Do good by stealth, and blush to find it fame.
Alexander PopeRead
Tis but a part we see, and not a whole.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote suggests that we often only perceive a fragment of reality rather than the complete picture.
Alexander Pope's quote emphasizes the limitations of human perception and understanding. It serves as a reminder that what we observe or understand is often just a small aspect of a much larger truth, encouraging a sense of humility and open-mindedness about our knowledge and insights.
Themes
PerceptionRealityUnderstandingTruthHumility
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion about philosophy, one might say this quote to illustrate the nature of human knowledge.
More from Alexander Pope
All quotes βWhat dire offence from am'rous causes springs, What mighty contests rise from trivial things.
Alexander PopeRead
Fair tresses man's imperial race ensnare; And beauty draws us with a single hair.
Alexander PopeRead
An honest man's the noblest work of God.
Alexander PopeRead
One thought of thee puts all the pomp to flight;_x000D_ _x000D_ Priests, tapers, temples, swim before my sight.
Alexander PopeRead
Who breaks a butterfly on a wheel?
Alexander PopeRead
Similar quotes
...When the government goes into the business of destroying trust, it goes into the business of destroying itself.
Arthur MillerRead
Like apes, we breed, sleep, and die. Yet like God we say, "I am." We are ontological oxymorons.
Peter KreeftRead
The government doesn't want you to use YOUR drugs, they want you to use THEIR drugs.
Chris RockRead
I am learning to see. I don't know why it is, but everything enters me more deeply and doesn't stop where it once used to. I have an interior that I never knew of... What's the use of telling someone that I am changing? If I'm changing, I am no longer who I was; and if I am something else, it's obvious that I have no acquaintances. And I can't possibly write to strangers.
Rainer Maria RilkeRead
If you live long enough, sooner or later everybody you know has cancer.
George CarlinRead
The two aims of the Party are to conquer the whole surface of the earth and to extinguish once and for all the possibility of independent thought. There are therefore two great problems which the Party is concerned to solve. One is how to discover, against his will, what another human being is thinking, and the other is how to kill several hundred million people in a few seconds without giving warning beforehand.
George OrwellRead