Joseph Addison Quotes (205 Quotes)

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

The Hand that made us is divine.

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.

For wheresoe'er I turn my ravish'd eyes, Gay gilded scenes and shining prospects rise, Poetic fields encompass me around, And still I seem to tread on classic ground.

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 disease of jealously is so malignant that is converts all it takes into its own nourishment.

When I read the several dates of the tombs, of some that died yesterday, and some six hundred years ago, I consider that great day when we shall all of us be contemporaries, and make our appearance together.

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

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

In my Lucia's absence Life hangs upon me, and becomes a burden I am ten times undone, while hope, and fear, And grief, and rage and love rise up at once, And with variety of pain distract me.

Whether zeal or moderation be the point we aim at, let us keep the fire out of the one, and the frost out of the other.

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

The unassuming youth seeking instruction with humility gains good fortune.

It is very wonderful to see persons of the best sense passing hours together in shuffling and dividing a pack of cards with no conversation but what is made up of a few game-phrases, and no other ideas but those of black or red spots arranged together in different figures. Would not a man laugh to hear any one of his species complaining that life is short.

Our friends don't see our faults, or conceal them, or soften them.

Content thyself to be obscurely good. When vice prevails, and impious men bear sway, the post of honoris a private station.

Unbounded courage and compassion join'd, Tempering each other in the victor's mind, Alternately proclaim him good and great, And make the hero and the man complete.

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!

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

Knowledge is that which, next to virtue, truly raises one person above another.

Jesters do often prove prophets.

Prejudice and self-sufficiency naturally proceed from inexperience of the world, and ignorance of mankind.

A man with great talents, but void of discretion, is like Polyphemus in the fable, strong and blind, endued with an irresistible force, which for want of sight is of no use to him

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

A perfect tragedy is the noblest production of human nature.

A good disposition is more valuable than gold, for the latter is the gift of fortune, but the former is the dower of nature.

And those that paint them truest praise them most.

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.

There is no defense against reproach but obscurity it is a kind of concomitant to greatness, as satires and invectives were an essential part of a Roman triumph.

A man who is furnished with arguments from the mint, will convince his antagonist much sooner than one who draws them from reason and philosophy. Gold is a wonderful clearer of the understanding it dissipates every doubt and scruple in an instant accommodates itself to the meanest capacities silences the loud and clamorous, and cringes over the most obstinate and inflexible. Philip of Macedon was a man of most invincible reason this way. He refuted by it all the wisdom of Athens confounded their statesmen struck their orators dumb and at length argued them out of all their liberties.

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

Title and ancestry render a good man more illustrious, but an ill one more contemptible.

Marriage enlarges the scene of our happiness and of our miseries. A marriage of love is pleasant, of interest, easy, and where both meet, happy. A happy marriage has in it all the pleasures of friendship, all the enjoyments of sense and reason, and,

If men would consider not so much wherein they differ, as wherein they agree, there would be far less of uncharitableness and angry feeling in the world.

There are many shining qualities on the mind of man but none so useful as discretion. It is this which gives a value to all the rest, and sets them at work in their proper places, and turns them to the advantage of their possessor. Without it, learning is pedantry wit, impertinence virtue itself looks like weakness and the best parts only qualify a man to be more sprightly in errors, and active to his own prejudice. Though a man has all other perfections and wants discretion, he will be of no great consequence in the world but if he has this single talent in perfection, and but a common share of others, he may do what he pleases in his station of life.

The great art in writing advertisements is the finding out of a proper method to catch the reader's eye without which, a good thing may pass over unobserved, or lost among commissions of bankrupt.

Nothing that isn't a real crime makes a man appear so contemptible and little in the eyes of the world as inconsistency.

The man who will live above his present circumstances, is in great danger of soon living beneath them or as the Italian proverb says, The man that lives by hope, will die by despair

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

Music is the only sensual gratification which mankind may indulge in to excess without injury to their moral or religious feelings.

A reader seldom peruses a book with pleasure until he knows whether the writer of it be a black man or a fair man, of a mild or choleric disposition, married or a bachelor.

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.

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.

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.

Sweet are the slumbers of the virtuous man.

We travel through time as through a country filled with many wild and empty wastes, which we would fain hurry over, that we may arrive at those several little settlements or imaginary points of rest which are dispersed up and down in it

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.

The hours of a wise man are lengthened by his ideas.

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

See in what peace a Christian can die.