Joseph Addison Quotes
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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.
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Nothing is more gratifying to the mind of man than power or dominion.
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He 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.
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Sunday clears away the rust of the whole week.
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The greatest sweetener of human life is Friendship. To raise this to the highest pitch of enjoyment, is a secret which but few discover.
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Mysterious love, uncertain treasure, hast thou more of pain or pleasure! Endless torments dwell about thee: Yet who would live, and live without thee!
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Reading is a basic tool in the living of a good life.
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Those Marriages generally abound most with Love and Constancy, that are preceded by a long Courtship.
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There is not so variable a thing in nature as a lady's head-dress.
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To say that authority, whether secular or religious, supplies no ground for morality is not to deny the obvious fact that it supplies a sanction.
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Some virtues are only seen in affliction and others only in prosperity.
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Courage that grows from constitution often forsakes a man when he has occasion for it; courage which arises from a sense of duty acts; in a uniform manner.
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The Mind that lies fallow but a single Day, sprouts up in Follies that are only to be killed by a constant and assiduous Culture.
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It is only imperfection that complains of what is imperfect. The more perfect we are the more gentle and quiet we become towards the defects of others.
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An ostentatious man will rather relate a blunder or an absurdity he has committed, than be debarred from talking of his own dear person.
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Nothing is capable of being well set to music that is not nonsense.
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A just and reasonable modesty does not only recommend eloquence, but sets off every great talent which a man can be possessed of.
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Mere bashfulness without merit is awkwardness.
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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.
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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!
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The important question is not, what will yield to man a few scattered pleasures, but what will render his life happy on the whole amount.
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Three grand essentials to happiness in this life are something to do, something to love, and something to hope for.
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Music, the greatest good that mortals know and all of heaven we have hear below.
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True happiness arises, in the first place, from the enjoyment of one's self, and in the next, from the friendship and conversation of a few select companions.