Lord Byron, Don Juan (1818-24), Canto V. 100. Alexander Pope, First Book of the Epistles of Horace, Epistle I, line 1.

"Not to admire, is all the art I know (Plain truth, dear Murray, needs few flowers of speech) To make men happy, or to keep them so," (So take it in the very words of Creech) Thus Horace wrote we all know long ago; And thus Pope quotes the precept to re-teach From his translation; but had none admired, Would Pope have sung, or Horace been inspired?

— Lord Byron on Admiration

What It Means

This is a placeholder explanation generated by the low-overhead model. It interprets ""Not to admire, is all the art I know (Plain truth, dear Murray, needs few flowers of speech) To make men happy, or to keep them so," (So take it in the very words of Creech) Thus Horace wrote we all know long ago; And thus Pope quotes the precept to re-teach From his translation; but had none admired, Would Pope have sung, or Horace been inspired?" in the context of "Lord Byron, Don Juan (1818-24), Canto V. 100. Alexander Pope, First Book of the Epistles of Horace, Epistle I, line 1." to mean that wisdom is timeless.

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Source: Wikiquote: "Admiration" (Quotes, Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations: Quotes reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 9.) The 'What it means' explanation text was generated by Google Gemini Flash (accessed January 18, 2026). https://gemini.google.com/app
Lord Byron

About Lord Byron

George Gordon (Noel) Byron, 6th Baron Byron (January 22 1788 – April 19 1824), generally known as Lord Byron, was an English poet and leading figure in Romanticism. He was the father of the mathematician Ada Lovelace.