Joseph Addison Quotes

There is nothing in which men more deceive themselves than in what they call zeal.

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

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.

Antidotes are what you take to prevent dotes.

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

Heaven is not to be looked upon only as the reward, but the natural effect, of a religious life.

The Infusion of a China plant sweetened with the pith of an Indian Cane.

Complaisance, though in itself it be scarce reckoned in the number of moral virtues, is that which gives a lustre to every talent a man can be possessed of. It was Plato's advice to an unpolished writer that he should sacrifice to the graces. In the same manner I would advise every man of learning, who would not appear in the world a mere scholar or philosopher, to make himself master of the social virtue which I have here mentioned.

Artificial intelligence will never be a match for natural stupidity.

Our sight is the most perfect and most delightful of all our senses. It fills the mind with the largest variety of ideas, converses with its objects at the greatest distance, and continues the longest in action without being tired or satiated with its proper enjoyments.

A contented mind is the greatest blessing a man can enjoy in this world; and if in the present life his happiness arises from the subduing of his desires, it will arise in the next from the gratification of them.

The lives of great men cannot be writ with any tolerable degree of elegance or exactness within a short time after their decease.

Two persons who have chosen each other out of all the species with a design to be each other's mutual comfort and entertainment have, in that action, bound themselves to be good-humored, affable, discreet, forgiving, patient, and joyful, with respect to each other's frailties and perfections, to the end of their lives.

There is something very sublime, though very fanciful, in Plato's description of the Supreme Being,--that truth is His body and light His shadow. According to this definition there is nothing so contradictory to his nature as error and falsehood.

Plutarch says very finely that a man should not allow himself to hate even his enemies.

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

Religion contracts the circle of our pleasures, but leaves it wide enough for her votaries to expatiate in.

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

There is a kind of grandeur and respect which the meanest and most insignificant part of mankind endeavor to procure in the little circle of their friends and acquaintance. The poorest mechanic, nay, the man who lives upon common alms, gets him his set of admirers, and delights in that superiority which he enjoys over those who are in some respects beneath him. This ambition, which is natural to the soul of man, might, methinks, receive a very happy turn; and, if it were rightly directed, contribute as much to a person's advantage, as it generally does to his uneasiness and disquiet.

If there's a power above us, (And that there is all nature cries aloud Through all her works,) he must delight in virtue.

Flying would give such occasions for intrigues as people cannot meet with who have nothing but legs to carry them.

Our delight in any particular study, art, or science rises and improves in proportion to the application which we bestow upon it. Thus, what was at first an exercise becomes at length an entertainment.

Our friends don't see our faults, or conceal them, or soften 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 chief ingredients in the composition of those qualities that gain esteem and praise, are good nature, truth, good sense, and good breeding.

Sunday clears away the rust of the whole week.

He only is a great man who can neglect the applause of the multitude and enjoy himself independent of its favor.

The great number of the Jews furnishes us with a sufficient cloud of witnesses that attest the truth of the Bible.

It is certain that there is no other passion which does produce such contrary effects in so great a degree. But this may be said for love, that if you strike it out of the soul, life would be insipid, and our being but half animated.

A person may be qualified to do greater good to mankind and become more beneficial to the world, by morality without faith than by faith without morality.

Musick is certainly a very agreeable Entertainment, but if it would take the entire Possession of our Ears, if it would make us incapable of hearing Sense, if it would exclude Arts that have a much greater Tendency to the Refinement of human Nature; I must confess I would allow it no better Quarter than Plato has done, who banishes it out of his Common-wealth.

It is a celebrated thought of Socrates, that if all the misfortunes of mankind were cast into a public stock, in order to be equally distributed among the whole species, those who now think themselves the most unhappy would prefer the share they are already possessed of, before that which would fall to them by such a division. [as they realise their problems could be worse!]

Health and happiness give rise to each other.

In England we see people lulled sleep with solid and elaborate discourses of piety, who would be warmed and transported out of themselves by the bellowings and distortions of enthusiasm.

My voice is still for war. Gods! can a Roman senate long debate Which of the two to choose, slavery or death?

Eternity! thou pleasing, dreadful thought.

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 first race of mankind used to dispute, as our ordinary people do now-a-days, in a kind of wild logic, uncultivated by rule of art.

When I consider the Question, Whether there are such Persons in the World as those we call Witches? My Mind is divided between the two opposite Opinions; or rather I believe in general that there is, and has been such a thing as Witchcraft; but at the same time can give no Credit to any Particular Instance of it.

A virtuous mind in a fair body is indeed a fine picture in a good light, and therefore it is no wonder that it makes the beautiful sex all over charms.

Justice discards party, friendship, kindred, and is always, therefore, represented as blind.

All of heaven we have below.

What an absurd thing it is to pass over all the valuable parts of a man, and fix our attention on his infirmities.

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

If ridicule were employed to laugh men out of vice and folly, it might be of some use.

The moderns cannot reach their beauties, but can avoid their imperfections.

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

I never knew a critic who made it his business to lash the faults of other writers that was not guilty of greater himself--as the hangman is generally a worse malefactor than the criminal that suffers by his hand.