“Of Manners gentle, of Affections mild;
In Wit, a Man; Simplicity, a Child.”
"Epitaph on Gay" (1733), lines 1-2. Reported in The Poems of Alexander Pope, ed. John Butt, sixth edition (Yale University Press, 1970), p. 818. Compare: "Her wit was more than man, her innocence a child", John Dryden, Elegy on Mrs. Killegrew, line 70.
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Alexander Pope 158
eighteenth century English poet 1688–1744Related quotes

Source: Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), P. 545.
Source: The Imitation of Christ
Context: Simplicity and purity are the two wings by which a man is lifted above all earthly things. Simplicity is in the intention — purity in the affection. Simplicity tends to God,— purity apprehends and tastes Him.

Source: Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), P. 545.

“Her wit was more than man, her innocence a child.”
To the Pious Memory of Mrs. Anne Killegrew (1686), line 70.

Source: Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), P. 411.
Acceptance Speech for the Margaret Edwards Award (1998)
Context: One day back in the fifties my father and I were watching a program on our black and white TV which included an interview with an elderly man who answered one question by remarking, "Just because there's snow on the roof doesn't mean the fire's gone out in the furnace."
The screen went black as the program went off the air, and we heard the announcer say, "There will be a brief interlude of organ music."
Certainly that mild quip of the elderly man wouldn't shock anybody today. We might laugh appreciatively at his wit, but that would be the extent of our reaction. The change in point of view has been equally radical in the world of books. Somehow or other I've never gotten around to reading Lady Chatterly's Lover, but I doubt if it would shock me.

“In character, in manner, in style, in all the things, the supreme excellence is simplicity”
Source: Favorite Poems

“Whose wit in the combat, as gentle as bright,
Ne'er carried a heart-stain away on its blade.”
On the Death of Sheridan.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)