Talk:Alexander Pope

"A little learning is a dangerous thing" is the starting line of the ODE ON Learning by Alexander POPE eg.seume@gmx.de

• It's from the Essay on Criticism, Part II, lines 15-18 and is already on the quote page for Pope. - InvisibleSun 15:52, 6 June 2006 (UTC)

Birthdate

There seems to be some controversy about Pope's birthdate, so I'll summarize what w:Talk:Alexander Pope currently says:

• The Life of Pope (1905), by Samuel Johnson — according to the online transcription of Professor Jack Lynch of Rutgers University — claims 22 May.
• "Alexander Pope", Encyclopedia Britannica Online, claims 21 May.
  • Encyclopedia Britannica, unspecified print edition, apparently agrees with the online reference.
• An unspecified "definitive biography" by Maynard Mack, presumably Alexander Pope: A Life (1985 edition is ISBN 0300033915) claims 21 May (at 6:45 pm, no less).

As a result, both Wikipedia and Wikiquote are currently citing 21 May. ~ Jeff Q (talk) 23:48, 18 June 2006 (UTC)

from w:Alexander Pope

• Pope also wrote the famous epitaph for Sir Isaac Newton:

"Nature and nature's laws lay hid in night;
God said 'Let Newton be' and all was light."

to which Sir John Collings Squire later amusingly satirised this

"It did not last: the devil, shouting 'Ho.
Let Einstein be' restored the status quo."

so then Alexander O. Bartolo decided on utilizing an Avinity

To be a Saint; Woo hoo' if you say D'OH!
"Let Feynman be' do the Physic's HELLO."

• Pope, as an Augustan writer, gave a famous definition of wit:

"True wit is nature to advantage drest;
Which oft was thought, but ne'er so well exprest."

• A quotation from Pope's Eloisa to Abelard (lines 207-210) was used in the 2004 film Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind:

"How happy is the blameless Vestal's lot!
The world forgetting, by the world forgot.
Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind!
Each pray'r accepted, and each wish resign'd..."

Riddle quote

Seems to me a major Pope quote is missing:

Placed on this isthmus of a middle state,
A being darkly wise, and rudely great:
With too much knowledge for the sceptic side,
With too much weakness for the stoic's pride,
He hangs between; in doubt to act, or rest;
In doubt to deem himself a God, or beast;
In doubt his mind and body to prefer;
Born but to die, and reas'ning but to err;

--24.184.131.16 21:29, 21 August 2008 (UTC)

That quote is in An Essay on Man, Epistle II. Cheers! BD2412 T 21:48, 21 August 2008 (UTC)

Hope Springs Eternal

What about;

Hope springs eternal in the human breast;
Man never is, but always to be blest:
The soul, uneasy and confined from home,
Rests and expatiates in a life to come.

As far as I know the quote is from An Essay on Man. Phillip Island Guy