I found this snippet from Pope (not the pope, just Pope) quite funny and self-revealing. It is very true that, where I find my own natural self lacking I make up for it with ample pride.
from "An Essay on Criticism"
Of all the Causes which conspire to blind
Man's erring judgment, and misguide the mind,
What weak head with strongest bias rules,
Is Pride, the never-failing vice of fools.
Whatever nature has in worth deny'd,
She gives in large recruits of needful Pride;
For as in bodies, thus in souls, we find
What wants in blood and spirits, swell'd with wind:
Pide, where Wit fails, steps in to our defence,
And fills up all the mighty Void of sense.
If once right reason drives that cloud away,
Truth breaks upon us with resistless day.
2 comments:
I forgot to add Peguy to the list. Though it is more epic or narrative poetry, I think Peguy has some of the most moving lines I've ever read.
Ha! It sometimes seems so random to come across Pope but to find this specific piece... well.
This was the first (and only) quote I remember memorizing for Sophomore english:
"A little learning is a dangerous thing; Drink deep or taste not the pierian spring."
-Alexander Pope "Essay on Criticism"
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