Joseph Addison Quotes
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What sunshine is to flowers, smiles are to humanity. These are but trifles, to be sure; but scattered along life's pathway, the good they do is inconceivable.
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Plenty of people wish to become devout, but no one wishes to be humble.
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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.
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If you wish to succeed in life, make perseverance your bosom friend, experience your wise counselor, caution your elder brother, and hope your guardian genius.
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What pity is it That we can die, but once to serve our country.
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Everything 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.
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Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body.
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The fear of death often proves mortal, and sets people on methods to save their Lives, which infallibly destroy them.
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Irregularity 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.
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Our real blessings often appear to us in the shape of pains, losses and disappointments; but let us have patience and we soon shall see them in their proper figures.
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If we may believe our logicians, man is distinguished from all other creatures by the faculty of laughter. He has a heart capable of mirth, and naturally disposed to it.
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Jesters do often prove prophets.
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The chief ingredients in the composition of those qualities that gain esteem and praise, are good nature, truth, good sense, and good breeding.
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A true critic ought to dwell upon excellencies rather than imperfections, to discover the concealed beauties of a writer, and communicate to the world such things as are worth their observation.
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What sculpture is to a block of marble, education is to the soul.
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The unassuming youth seeking instruction with humility gains good fortune.
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A cloudy day or a little sunshine have as great an influence on many constitutions as the most recent blessings or misfortunes.
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Young men soon give, and soon forget, affronts; old age is slow in both.
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Books are the legacies that a great genius leaves to mankind, which are delivered down from generation to generation as presents to the posterity of those who are yet unborn.
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The union of the Word and the Mind produces that mystery which is called Life... Learn deeply of the Mind and its mystery, for therein lies the secret of immortality.
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Cheerfulness is the best promoter of health and is as friendly to the mind as to the body.
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To be perfectly just is an attribute of the divine nature; to be so to the utmost of our abilities, is the glory of man.
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A man should always consider how much he has more than he wants.
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With regard to donations always expect the most from prudent people, who keep their own accounts.