“Unblemished let me live, or die unknown; O grant an honest fame, or grant me none!”

— Alexander Pope, The Temple of Fame (1715)

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.”

“No hour of life is lost that is spent in the saddle.”

“You never know how much you really believe anything until its truth or falsehood becomes a matter of life and death to you.”

“A living dog is better than a dead lion.”

“Ye are better than all the ballads that ever were sung or said; for ye are living poems, and all the rest are dead.”

“Life does not cease to be funny when people die any more than it ceases to be serious when people laugh.”

“The life of the dead is in the memory of the living.”