"There are many other legends, Incantations that were taught me, That I found along the wayside, Gathered in the fragrant copses, Blown me from the forest branches, Culled among the plumes of pine-trees, Scented from the vines and flowers, Whispered to me as I followed Flocks in land of honeyed meadows."

"Even the British Arthur becomes an Englishman, a Germanic hero, brave, daring and open-handed. We are in a world of feasts and vaunting speeches, flytings and lusty battles, fierce deeds and bloody humour, with the Fiend, the Adversary of Man, always round the next corner."

"By reason of Arthur's position as its climax as well as of the long line of other traditional heroes, events and associations, and of its breadth of treatment, simplicity, intensity, enthusiasm, accord with the supernatural, vitality of imagination, elevation and sometimes nobility and religious feeling, the poem is the nearest thing we have to a traditional racial epic."

"And ich wulle uaren to Aualun to uairest alre maidene. to Argante þere quene aluen swiðe sceone. & heo scal mine wunden makien alle isunde. al hal me makien mid haleweiye drenchen. And seoðe ich cumen wulle. to mine kineriche. and wunien mid Brutten mid muchelere wunne."

"Yurstendæi wes Baldulf cnihten alre baldest. nu he stant on hulle & Auene bi-haldeð. hu ligeð i þan stræme stelene fisces. mid sweorde bi-georede heore sund is awemmed. heore scalen wleoteð swulc gold-faye sceldes. þer fleoteð heore spiten swulc hit spæren weoren. Þis beoð seolcuðe þing isiyen to þissen londe. swulche deor an hulle swulche fisces in wælle."

"Þa þe Arður wes king hærne nu seollic þing. he wes mete-custi ælche quike monne. cniht mid þan bezste wunder ane kene. he wes þan yungen for fader þan alden for frouer. and wið þan vnwise wunder ane sturnne."

"Betere is liste þene ufel strenðe. for mid liste me mai ihalden þat strengðe ne mai iwalden."

"A generous heart repairs a slanderous tongue."

"Behold on wrong Swift vengeance waits; and art subdues the strong!"

"And unextinguish'd laughter shakes the sky."

"Nor can one word be chang'd but for a worse."

"And every eye Gaz'd, as before some brother of the sky."

"In youth and beauty wisdom is but rare!"

"For fate has wove the thread of life with pain, And twins ev'n from the birth are misery and man!"

"Whose well-taught mind the present age surpast."

"Oh, pity human woe! 'T is what the happy to the unhappy owe."

"To heal divisions, to relieve th' opprest; In virtue rich; in blessing others, blest."

"A decent boldness ever meets with friends, Succeeds, and even a stranger recommends."

"By Jove the stranger and the poor are sent, And what to those we give, to Jove is lent."

"Jove weighs affairs of earth in dubious scales, And the good suffers while the bad prevails."

"A heaven of charms divine Nausicaa lay."

"The bank he press'd, and gently kiss'd the ground."

"Heaven hears and pities hapless men like me, For sacred ev'n to gods is misery."

"A moment snatch’d the shining form away, And all was covered with the curling sea."

"The windy satisfaction of the tongue."

"The big round tear stands trembling in her eye."

"The people's parent, he protected all."

"Forget the brother, and resume the man."

"O thou, whose certain eye foresees The fix'd events of fate's remote decrees."

"The leader, mingling with the vulgar host, Is in the common mass of matter lost."

"Wise to resolve, and patient to perform."

"The glory of a firm, capacious mind."

"There with commutual zeal we both had strove In acts of dear benevolence and love: Brothers in peace, not rivals in command."

"Mirror of constant faith, rever'd and mourn'd!"

"These riches are possess'd, but not enjoy'd!"

"When now Aurora, daughter of the dawn, With rosy lustre purpled o'er the lawn."

"Forgetful youth! but know, the Power above With ease can save each object of his love; Wide as his will extends his boundless grace."

"The long historian of my country's woes."

"A faultless body and a blameless mind."

"The lot of man,—to suffer and to die."

"Urge him with truth to frame his fair replies; And sure he will: for Wisdom never lies."

"For never, never, wicked man was wise."

"Few sons attain the praise Of their great sires, and most their sires disgrace."

"And what he greatly thought, he nobly dared."

"Fly, dotard, fly! With thy wise dreams and fables of the sky."

"The man for wisdom's various arts renown'd Long exercised in woes, O Muse! resound."

"The famous Lord Hallifax (though so much talked of) was rather a pretender to taste, than really possessed of it.—When I had finished the two or three first books of my translation of the Iliad, that lord, "desired to have the pleasure of hearing them read at his house." Addison, Congreve, and Garth, were there at the reading.—In four or five places, Lord Hallifax stopped me very civilly; and with a speech, each time of much the same kind: "I beg your pardon, Mr. Pope, but there is something in that passage that does not quite please me.—Be so good as to mark the place, and consider it a little at your leisure.—I am sure you can give it a little turn."—I returned from Lord Hallifax's with Dr. Garth, in his chariot; and as we were going along, was saying to the doctor, that my lord had laid me under a good deal of difficulty, by such loose and general observations; that I had been thinking over the passages almost ever since, and could not guess at what it was that offended his lordship in either of them.—Garth laughed heartily at my embarrassment; said, I had not been long enough acquainted with Lord Hallifax, to know his way yet: that I need not puzzle myself in looking those places over and over when I got home. "All you need do, (said he) is to leave them just as they are; call on Lord Hallifax two or three months hence, thank him for his kind observations on those passages; and then read them to him as altered. I have known him much longer than you have, and will be answerable for the event."—I followed his advice; waited on Lord Hallifax some time after: said, I hoped he would find his objections to those passages removed[;] read them to him exactly as they were at first; and his lordship was extremely pleased with them, and cried out, "Ay now, Mr. Pope, they are perfectly right! nothing can be better.""

"What terrible moments does one feel after one has engaged for a large work! In the beginning of my translating the Iliad, I wished any body would hang me a hundred times. It sat so heavily on my mind at first, that I often used to dream of it; and do so sometimes still. When I fell into the method of translating 30 or 40 verses before I got up, and piddled with it the rest of the morning, it went on easily enough; and when I was thoroughly got into the way of it, I did the rest with pleasure. [...] The Iliad took me up six years, and during that time, and particularly the first part of it, I was often under great pain and apprehensions. Though I conquered the thoughts of it in the day, they would frighten me in the night. I dreamed often of being engaged in a long journey, and that I should never get to the end of it. This made so strong an impression upon me, that I sometimes dream of it still; of being engaged in that translation, of having got about half way through it, and being embarrassed, and under dread of never completing it."

"[Pope's] translation of the Iliad is the finest ever made."

"[Pope] cultivated our language with so much diligence and art, that he has left in his Homer a treasure of poetical elegances to posterity. His version may be said to have tuned the English tongue; for since its appearance no writer, however deficient in other powers, has wanted melody. Such a series of lines so elaborately corrected, and so sweetly modulated, took possession of the publick ear; the vulgar was enamoured of the poem, and the learned wondered at the translation. [...] It is remarked by Watts, that there is scarcely a happy combination of words, or a phrase poetically elegant in the English language, which Pope has not inserted into his version of Homer. How he obtained possession of so many beauties of speech, it were desirable to know."