Frasi di Alexander Pope

pagina 5

“Errare è umano, perdonare è divino.”

“Benedetto l'uomo che non si aspetta nulla, perché non resterà mai deluso.”

“Conoscere poco è una cosa pericolosa. Così come molto.”

“Il fascino colpisce a prima vista, ma le qualità ti conquistano, alla fine.”

“Gli sciocchi accorrono verso sentieri dove gli angeli non si azzardano ad avventurarsi.”

“Sì, sono orgoglioso, posso ben essere orgoglioso di vedere
Che gli uomini non temono Dio, ma me.”

“Conosci dunque te stesso, non presumere d'investigare Dio; | l'uomo è lo studio più adatto all'umanità.”

“Un uomo onesto è l'opera più nobile di Dio.”

“Lo stato di natura era il regno di Dio… | L'uomo camminava con la bestia, condividendone il rifugio, | la sua stessa tavola e il suo stesso letto; | nutrendosi e vestendosi senza uccidere…”

“Degli uomini, alcuni attendono agli affari, altri al piacere;
Ma ogni donna in fondo al cuore è un libertino.”

“Chi è impegnato in una controversia si preoccupa della verità quanto il cacciatore si preoccupa della lepre.”

“È per il nostro senno come per i nostri orologi, nessuno
Funziona come un altro, eppure ognuno crede al suo.”

“L'ordine è la prima legge del Cielo.”

“Chi dovrà decidere, se dei dottori sono in disaccordo?”

“L'autentica sapienza risiede principalmente nel sapere insegnare agli altri avendo l'aria di non insegnare affatto, proponendo anche le cose che gli altri non sanno come se le avessero soltanto dimenticate, proponendole dunque nel linguaggio che sanno, trasparente e piano.”

“La natura è tutta un'arte a te sconosciuta.”

“Non ammirare, è la sola arte che conosco
Che rende felici gli uomini, e li mantiene tali.”

“Il caffè, che rende il politico saggio | e guarda a ogni cosa con gli occhi mezzi chiusi.”

“I giudici affamati firmano la sentenza, | e dei disgraziati vengono impiccati perché i giurati vadano a mangiare.”

“Il vero motto d'ingegno è la natura abbigliata a suo vantaggio,
Quel che si era spesso pensato ma mai espresso così bene.”

“È l'istruzione che forma la mente comune,
Come si piega il ramo, così s'inclina l'albero.”

“Alcuni lodano la mattina ciò che alla sera criticano;
Ma pensano sempre che l'ultima opinione è quella giusta.”

“Tutto sembra infetto a chi è infetto,
Come tutto appare giallo all'occhio dell'ittero.”

“Non essere il primo a provar le cose nuove
Né l'ultimo ad abbandonar le vecchie.”

“Mi chiedi che provocazione ho avuto?
La forte antipatia del bene per il male.”

“Le parole son come le foglie; e dove più abbondano,
Raramente sotto si trovano molti frutti del senso.”

“La passione dominante, quale che sia,
La passione dominante governa sempre la ragione.”

“Chiunque creda di vedere cosa senza difetti,
Pensa quello che non è mai stato, né esiste, né mai sarà.”

“Un po' di sapere è pericoloso:
Bevi a fondo dalla sorgente Pieria, o non gustarne affatto:
Lì brevi sorsi inebriano il cervello,
E il berne molta di nuovo lo rischiara.”

“La speranza sgorga eterna nel petto umano;
L'uomo non è mai adesso, ma sempre in un futuro, benedetto.”

“Ti batti la zucca, e t'illudi che arriverà l'ingegno:
Ma batti finché vuoi, non c'è nessuno in casa.”

“[Elena di Troia] Si muove come una dea, e sembra una regina.”

“Perché l'uomo non ha una visione microscopica? | Per questa semplice ragione, ch'Egli non è una mosca.”

“True politeness consists in the being easy one-self, and making every body about one as easy as we can.”

“Methinks God has punish'd the Avaritious as he often punishes sinners, in their own way, in the ver sin itself: the thrist of gain was their crime, that thrist continued became their punishment and ruin. As for the few who have the good fortune to remain with half of what they imagined they had (among whom is your humble servantl, I would have them sensible of their felicity, and convinced of the truth of old Hesiod's maxim, who, after half his estate was swallowed by the Directors of those days, resolv'd, that half to be more than the whole.”

“The stoic husband was the glorious thing.
The man had courage, was a sage, 'tis true,
And lov'd his country.”

