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Joseph Addison's Quotes

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Born: 1970-01-01
Profession: Writer
Nation: English
Biography of Joseph Addison

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I will indulge my sorrows, and give way to all the pangs and fury of despair.

Tags: Despair, Give, Sympathy

Admiration is a very short-lived passion, that immediately decays upon growing familiar with its object.

Tags: Growing, Object, Passion

Better to die ten thousand deaths than wound my honor.

Tags: Die, Honor, Ten

A woman seldom asks advice before she has bought her wedding clothes.

Tags: Advice, Wedding, Woman

An ostentatious man will rather relate a blunder or an absurdity he has committed, than be debarred from talking of his own dear person.

Tags: Committed, Rather, Talking

I value my garden more for being full of blackbirds than of cherries, and very frankly give them fruit for their songs.

Tags: Full, Give, Value

Plenty of people wish to become devout, but no one wishes to be humble.

Tags: Become, Humble, Wish

Is there not some chosen curse, some hidden thunder in the stores of heaven, red with uncommon wrath, to blast the man who owes his greatness to his country's ruin!

Tags: Country, Greatness, Heaven

That he delights in the misery of others no man will confess, and yet what other motive can make a father cruel?

Tags: Cruel, Father, Others

To be perfectly just is an attribute of the divine nature; to be so to the utmost of our abilities, is the glory of man.

Tags: Divine, Glory, Nature

Some virtues are only seen in affliction and others only in prosperity.

Tags: Others, Prosperity, Seen

The important question is not, what will yield to man a few scattered pleasures, but what will render his life happy on the whole amount.

Tags: Happy, Life, Whole

Mirth is like a flash of lightning, that breaks through a gloom of clouds, and glitters for a moment; cheerfulness keeps up a kind of daylight in the mind, and fills it with a steady and perpetual serenity.

Tags: Mind, Moment, Serenity

Modesty is not only an ornament, but also a guard to virtue.

Tags: Guard, Modesty, Virtue

Mutability of temper and inconsistency with ourselves is the greatest weakness of human nature.

Tags: Greatest, Human, Nature

One should take good care not to grow too wise for so great a pleasure of life as laughter.

Tags: Good, Great, Life

Talking with a friend is nothing else but thinking aloud.

Tags: Else, Friend, Thinking

To say that authority, whether secular or religious, supplies no ground for morality is not to deny the obvious fact that it supplies a sanction.

Tags: Fact, Religious, Whether

Animals, in their generation, are wiser than the sons of men; but their wisdom is confined to a few particulars, and lies in a very narrow compass.

Tags: Few, Men, Wisdom

Jesters do often prove prophets.

Tags: Often, Prophets, Prove

The chief ingredients in the composition of those qualities that gain esteem and praise, are good nature, truth, good sense, and good breeding.

Tags: Good, Nature, Truth

There is not a more unhappy being than a superannuated idol.

Tags: Idol, Unhappy

There is not so variable a thing in nature as a lady's head-dress.

Tags: Lady, Nature, Variable
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There is nothing that makes its way more directly into the soul than beauty.

Tags: Beauty, Makes, Soul

Young men soon give, and soon forget, affronts; old age is slow in both.

Tags: Age, Forget, Men

I have somewhere met with the epitaph on a charitable man which has pleased me very much. I cannot recollect the words, but here is the sense of it: 'What I spent I lost; what I possessed is left to others; what I gave away remains with me.'

Tags: Cannot, Lost, Words

Justice is an unassailable fortress, built on the brow of a mountain which cannot be overthrown by the violence of torrents, nor demolished by the force of armies.

Tags: Cannot, Justice, Violence

Suspicion is not less an enemy to virtue than to happiness; he that is already corrupt is naturally suspicious, and he that becomes suspicious will quickly be corrupt.

Tags: Enemy, Happiness, Less

Friendships, in general, are suddenly contracted; and therefore it is no wonder they are easily dissolved.

Tags: General, Suddenly, Wonder

If we hope for what we are not likely to possess, we act and think in vain, and make life a greater dream and shadow than it really is.

Tags: Dream, Hope, Life

Mere bashfulness without merit is awkwardness.

Tags: Mere, Merit

Music, the greatest good that mortals know and all of heaven we have hear below.

Tags: Good, Greatest, Music

Nothing is capable of being well set to music that is not nonsense.

Tags: Capable, Music, Nonsense

Nothing is more gratifying to the mind of man than power or dominion.

Tags: Dominion, Mind, Power

The fear of death often proves mortal, and sets people on methods to save their Lives, which infallibly destroy them.

Tags: Death, Fear, Often

The Mind that lies fallow but a single Day, sprouts up in Follies that are only to be killed by a constant and assiduous Culture.

Tags: Lies, Mind, Single

The post of honour is a private station.

Tags: Honour, Post, Private

The unassuming youth seeking instruction with humility gains good fortune.

Tags: Good, Humility, Youth

The unjustifiable severity of a parent is loaded with this aggravation, that those whom he injures are always in his sight.

Tags: Loaded, Parent, Sight

The utmost extent of man's knowledge, is to know that he knows nothing.

Tags: Extent, Knowledge, Knows

The woman that deliberates is lost.

Tags: Lost, Woman

Their is no defense against criticism except obscurity.

Tags: Against, Criticism, Except

There is nothing more requisite in business than despatch.

Tags: Business, Requisite

There is nothing which we receive with so much reluctance as advice.

Tags: Advice, Receive, Reluctance

Those Marriages generally abound most with Love and Constancy, that are preceded by a long Courtship.

Tags: Courtship, Love, Marriages

To a man of pleasure every moment appears to be lost, which partakes not of the vivacity of amusement.

