“True ease in writing comes from art, not chance, as those move easiest who have learned to dance.”

— Alexander Pope, An Essay on Criticism (1711)

About Alexander Pope

1688 – 1744

English poet, author of "An Essay on Criticism" and "The Rape of the Lock".

“To err is human, to forgive divine.”

“Men must be taught as if you taught them not, and things unknown propos'd as things forgot.”

“Years following years steal something ev'ry day. At last they steal us from ourselves away.”

“Beauty is the mark God sets upon virtue.”

“Poetry is finer and more philosophical than history; for poetry expresses the universal, and history only the particular.”

“A novel is never anything but a philosophy put into images.”

“A poet soaring in the high reason of his fancies, with his garland and singing robes about him.”

“Art is long, life short, judgment difficult, opportunity transient.”

“It is a beautiful truth that all men contain something of the artist in them.”