Joseph Addison Quotes
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To be an atheist requires an indefinitely greater measure of faith than to recieve all the great truths which atheism would deny.
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Suspicion is not less an enemy to virtue than to happiness; he that is already corrupt is naturally suspicious, and he that becomes suspicious will quickly be corrupt.
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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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Jesters do often prove prophets.
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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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I will indulge my sorrows, and give way to all the pangs and fury of despair.
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Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body.
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I have somewhere met with the epitaph on a charitable man which has pleased me very much. I cannot recollect the words, but here is the sense of it: 'What I spent I lost; what I possessed is left to others; what I gave away remains with me.'
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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 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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I value my garden more for being full of blackbirds than of cherries, and very frankly give them fruit for their songs.
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What sculpture is to a block of marble, education is to the soul.
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When men are easy in their circumstances, they are naturally enemies to innovations.
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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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The post of honour is a private station.
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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.
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Modesty is not only an ornament, but also a guard to virtue.
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We are always doing something for posterity, but I would fain see posterity do something for us.
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To a man of pleasure every moment appears to be lost, which partakes not of the vivacity of amusement.
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The unassuming youth seeking instruction with humility gains good fortune.
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Better to die ten thousand deaths than wound my honor.
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Plenty of people wish to become devout, but no one wishes to be humble.
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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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Even a stopped clock is right twice a day.