Tags: Lost, Moment, Pleasure

We are always doing something for posterity, but I would fain see posterity do something for us.

Tags: Fain, Posterity

What pity is it That we can die, but once to serve our country.

Tags: Country, Die, Once

When men are easy in their circumstances, they are naturally enemies to innovations.

Tags: Easy, Men, Naturally

With regard to donations always expect the most from prudent people, who keep their own accounts.

Tags: Expect, Keep, Prudent

The most violent appetites in all creatures are lust and hunger; the first is a perpetual call upon them to propagate their kind, the latter to preserve themselves.

Tags: Call, Lust, Themselves

Among all kinds of Writing, there is none in which Authors are more apt to miscarry than in Works of Humour, as there is none in which they are more ambitious to excel.

Tags: Kinds, Works, Writing

The stars shall fade away, the sun himself Grow dim with age, and nature sink in years, But thou shalt flourish in immortal youth, Unhurt amidst the wars of elements, The wrecks of matter, and the crush of worlds.

Tags: Age, Nature, Sun

Courage that grows from constitution often forsakes a man when he has occasion for it; courage which arises from a sense of duty acts; in a uniform manner.

Tags: Courage, Often, Sense

He who would pass his declining years with honor and comfort, should, when young, consider that he may one day become old, and remember when he is old, that he has once been young.

Tags: May, Remember, Young

If we may believe our logicians, man is distinguished from all other creatures by the faculty of laughter. He has a heart capable of mirth, and naturally disposed to it.

Tags: Heart, Laughter, May

Irregularity and want of method are only supportable in men of great learning or genius, who are often too full to be exact, and therefore they choose to throw down their pearls in heaps before the reader, rather than be at the pains of stringing them.

Tags: Great, Learning, Men

It is folly for an eminent man to think of escaping censure, and a weakness to be affected with it. All the illustrious persons of antiquity, and indeed of every age in the world, have passed through this fiery persecution.

Tags: Age, Indeed, Weakness

The union of the Word and the Mind produces that mystery which is called Life... Learn deeply of the Mind and its mystery, for therein lies the secret of immortality.

Tags: Learn, Life, Mind

Three grand essentials to happiness in this life are something to do, something to love, and something to hope for.

Tags: Hope, Life, Love

Our real blessings often appear to us in the shape of pains, losses and disappointments; but let us have patience and we soon shall see them in their proper figures.

Tags: Blessings, Patience, Real

Sunday clears away the rust of the whole week.

Tags: Away, Sunday, Whole

Cheerfulness is the best promoter of health and is as friendly to the mind as to the body.

Tags: Best, Health, Mind

Man is subject to innumerable pains and sorrows by the very condition of humanity, and yet, as if nature had not sown evils enough in life, we are continually adding grief to grief and aggravating the common calamity by our cruel treatment of one another.

Tags: Humanity, Life, Nature

Everything that is new or uncommon raises a pleasure in the imagination, because it fills the soul with an agreeable surprise, gratifies its curiosity, and gives it an idea of which it was not before possessed.

Tags: Idea, Imagination, Soul

If you wish to succeed in life, make perseverance your bosom friend, experience your wise counselor, caution your elder brother, and hope your guardian genius.

Tags: Hope, Life, Success

To be an atheist requires an indefinitely greater measure of faith than to recieve all the great truths which atheism would deny.

Tags: Atheist, Faith, Great

A contented mind is the greatest blessing a man can enjoy in this world.

Tags: Enjoy, Greatest, Mind

It is only imperfection that complains of what is imperfect. The more perfect we are the more gentle and quiet we become towards the defects of others.

Tags: Become, Others, Perfect

The greatest sweetener of human life is Friendship. To raise this to the highest pitch of enjoyment, is a secret which but few discover.

Tags: Friendship, Greatest, Life

True happiness arises, in the first place, from the enjoyment of one's self, and in the next, from the friendship and conversation of a few select companions.

Tags: Friendship, Happiness, True

Mysterious love, uncertain treasure, hast thou more of pain or pleasure! Endless torments dwell about thee: Yet who would live, and live without thee!

Tags: Love, Pain, Pleasure

A cloudy day or a little sunshine have as great an influence on many constitutions as the most recent blessings or misfortunes.

Tags: Blessings, Great, Sunshine

Reading is a basic tool in the living of a good life.

Tags: Good, Life, Living

A man should always consider how much he has more than he wants.

Tags: Consider, Wants

What sunshine is to flowers, smiles are to humanity. These are but trifles, to be sure; but scattered along life's pathway, the good they do is inconceivable.

Tags: Good, Life, Sunshine

A true critic ought to dwell upon excellencies rather than imperfections, to discover the concealed beauties of a writer, and communicate to the world such things as are worth their observation.

Tags: Rather, True, Worth

A man must be both stupid and uncharitable who believes there is no virtue or truth but on his own side.

Tags: Both, Stupid, Truth

Men may change their climate, but they cannot change their nature. A man that goes out a fool cannot ride or sail himself into common sense.

Tags: Change, Men, Nature

A just and reasonable modesty does not only recommend eloquence, but sets off every great talent which a man can be possessed of.

Tags: Great, Off, Talent

What sculpture is to a block of marble, education is to the soul.

Tags: Education, Sculpture, Soul

Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body.

Tags: Body, Mind, Reading

No oppression is so heavy or lasting as that which is inflicted by the perversion and exorbitance of legal authority.

Tags: Authority, Legal, Oppression

Books are the legacies that a great genius leaves to mankind, which are delivered down from generation to generation as presents to the posterity of those who are yet unborn.

Tags: Books, Genius, Great
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