True wit is nature to advantage dressed, / What oft was thought, but ne'er so well expressed.

These lines come from Alexander Pope’s early critical poem *An Essay on Criticism* (first published 1711), a work in heroic couplets that sets out neoclassical standards for literary judgment. Writing in the Augustan age, Pope argues for “nature” (understood as universal reason and order) as the foundation of art, while also insisting on polish, proportion, and clarity. In the section on wit and expression, he pushes back against showy conceits and verbal fireworks, proposing instead that the best wit refines common human observations into memorable form. The couplet encapsulates Pope’s broader program: disciplined craft that makes familiar truths newly compelling.

Pope defines “true wit” not as mere cleverness or novelty, but as an apt, elegant expression of something fundamentally natural and already latent in shared experience. “Nature to advantage dressed” suggests that art’s role is to clothe truth in the most fitting language—heightening it without distorting it. The second line emphasizes recognizability: great wit makes readers feel they have long known the idea, yet never encountered it so perfectly phrased. The couplet therefore links originality to execution rather than invention, valuing precision, balance, and rhetorical economy. It also implies an ethical-aesthetic standard: style should illuminate truth, not obscure it.