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

from Alexander Pope
"Nature and nature's laws lay hid in night;
 * Pope also wrote the famous epitaph for Sir Isaac Newton:

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." "True wit is nature to advantage drest;
 * Pope, as an Augustan writer, gave a famous definition of wit:

Which oft was thought, but ne'er so well exprest."

"How happy is the blameless Vestal's lot!
 * A quotation from Pope's Eloisa to Abelard (lines 207-210) was used in the 2004 film Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind:

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