Every one knows the veneration which was paid by the Jews to a name so great, wonderful, and holy. They would not let it enter even into their religious discourses. What can we then think of those who make use of so tremendous a name, in the ordinary expression of their anger, mirth, and most impertinent passions?
Joseph AddisonGold is a wonderful clearer of the understanding; it dissipates every doubt and scruple in an instant.
Joseph AddisonFriendships, in general, are suddenly contracted; and therefore it is no wonder they are easily dissolved.
Joseph AddisonDependence is a perpetual call upon humanity, and a greater incitement to tenderness and pity than any other motive whatever.
Joseph AddisonThe intelligence of affection is carried on by the eye only; good-breeding has made the tongue falsify the heart, and act a part of continued restraint, while nature has preserved the eyes to herself, that she may not be disguised or misrepresented.
Joseph AddisonCunning has only private selfish aims, and sticks at nothing which may make them succeed. Discretion has large and extended views, and, like a well-formed eye, commands a whole horizon; cunning is a kind of shortsightedness, that discovers the minutest objects which are near at hand, but is not able to discern things at a distance.
Joseph AddisonThere is not a more pleasing exercise of the mind than gratitude. It is accompanied with such an inward satisfaction that the duty is sufficiently rewarded by the performance
Joseph AddisonThe first of all virtues is innocence; the next is modesty. If we banish modesty out of the world, she carries away with her half the virtue that is in it.
Joseph AddisonThe voice of reason is more to be regarded than the bent of any present inclination; since inclination will at length come over to reason, though we can never force reason to comply with inclination.
Joseph AddisonAll well-regulated families set apart an hour every morning for tea and bread and butter
Joseph AddisonA man whose extraordinary reputation thus lifts him up to the notice and observation of mankind, draws a multitude of eyes upon him, that will narrowly inspect every part of him.
Joseph AddisonLaughter, 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.
Joseph AddisonDevotion, when it does not lie under the check of reason, is apt to degenerate into enthusiasm.
Joseph AddisonOur admiration of a famous man lessens upon our nearer acquaintance with him; and we seldom hear of a celebrated person without a catalogue of some notorious weaknesses and infirmities.
Joseph AddisonPhysic, for the most part, is nothing else but the substitute of exercise and temperance.
Joseph AddisonMisery and ignorance are always the cause of great evils. Misery is easily excited to anger, and ignorance soon yields to perfidious counsels.
Joseph AddisonEvery man in the time of courtship and in the first entrance of marriage, puts on a behavior like my correspondent's holiday suit.
Joseph AddisonNo man writes a book without meaning something, though he may not have the faculty of writing consequentially and expressing his meaning.
Joseph AddisonA fine coat is but a livery when the person who wears it discovers no higher sense than that of a footman.
Joseph AddisonI think I may define taste to be that faculty of the soul which discerns the beauties of an author with pleasure, and the imperfections with dislike.
Joseph AddisonIn the founders of great families, titles or attributes of honor are generally correspondent with the virtues of the person to whom they are applied; but in their descendants they are too often the marks rather of grandeur than of merit. The stamp and denomination still continue, but the intrinsic value is frequently lost.
Joseph AddisonWhen a man has been guilty of any vice or folly, the best atonement he can make for it is to warn others not to fall into the like.
Joseph AddisonI would fain ask one of these bigotted Infidels, supposing all the great Points of Atheism... were laid together and formed into a kind of Creed, according to the Opinions of the most celebrated Atheists; I say, supposing such a Creed as this were formed, and imposed upon any one People in the World, whether it would not require an infinitely greater Measure of Faith, than any Set of Articles which they so violently oppose.
Joseph AddisonIn the common run of mankind, for one that is wise and good you find ten of a contrary character.
Joseph AddisonThe transition from cause to effect, from event to event, is often carried on by secret steps, which our foresight cannot divine, and our sagacity is unable to trace.
Joseph AddisonNothing that isn't a real crime makes a man appear so contemptible and little in the eyes of the world as inconsistency.
Joseph AddisonI consider an human soul without education like marble in the quarry, which shows none of its inherent beauties till the skill of the polisher fetches out the colours, makes the surface shine, and discovers every ornamental cloud, spot and vein that runs through the body of it.
Joseph AddisonThe only way therefore to try a Piece of Wit, is to translate it into a different Language: If it bears the Test you may pronounceit true; but if it vanishes in the Experiment you may conclude it to have been a Punn.
Joseph AddisonThe care of our national commerce redounds more to the riches and prosperity of the public than any other act of government.
Joseph AddisonVanity is the natural weakness of an ambitious man, which exposes him to the secret scorn and derision of those he converses with, and ruins the character he is so industrious to advance by it.
Joseph AddisonHe who would pass his declining years with honor and comfort, should, when young, consider that he may one day become old, and remember when he is old, that he has once been young.
Joseph AddisonIf men of eminence are exposed to censure on one hand, they are as much liable to flattery on the other. If they receive reproaches which are not due to them, they likewise receive praises which they do not deserve.
Joseph AddisonVirgil has very finely touched upon the female passion for dress and shows, in the character of Camilla; who though she seems to have shaken off all the other weaknesses of her sex, is still described as a woman in this particular.
Joseph AddisonEverything 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.
Joseph AddisonIn 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.
Joseph AddisonIn private conversation between intimate friends, the wisest men very often talk like the weakest : for indeed the talking with a friend is nothing else but thinking aloud.
Joseph Addison