Remarks by Alexander Pope | V2Melody Quotations

“Here am I, dying of a hundred good symptoms.”

Meeting reassuring medical reports near death with characteristic irony · Conversation with Lord Lyttelton, May 1744

“True politeness consists in the being easy one-self, and making every body about one as easy as we can.”

Defining courtesy through ease and consideration rather than ceremony · Conversation recorded by Joseph Spence, 1739

Treating garden design as the artistic composition of living scenery · Conversation recorded by Joseph Spence

“one may look upon his works, in comparison of those that are more finish'd and regular, as upon an ancient majestick piece of Gothick Architecture compar'd with a neat Modern building.”

Using architecture to distinguish grandeur and irregularity from polished correctness · Preface to Shakespeare, 1725

“the better half of Criticism, namely the pointing out an Author's excellencies.”

Arguing that criticism should recognise excellence rather than merely expose faults · Preface to Shakespeare, 1725

“the Philosopher and even the Man of the world may be Born, as well as the Poet.”

Suggesting that worldly insight, like poetic talent, may be innate · Preface to Shakespeare, 1725

“he seems to have known the world by Intuition, to have look'd thro' humane nature at one glance.”

Admiring an intuitive understanding of human nature · Preface to Shakespeare, 1725

“We are surpriz'd, the moment we weep; and yet upon reflection find the passion so just that we shou'd be surpriz'd if we had not wept.”

Describing the apparent naturalness of powerful dramatic emotion · Preface to Shakespeare, 1725

“every single character in Shakespeare is as much an Individual as those in Life itself; it is as impossible to find any two alike.”

Celebrating Shakespeare's ability to create distinct human personalities · Preface to Shakespeare, 1725

“His Characters are so much Nature her self that 'tis a sort of injury to call them by so distant a name as Copies of her.”

Praising the lifelike individuality of Shakespeare's characters · Preface to Shakespeare, 1725

“The Poetry of Shakespeare was Inspiration indeed: he is not so much an Imitator as an Instrument of Nature.”

Presenting Shakespeare's creativity as an unusually direct expression of nature · Preface to Shakespeare, 1725

“If ever any Author deserved the name of an Original, it was Shakespeare.”

Praising Shakespeare's extraordinary creative independence · Preface to Shakespeare, 1725

“if any thing was good it would defend it-self, and what was bad could never be defended.”

Expressing confidence that lasting merit ultimately needs little defence · Preface to The Works of Alexander Pope, 1717

“If I have written well, let it be consider'd that 'tis what no man can do without good sense, a quality that not only renders one capable of being a good writer, but a good man.”

Connecting literary judgement with judgement in life · Preface to The Works of Alexander Pope, 1717

“I am altogether uncertain, whether to look upon my self as a man building a monument, or burying the dead?”

Wondering whether collected works preserve writing or merely entomb it · Preface to The Works of Alexander Pope, 1717

“One may be ashamed to consume half one's days in bringing sense and rhyme together.”

Wryly placing literary labour beside life's other demands · Preface to The Works of Alexander Pope, 1717

“they who say our thoughts are not our own because they resemble the Ancients, may as well say our faces are not our own, because they are like our Fathers.”

Defending creative inheritance without denying individuality · Preface to The Works of Alexander Pope, 1717

“whatever is very good sense must have been common sense in all times; and what we call Learning, is but the knowledge of the sense of our predecessors.”

Connecting sound judgement with inherited human knowledge · Preface to The Works of Alexander Pope, 1717

“I had too much fondness for my productions to judge of them at first, and too much judgment to be pleas'd with them at last.”

Capturing the writer's movement from attachment to self-criticism · Preface to The Works of Alexander Pope, 1717

“I writ because it amused me; I corrected because it was as pleasant to me to correct as to write; and I publish'd because I was told I might please such as it was a credit to please.”

Describing writing, revision and publication as distinct pleasures · Preface to The Works of Alexander Pope, 1717

“The life of a Wit is a warfare upon earth; and the present spirit of the world is such, that to attempt to serve it one must have the constancy of a martyr.”

Portraying literary life as an exhausting struggle with public judgement · Preface to The Works of Alexander Pope, 1717

“it is with a fine Genius as with a fine fashion, all those are displeas'd at it who are not able to follow it.”

Linking resentment of talent with the inability to imitate it · Preface to The Works of Alexander Pope, 1717

“from the moment he prints, he must expect to hear no more truth, than if he were a Prince, or a Beauty.”

Warning writers that publication can surround them with flattery · Preface to The Works of Alexander Pope, 1717

“the reputation of a man generally depends upon the first steps he makes in the world, and people will establish their opinion of us, from what we do at that season when we have least judgment to direct us.”

Observing how early mistakes can shape a lasting reputation · Preface to The Works of Alexander Pope, 1717

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