English essayist, poet & playwright (1672-1719)
There is no greater sign of a bad cause, than when the patrons of it are reduced to the necessity of making use of the most wicked artifices to support it.
JOSEPH ADDISON
The Freeholder, Jan. 13, 1716
Charity is a virtue of the heart, and not of the hands.
JOSEPH ADDISON
The Guardian, Sep. 21, 1713
To be perfectly just is an attribute in the divine nature; to be so to the utmost of our abilities, is the glory of man.
JOSEPH ADDISON
The Guardian, Jul. 4, 1713
Were all the vexations of life put together, we should find that a great part of them proceed from those calumnies and reproaches we spread abroad concerning one another.
JOSEPH ADDISON
The Spectator, September 15, 1714
Better to die ten thousand deaths, than wound my honour.
JOSEPH ADDISON
Cato
Great Pompey's shade complains that we are slow,
And Scipio's ghost walks unavenged amongst us!
JOSEPH ADDISON
Cato
Those marriages generally abound most with love and constancy that are preceded by a long courtship.
JOSEPH ADDISON
The Spectator, Dec. 29, 1711
The sun, which is as the great soul of the universe, and produces all the necessaries of life, has a particular influence in cheering the mind of man, and making the heart glad.
JOSEPH ADDISON
The Spectator, May 24, 1712
And even the greatest actions of a celebrated person labour under this disadvantage, that however surprising and extraordinary they may be, they are no more than what are expected from him; but on the contrary, if they fall any thing below the opinion that is conceived of him, though they might raise the reputation of another, they are a diminution to his.
JOSEPH ADDISON
The Spectator, No. 256
Let echo, too, perform her part / Prolonging every note with art / And in a low expiring strain / Play all the concert o'er again.
JOSEPH ADDISON
Ode on St. Cecilia's Day
One of the best springs of generous and worthy actions, is having generous and worthy thoughts of ourselves: whoever has a mean opinion of the dignity of his nature will act in no higher a rank than he has allotted himself in his own estimation.
JOSEPH ADDISON
The Spectator, October 31, 1711
When men are easy in their circumstances, they are naturally enemies to innovations.
JOSEPH ADDISON
The Freeholder, May 14, 1716
A money-lender--he serves you in the present tense; he lends you in the conditional mood; keeps you in the conjunctive; and ruins you in the future.
JOSEPH ADDISON
attributed, Many Thoughts of Many Minds
Knowledge is, indeed, that which, next to virtue, truly and essentially raises one man above another.
JOSEPH ADDISON
The Guardian, Jul. 18, 1713
True modesty avoids everything that is criminal; false modesty everything that is unfashionable.
JOSEPH ADDISON
The Spectator, August 15, 1712
There is not a more unhappy being than a superannuated idol.
JOSEPH ADDISON
The Spectator, May 24, 1711
I am very much concerned when I see young gentlemen of fortune and quality so wholly set upon pleasures and diversions, that they neglect all those improvements in wisdom and knowledge which may make them easy to themselves and useful to the world.
JOSEPH ADDISON
The Guardian, Jul. 18, 1713
See in what peace a Christian can die!
JOSEPH ADDISON
last words, Jun. 17, 1719
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.
JOSEPH ADDISON
The Spectator, Nov. 13, 1712
I shall endeavor to enliven morality with wit, and to temper wit with morality.
JOSEPH ADDISON
The Spectator, Mar. 11, 1711