“This casket India's glowing gems unlocks
And all Arabia breathes from yonder box.”

“The hungry judges soon the sentence sign,
And wretches hang that jurymen may dine.”

“Happy the man whose wish and care
A few paternal acres bound,
Content to breathe his native air
In his own ground.”

“Say, is not absence death to those who love?”

“Know, sense, like charity, begins at home.”

“Luxurious lobster-nights, farewell,
For sober, studious days!”

“Good God! how often are we to die before we go quite off this stage? in every friend we lose a part of ourselves, and the best part.”

“How vast a memory has Love!”

“Here hills and vales, the woodland and the plain,
Here earth and water seem to strive again,
Not chaos-like together crushed and bruised,
But, as the world, harmoniously confused:
Where order in variety we see,
And where, though all things differ, all agree.”

“Our passions are like convulsion-fits, which, though they make us stronger for the time, leave us the weaker ever after.”

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

“Where'er you walk, cool gales shall fan the glade,
Trees, where you sit, shall crowd into a shade:
Where'er you tread, the blushing flow'rs shall rise,
And all things flourish where you turn your eyes.”

“Now lap-dogs give themselves the rousing shake,
And sleepless lovers, just at twelve, awake.”

“There various news I heard of love and strife,
Of peace and war, health, sickness, death, and life,
Of loss and gain, of famine and of store,
Of storms at sea, and travels on the shore,
Of prodigies, and portents seen in air,
Of fires and plagues, and stars with blazing hair,
Of turns of fortune, changes in the state,
The fall of favourites, projects of the great,
Of aid mismanagements, taxations new:
All neither wholly false, nor wholly true.”

“I find myself just in the same situation of mind you describe as your own, heartily wishing the good, that is the quiet of my country, and hoping a total end of all the unhappy divisions of mankind by party-spirit, which at best is but the madness of many for the gain of a few.”

“A god without dominion, providence, and final causes, is nothing else but Fate and Nature.”

“Well, if our author in the wife offends
He has a husband that will make amends;
He draws him gentle, tender, and forgiving,
And sure such kind good creatures may be living.”

“On her white breast a sparkling cross she wore
Which Jews might kiss, and infidels adore.”

“Some old men, by continually praising the time of their youth, would almost persuade us that there were no fools in those days; but unluckily they are left themselves for examples.”

“The famous Lord Hallifax (though so much talked of) was rather a pretender to taste, than really possessed of it.—When I had finished the two or three first books of my translation of the Iliad, that lord, "desired to have the pleasure of hearing them read at his house." Addison, Congreve, and Garth, were there at the reading.—In four or five places, Lord Hallifax stopped me very civilly; and with a speech, each time of much the same kind: "I beg your pardon, Mr. Pope, but there is something in that passage that does not quite please me.—Be so good as to mark the place, and consider it a little at your leisure.—I am sure you can give it a little turn."—I returned from Lord Hallifax's with Dr. Garth, in his chariot; and as we were going along, was saying to the doctor, that my lord had laid me under a good deal of difficulty, by such loose and general observations; that I had been thinking over the passages almost ever since, and could not guess at what it was that offended his lordship in either of them.—Garth laughed heartily at my embarrassment; said, I had not been long enough acquainted with Lord Hallifax, to know his way yet: that I need not puzzle myself in looking those places over and over when I got home. "All you need do, (said he) is to leave them just as they are; call on Lord Hallifax two or three months hence, thank him for his kind observations on those passages; and then read them to him as altered. I have known him much longer than you have, and will be answerable for the event."—I followed his advice; waited on Lord Hallifax some time after: said, I hoped he would find his objections to those passages removed[; ] read them to him exactly as they were at first; and his lordship was extremely pleased with them, and cried out, "Ay now, Mr. Pope, they are perfectly right! nothing can be better."”

“By foreign hands thy dying eyes were closed,
By foreign hands thy decent limbs composed,
By foreign hands thy humble grave adorned,
By strangers honored, and by strangers mourned.”

“Thus let me live, unseen, unknown;
Thus unlamented let me die;
Steal from the world, and not a stone
Tell where I lie.”

“Let opening roses knotted oaks adorn,
And liquid amber drop from every thorn.”

“On all the line a sudden vengeance waits,
And frequent hearses shall besiege your gates.”

“For he lives twice who can at once employ
The present well, and e'en the past enjoy.”

“Dear, damned, distracting town, farewell!
Thy fools no more I'll tease:
This year in peace, ye critics, dwell,
Ye harlots, sleep at ease!”