Worth Makes the Man by Alexander Pope

Worth Makes the Man

From An Essay on Man, Epistle IV, 6

by Alexander Pope

Honour and shame from no condition rise;

Act well your part: there all the honour lies.

Fortune in men has some small diff'rence made;

One flaunts in rags, one flutters in brocade,

The cobbler apron'd, and the parson gown'd;

The friar hooded, and the monarch crown'd.

`What differ more,' you cry, `than crown and cowl?'

I'll tell you friend! a wise man and a fool.

You'll find, if once the monarch acts the monk,

Or, cobbler-like, the parson will be drunk,

Worth makes the man, and want of it the fellow.

The rest is all but leather or prunella.