A wit’s a feather, and a chief a rod;
An honest man’s the noblest work of God.

These lines come from Alexander Pope’s moral-epistolary poem “An Essay on Man” (1733–1734), a work written in heroic couplets that aims to “vindicate the ways of God to man” by reflecting on human nature, society, and virtue. In the early eighteenth-century world Pope inhabited—marked by party politics, patronage, and social display—he repeatedly contrasts superficial markers of status (rank, power, fashionable brilliance) with inner moral worth. The couplet is part of Pope’s broader argument that true human excellence is grounded in virtue and integrity rather than in wit, authority, or inherited position.

Pope sharply ranks social qualities: “wit” is light and decorative like a feather, and a “chief” (a leader) is merely an instrument of force, a rod. Against these transient or coercive forms of distinction, he elevates honesty—moral uprightness—as the highest human achievement, calling the honest person “the noblest work of God.” The couplet compresses a key Augustan theme: the critique of vanity and power in favor of virtue as the true measure of greatness. It also implies that social admiration often misfires, praising cleverness or command while overlooking the rarer, more substantial excellence of character.

“An honest man’s the noblest work of God.”