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

"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."

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

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