Browse 6 quotations connecting Alexander Pope with Wisdom, with meanings, source notes and related themes.
Sources represented here include The Rape of the Lock, An Essay on Criticism.
“To err is human; to forgive, divine.”
Error is treated as ordinary human limitation, while forgiveness requires an additional act of generosity.
An Essay on Criticism, Part III; Pope joins good nature and good sense before contrasting ordinary human error with the higher moral act of forgiveness.
“Fools rush in where angels fear to tread.”
The line warns that confidence without judgment can push people into situations that more thoughtful people approach cautiously.
An Essay on Criticism, Part III; Pope warns against reckless confidence and poor judgment in critics.
“What mighty contests rise from trivial things,”
The mock-heroic opening announces the poem’s central comic method: treating a small social quarrel with the scale and language of epic conflict.
The Rape of the Lock, Canto I, line 2 in the 1717 recension. The retained catalog wording ‘What mighty contests rise from trivial things’ is verified in The Works of Mr. Alexander Pope (1717), scan page 157; the 1714 second edition instead reads ‘What mighty Quarrels rise from trivial things,’ so the synchronized source year is 1717. The line is part of Pope’s mock-heroic invocation and should be read as satire.
“Charms strike the sight, but merit wins the soul.”
The line contrasts immediate visual attraction with the more durable appeal of character or merit.
The Rape of the Lock, Canto V, line 34 in Pope’s 1717 revision; final line of Clarissa’s added speech. The inherited 1714 source year is corrected to 1717; the narrator immediately notes that the audience gives her no applause, keeping the maxim inside its mock-heroic dramatic setting.
“What then remains but well our pow'r to use, And keep good-humour still whate'er we lose?”
Within Clarissa’s speech, the practical response to inevitable loss is to use one’s capacities well and preserve composure rather than trying to make change impossible.
The Rape of the Lock, Canto V, lines 29–30 in Pope’s 1717 revision; spoken by Clarissa. Her speech was added in 1717, so the inherited 1714 source year is corrected to 1717. Clarissa’s counsel is immediately followed by the poem’s return to comic battle, preserving the satirical frame.
“How vain are all these glories, all our pains, Unless good sense preserve what beauty gains:”
Clarissa’s speech argues that appearance and social admiration are unstable unless judgment and character give them something more durable to rest on.
The Rape of the Lock, Canto V, lines 15–16 in Pope’s 1717 revision; spoken by Clarissa. Her moralizing speech (Canto V lines 7–36) was added in 1717, so the inherited 1714 source year is corrected to 1717. The reviewed evidence opens the 1717 Canto V scan start; the exact couplet is independently preserved in the complete final-form text.
