Alexander Pope Quotes
Plays round the head, but comes not to the heart. One self-approving hour whole years outweighs Of stupid starers and of loud huzzas; And more true joy Marcellus exil'd feels Than Cæsar with a senate at his heels. In parts superior what advantage lies? Tell (for you can) what is it to be wise? 'T is but to know how little can be known; To see all others' faults, and feel our own.
Pope, Alexander. "An Essay on Man." The Complete Poetical Works of Alexander Pope, edited by Henry W. Boynton, Houghton Mifflin, 1903, p. 153.
The papyrus appears to be an instruction booklet for government officials. The Egyptians thought that thinking and the intellect is done by the heart. In this context we would say, “Don’t let your head get big ….”
Alexander Pope is seen as one of the greatest English poets and the foremost poet of the early 18th century. He is best known for satirical and discursive poetry, including The Rape of the Lock, The Dunciad, and An Essay on Criticism, and for his translation of Homer. After Shakespeare, Pope is the second-most quoted writer in English, according to The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations, some of his verses having become popular in common parlance (e. g., damning with faint praise). He is considered a master of the heroic couplet.
