Tradition is an important help to history, but its statements should be carefully scrutinized before we rely on them.
Joseph AddisonThe great number of the Jews furnishes us with a sufficient cloud of witnesses that attest the truth of the Bible.
Joseph AddisonI... recommend to every one of my Readers, the keeping a Journal of their Lives for one Week, and setting down punctually their whole Series of Employments during that Space of Time. This kind of Self-Examination would give them a true State of themselves, and incline them to consider seriously what they are about. One Day would rectifie the Omissions of another, and make a Man weigh all those indifferent Actions, which, though they are easily forgotten, must certainly be accounted for.
Joseph AddisonAdmiration is a very short-lived passion, that immediately decays upon growing familiar with its object.
Joseph AddisonIrregularity 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.
Joseph AddisonMarriage enlarges the scene of our happiness and miseries. A marriage of love is pleasant; a marriage of interest, easy; and a marriage where both meet, happy. A happy marriage has in it all the pleasures of friendship, all the enjoyments of sense and reason, and, indeed, all the sweets of life.
Joseph Addison