“You beat your pate, and fancy wit will come;
Knock as you please, there's nobody at home.”

— Jonathan Swift

On a Dull Writer, reported in John Hawkesworth, The Works of Jonathan Swift, D.D., Dean of St. Patrick's, Dublin (1754), p. 265. Alternately attributed to Alexander Pope by Bartlett's Quotations, 10th Edition (1919). Compare: "His wit invites you by his looks to come, But when you knock, it never is at home", William Cowper, Conversation, line 303
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Anglo-Irish satirist, essayist, and poet 1667–1745

Related quotes

“You beat your pate, and fancy wit will come;
Knock as you please, there's nobody at home.”

Alexander Pope (1688–1744) eighteenth century English poet

Credited as Epigram: An Empty House (1727), or On a Dull Writer; alternately attributed to Jonathan Swift in John Hawkesworth, The Works of Jonathan Swift, D.D., Dean of St. Patrick's, Dublin (1754), p. 265. Compare: "His wit invites you by his looks to come, But when you knock, it never is at home", William Cowper, Conversation, line 303.
Misattributed

“His wit invites you by his looks to come,
But when you knock it never is at home.”

William Cowper (1731–1800) (1731–1800) English poet and hymnodist

Source: Conversation (1782), Line 303.

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Chris Rock on Real Time with Bill Maher, September 26, 2008
Miscellaneous

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Source: Lover Awakened

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“When a great moment knocks on the door of your life, it is often no louder than the beating of your heart, and it is very easy to miss it.”

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