“Fools rush in where angels fear to tread.”

“No place so scared from such frops is barred Nor is Paul's Church more safe than Paul's Churchyard Na fly to alter there they'll talk you dead For fools rush in where angels fear to tread.”

“For forms of Government let fools contest. Whate'er is best administered is best.”

“Out with it, Dunciad: let the secret pass -That secret to each fool - that he's an ass.The truth once told (and whereby should we lie?),The queen of Midas slept, and so may I.You think this cruel? Take it for a rule,No creature smarts so little as a fool.”

“So pleas'd at first the tow'ring Alps we try,Mount o'er the vales, and seem to tread the sky;Th'eternal snows appear already past,And the first clouds and mountains seem the last:But those attain'd, we tremble to surveyThe growing labours of the lengthen'd way;Th'increasing prospect tires our wand'ring eyes,Hills peep o'er hills, and Alps on Alps arise!”

“Of all the causes which conspire to blindMan's erring judgement, and misguide the mind,What the weak head with strongest bias rules, Is PRIDE, the never-failing vice of fools.”

“Know then thyself, presume not God to scan,The proper study of mankind is Man.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 or body to prefer;Born but to die, and reas'ning but to err;Alike in ignorance, his reason such,Whether he thinks too little or too much;Chaos of thought and passion, all confused;Still by himself abused or disabused;Created half to rise, and half to fall;Great lord of all things, yet a prey to all;Sole judge of truth, in endless error hurl'd;The glory, jest, and riddle of the world!Go, wondrous creature! mount where science guides,Go, measure earth, weigh air, and state the tides;Instruct the planets in what orbs to run,Correct old time, and regulate the sun;Go, soar with Plato to th’ empyreal sphere,To the first good, first perfect, and first fair;Or tread the mazy round his followers trod,And quitting sense call imitating God;As Eastern priests in giddy circles run,And turn their heads to imitate the sun.Go, teach Eternal Wisdom how to rule—Then drop into thyself, and be a fool!”