Joseph Addison Quotes (205 Quotes)

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

When love once pleads admission to our hearts, In spite of all the virtue we can boast, The woman that deliberates is lost.

Faith is kept alive in us, and gathers strength, more from practice than from speculation.

As vivacity is the gift of women, gravity is that of men.

Irresolution on the schemes of life which offer themselves to our choice, and inconstancy in pursuing them, are the greatest causes of all our unhappiness.

The Lord my pasture shall prepare, And feed me with a shepherd's care His presence shall my wants supply, And guard me with a watchful eye.

Young people soon give, and forget insults, but old age is slow in both.

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

Nothing is more amiable than true modesty, and nothing more contemptible than the false

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.

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

But in all despotic governments, though a particular prince may favour arts and letter, there is a natural degeneracy of mankind.

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

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

'T 's pride, rank pride, and haughtiness of soul I think the Romans call it stoicism.

I consider time as an in immense ocean, in which many noble authors are entirely swallowed up

Much may be said on both sides.

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.

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.

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

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.

The infusion of a China plant sweetened with the pith of an Indian cane.

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

Education is a companion which no misfortune can depress, no crime can destroy, no enemy can alienate, no despotism can enslave. At home, a friend, abroad, an introduction, in solitude a solace and in society an ornament. It chastens vice, it guides virtue, it gives at once grace and government to genius. Without it, what is man A splendid slave, a reasoning savage.

It was a saying of an ancient philosopher, which I find some of our writers have ascribed to Queen Elizabeth, who perhaps might have taken occasion to repeat it, that a good face is a letter of recommendation.

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.

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

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

'T is not in mortals to command success, But we 'll do more, Sempronius, we 'll deserve it.

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

I live in the world rather as a spectator of mankind than as one of the species

Round-heads and wooden-shoes are standing jokes.

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

The spacious firmament on high, With all the blue ethereal sky, And spangled heavens, a shining frame, Their great Original proclaim.

Talking with a friend is nothing else but thinking aloud.

An honest private man often grows cruel and abandoned when converted into an absolute prince. Give a man power of doing what he pleases with impunity, you extinguish his fear, and consequently overturn in him one of the great pillars of morality.

Certain is it that there is no kind of affection so purely angelic as of a father to a daughter. In love to our wives there is desire to our sons, ambition but to our daughters there is something which there are no words to express.

Authors have established it as a kind of rule, that a man ought to be dull sometimes as the most severe reader makes allowances for many rests and nodding-places in a voluminous writer.

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

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

It must be so, Plato, thou reason'st well.

Allegories, when well chosen, are like so many tracks of light in a discourse, that make everything about them clear and beautiful.

An opera may be allowed to be extravagantly lavish in its decorations, as its only design is to gratify the senses and keep up an indolent attention in the audience.

The friendships of the world are oft confederacies in vice, or leagues of pleasures.

Man is distinguished from all other creatures by the faculty of laughter.

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

The person who has a firm trust in the Supreme Being is powerful in his power, wise by his wisdom, happy by his happiness.

Our disputants put me in mind of the skuttle fish, that when he is unable to extricate himself, blackens all the water about him, till he becomes invisible.

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.

Laughter, while it lasts, slackens and unbraces the mind, weakens the faculties and causes a kind of remissness and dissolution in all the powers of the soul and thus it may be looked on as weakness in the composition of human nature. But if we consider the frequent reliefs we receive from it and how often it breaks the gloom which is apt to depress the mind and damp our spirits, with transient, unexpected gleams of joy, one would take care not to grow too wise for so great a pleasure of life.