"A little learning is a dangerous thing."

An Essay on Criticism

"To err is human; to forgive, divine."

An Essay on Criticism

"Fools rush in where angels fear to tread."

An Essay on Criticism

"Whatever is, is right."

An Essay on Man

"Awake, my St. John! leave all meaner things To low ambition and the pride of kings. Let us (since life can little more supply Than just to look about us, and to die) Expatiate free o'er all this scene of man; A mighty maze! but not without a plan."

Essay on Man. Epistle i. Line 1.

"Together let us beat this ample field, Try what the open, what the covert yield."

Essay on Man. Epistle i. Line 9.

"Eye Nature's walks, shoot folly as it flies, And catch the manners living as they rise; Laugh where we must, be candid where we can, But vindicate the ways of God to man."

Essay on Man. Epistle i. Line 13.

"Say first, of God above or man below, What can we reason but from what we know?"

Essay on Man. Epistle i. Line 17.

"'T is but a part we see, and not a whole."

Essay on Man. Epistle i. Line 60.

"Heaven from all creatures hides the book of Fate, All but the page prescrib'd, their present state."

Essay on Man. Epistle i. Line 77.

"Pleased to the last, he crops the flowery food, And licks the hand just raised to shed his blood."

Essay on Man. Epistle i. Line 83.

"Who sees with equal eye, as God of all, A hero perish or a sparrow fall, Atoms or systems into ruin hurl'd, And now a bubble burst, and now a world."

Essay on Man. Epistle i. Line 87.

"Hope springs eternal in the human breast: Man never is, but always to be blest. The soul, uneasy and confined from home, Rests and expatiates in a life to come."

Essay on Man. Epistle i. Line 95.

"Lo, the poor Indian! whose untutor'd mind Sees God in clouds, or hears him in the wind; His soul proud Science never taught to stray Far as the solar walk or milky way."

Essay on Man. Epistle i. Line 99.

"But thinks, admitted to that equal sky, His faithful dog shall bear him company."

Essay on Man. Epistle i. Line 111.

"In pride, in reasoning pride, our error lies; All quit their sphere, and rush into the skies. Pride still is aiming at the blest abodes: Men would be angels, angels would be gods. Aspiring to be gods, if angels fell, Aspiring to be angels, men rebel."

Essay on Man. Epistle i. Line 123.

"Seas roll to waft me, suns to light me rise; My footstool earth, my canopy the skies."

Essay on Man. Epistle i. Line 139.

"Why has not man a microscopic eye? For this plain reason,--man is not a fly."

Essay on Man. Epistle i. Line 193.

"Die of a rose in aromatic pain."

Essay on Man. Epistle i. Line 200.

"The spider's touch, how exquisitely fine! Feels at each thread, and lives along the line."

Essay on Man. Epistle i. Line 217.

"Remembrance and reflection how allied! What thin partitions sense from thought divide!"

Essay on Man. Epistle i. Line 225.

"All are but parts of one stupendous whole, Whose body Nature is, and God the soul."

Essay on Man. Epistle i. Line 267.

"Warms in the sun, refreshes in the breeze, Glows in the stars, and blossoms in the trees."

Essay on Man. Epistle i. Line 271.

"As full, as perfect, in vile man that mourns As the rapt seraph that adores and burns: To Him no high, no low, no great, no small; He fills, he bounds, connects, and equals all!"

Essay on Man. Epistle i. Line 277.

"All nature is but art, unknown to thee; All chance, direction, which thou canst not see; All discord, harmony not understood; All partial evil, universal good; And spite of pride, in erring reason's spite, One truth is clear, Whatever is, is right."

Essay on Man. Epistle i. Line 289.

"Know then thyself, presume not God to scan; The proper study of mankind is man."

Essay on Man. Epistle ii. Line 1.

"Chaos of thought and passion, all confused; Still by himself abused or disabused; Created half to rise, and half to fall; Great lord of all things, yet a prey to all; Sole judge of truth, in endless error hurled,-- The glory, jest, and riddle of the world."

Essay on Man. Epistle ii. Line 13.

"Fix'd like a plant on his peculiar spot, To draw nutrition, propagate, and rot."

Essay on Man. Epistle ii. Line 63.

"In lazy apathy let stoics boast Their virtue fix'd: 't is fix'd as in a frost; Contracted all, retiring to the breast; But strength of mind is exercise, not rest."

Essay on Man. Epistle ii. Line 101.

"On life's vast ocean diversely we sail, Reason the card, but passion is the gale."

Essay on Man. Epistle ii. Line 107.

"And hence one master-passion in the breast, Like Aaron's serpent, swallows up the rest."

Essay on Man. Epistle ii. Line 131.

"The young disease, that must subdue at length, Grows with his growth, and strengthens with his strength."

Essay on Man. Epistle ii. Line 135.

"Extremes in nature equal ends produce; In man they join to some mysterious use."

Essay on Man. Epistle ii. Line 205.

"Vice is a monster of so frightful mien, As to be hated needs but to be seen; Yet seen too oft, familiar with her face, We first endure, then pity, then embrace."

Essay on Man. Epistle ii. Line 217.

"Ask where 's the North? At York 't is on the Tweed; In Scotland at the Orcades; and there, At Greenland, Zembla, or the Lord knows where."

Essay on Man. Epistle ii. Line 222.

"Virtuous and vicious every man must be,-- Few in the extreme, but all in the degree."

Essay on Man. Epistle ii. Line 231.

"Hope travels through, nor quits us when we die. Behold the child, by Nature's kindly law, Pleased with a rattle, tickled with a straw; Some livelier plaything gives his youth delight, A little louder, but as empty quite; Scarfs, garters, gold, amuse his riper stage, And beads and prayer-books are the toys of age. Pleased with this bauble still, as that before, Till tired he sleeps, and life's poor play is o'er."

Essay on Man. Epistle ii. Line 274.

"While man exclaims, "See all things for my use!" "See man for mine!" replies a pamper'd goose."

Essay on Man. Epistle iii. Line 45.

"Learn of the little nautilus to sail, Spread the thin oar, and catch the driving gale."

Essay on Man. Epistle iii. Line 177.

"The enormous faith of many made for one."

Essay on Man. Epistle iii. Line 242.

"For forms of government let fools contest; Whate'er is best administer'd is best. For modes of faith let graceless zealots fight; His can't be wrong whose life is in the right. In faith and hope the world will disagree, But all mankind's concern is charity."

Essay on Man. Epistle iii. Line 303.

"O happiness! our being's end and aim! Good, pleasure, ease, content! whate'er thy name: That something still which prompts the eternal sigh, For which we bear to live, or dare to die."

Essay on Man. Epistle iv. Line 1.

"Order is Heaven's first law."

Essay on Man. Epistle iv. Line 49.

"Reason's whole pleasure, all the joys of sense, Lie in three words,--health, peace, and competence."

Essay on Man. Epistle iv. Line 79.

"The soul's calm sunshine and the heartfelt joy."

Essay on Man. Epistle iv. Line 168.

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

Essay on Man. Epistle iv. Line 193.

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

Essay on Man. Epistle iv. Line 203.

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

Essay on Man. Epistle iv. Line 215.

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

Essay on Man. Epistle iv. Line 247.

"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."

Essay on Man. Epistle iv. Line 254.