9 quotations linked to An Essay on Criticism by or associated with Alexander Pope, with source notes, explanations and related topics.
Use these links when you want to inspect the wording in its wider work or edition.
“To err is human; to forgive, divine.”
Error is treated as ordinary human limitation, while forgiveness requires an additional act of generosity.
Source note: An Essay on Criticism, Part II; Pope warns that shallow learning can produce premature confidence before deeper study tempers judgment.
“A little learning is a dangerous thing.”
Partial knowledge can produce misplaced confidence; the warning favors deeper study over shallow certainty.
Source note: An Essay on Criticism, Part II; Pope warns that shallow learning can produce premature confidence before deeper study tempers judgment.
“A little Learning is a dang’rous Thing.”
Partial knowledge can create confidence before understanding has become deep enough to recognize its limits.
Source note: An Essay on Criticism; Pope follows the line with the image of drinking deeply from the Pierian spring.
“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.
Source note: An Essay on Criticism, Part III; Pope warns against reckless confidence and poor judgment in critics.
“For Fools rush in where Angels fear to tread.”
Confidence without sufficient judgment can make haste look like courage when caution would be wiser.
Source note: An Essay on Criticism; original capitalization is lightly normalized elsewhere on the site.
“In all you speak, let truth and candor shine.”
Pope treats candor as part of good judgment: accurate criticism should also be spoken with integrity and fairness.
Source note: An Essay on Criticism, in the section describing the moral duties of a critic.
“Trust not your self; but your defects to know, make use of ev’ry friend—and ev’ry foe.”
Pope treats criticism from both allies and opponents as information that can expose blind spots.
Source note: An Essay on Criticism, in the passage warning against pride in judgment.
“True Wit is Nature to Advantage drest, what oft was Thought, but ne’er so well Exprest.”
Pope defines memorable writing as clear expression that gives familiar thought a form readers immediately recognize.
Source note: An Essay on Criticism; original eighteenth-century spelling is substantially retained.
“True wit is nature to advantage dress’d; what oft was thought, but ne’er so well express’d.”
Strong expression often succeeds not by inventing an alien idea but by giving memorable form to something many people already sensed.
Source note: Part II of An Essay on Criticism; Pope defines wit through clear expression of recognizable truth.