Date: 1743

"Enthusiasts of all ages were ever, in their natural state, most heavy and lumpish; but on the least application of heat, they run like lead, which of all metals falls quickest into fusion. "

— Pope, Alexander (1688-1744)

Date: 1743

"Thy mental eye, for thou hast much to view: / Old scenes of glory, times long cast behind / Shall, first recall'd, rush forward to thy mind: / Then stretch thy sight o'er all her rising reign, / And let the past and future fire thy brain."

— Pope, Alexander (1688-1744)

Date: 1743

"He began there to be uneasy; for it shock'd him to find he was commanded to believe against his own judgment in points of Religion, Philosophy, &c. for his genius leading him freely to dispute all propositions, and call all points to account, he was impatient under those fetters of the free-born...

— Pope, Alexander (1688-1744)

Date: 1743

"We hang one jingling padlock on the mind"

— Pope, Alexander (1688-1744)

Date: 1743

"With the same Cement [Authority], ever sure to bind, / We bring to one dead level ev'ry mind"

— Pope, Alexander (1688-1744)

Date: 1743

"When Reason doubtful, like the Samian letter, / Points him two ways, the narrower is the better."

— Pope, Alexander (1688-1744)

Date: 1743

"The native Anarchy of the mind is that state which precedes the time of Reason's assuming the rule of the Passions"

— Pope, Alexander (1688-1744)

Date: 1743

Dullness in the "absence of Reason," tho' she cannot regulate the Passions like Reason, yet blunts and deadens their Vigour, and, indeed, produces some of the good effects"

— Pope, Alexander (1688-1744)

Date: 1743

"Mr. Dennis argues the same way. 'My writings having made great impression on the minds of all sensible men'"

— Pope, Alexander (1688-1744)

Date: 1743

"Whereas fire in a Genius is truly Promethean, it hurts not its constituent parts, but only fits it (as it does well-tempered steel) for the necessary impressions of art."

— Pope, Alexander (1688-1744)