Joseph Addison
Birthdate: May 1, 1672
Birthplace: Milston, Wiltshire, England, United Kingdom
Date of Death: June 17, 1718
Occupation: Author, Playwright, and Politician
Profile: Best known for
The Spectator.
Website: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Addison
Number of Quotes: 64
A contented mind is the greatest blessing a man can enjoy in this world.
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.
A woman seldom asks advice before she has bought her wedding clothes.
Admiration is a very short-lived passion, that immediately decays upon growing familiar with its object.
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.
An ostentatious man will rather relate a blunder or an absurdity he has committed, than be debarred from talking of his own dear person.
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.
Better to die ten thousand deaths than wound my honor.
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.
Cheerfulness is the best promoter of health and is as friendly to the mind as to the body.
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.
Even a stopped clock is right twice a day.
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.
Friendships, in general, are suddenly contracted; and therefore it is no wonder they are easily dissolved.
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.
I value my garden more for being full of blackbirds than of cherries, and very frankly give them fruit for their songs.
I will indulge my sorrows, and give way to all the pangs and fury of despair.
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.
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.
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.
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!
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.
Jesters do often prove prophets.
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.
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.
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.
Mere bashfulness without merit is awkwardness.
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.
Modesty is not only an ornament, but also a guard to virtue.
Music, the greatest good that mortals know and all of heaven we have hear below.
Mutability of temper and inconsistency with ourselves is the greatest weakness of human nature.
Mysterious love, uncertain treasure, hast thou more of pain or pleasure!
Endless torments dwell about thee: Yet who would live, and live without thee!
No oppression is so heavy or lasting as that which is inflicted by the perversion and exorbitance of legal authority.
Nothing is capable of being well set to music that is not nonsense.
Nothing is more gratifying to the mind of man than power or dominion.
Plenty of people wish to become devout, but no one wishes to be humble.
Reading is a basic tool in the living of a good life.
Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body.
See in what peace a Christian can die.
Sunday clears away the rust of the whole week.
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.
That he delights in the misery of others no man will confess, and yet what other motive can make a father cruel?
The chief ingredients in the composition of those qualities that gain esteem and praise, are good nature, truth, good sense, and good breeding.
The fear of death often proves mortal, and sets people on methods to save their Lives, which infallibly destroy them.
The greatest sweetener of human life is Friendship. To raise this to the highest pitch of enjoyment, is a secret which but few discover.
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.
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.
The post of honour is a private station.
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.
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.
The unjustifiable severity of a parent is loaded with this aggravation, that those whom he injures are always in his sight.
The utmost extent of man's knowledge, is to know that he knows nothing.
The woman that deliberates is lost.
There is not so variable a thing in nature as a lady's head-dress.
There is nothing more requisite in business than despatch.
There is nothing that makes its way more directly into the soul than beauty.
There is nothing which we receive with so much reluctance as advice.
Those Marriages generally abound most with Love and Constancy, that are preceded by a long Courtship.
Three grand essentials to happiness in this life are something to do, something to love, and something to hope for.
To be an atheist requires an indefinitely greater measure of faith than to recieve all the great truths which atheism would deny.
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.
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.
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.
We are always doing something for posterity, but I would fain see posterity do something for us.
What pity is it That we can die, but once to serve our country.
What sculpture is to a block of marble, education is to the soul.
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.
When men are easy in their circumstances, they are naturally enemies to innovations.
With regard to donations always expect the most from prudent people, who keep their own accounts.
Last on Earth
