“ Whatever nature has in worth denied, She gives in large recruits of needful pride; For as in bodies, thus in souls, we find What wants in blood and spirits, swelled with wind: Pride where wit fails steps in to our defense, And fills up all the mighty void of sense. ”
Alexander Pope, An Essay on Criticism (1711). copy citation
| Author | Alexander Pope |
|---|---|
| Source | An Essay on Criticism |
| Topic | pride defense |
| Date | 1711 |
| Language | English |
| Reference | |
| Note | |
| Weblink | http://www.gutenberg.org/files/7409/7409-h/7409-h.htm |
Context
“To admire superior sense, and doubt their own!
PART II.
Of all the causes which conspire to blind
Man's erring judgment and misguide the mind,
What the weak head with strongest bias rules,
Is pride, the never-failing vice of fools.
Whatever nature has in worth denied,
She gives in large recruits of needful pride;
For as in bodies, thus in souls, we find
What wants in blood and spirits, swelled with wind:
Pride where wit fails steps in to our defense,
And fills up all the mighty void of sense.
If once right reason drives that cloud away,
Truth breaks upon us with resistless day
Trust not yourself, but your defects to know,
Make use of every friend—and every foe.
A little learning is a dangerous thing”
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