The voices / 209 fragments

Joseph Addison

1672 AD — 1719 AD

Listed in the author section of Bartlett’s ninth-edition anthology, in the linked 1905 printing. Dates reflect that historical edition and may differ from modern scholarship.

Author and source reference ↗

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Historical source references

Cato
A Letter from Italy
The Campaign
Ode
Horace
Spectator
Prologue to The Drummer
Age · anthology attribution: Addison
Beauty · anthology attribution: Addison
Bigotry · anthology attribution: Addison
Cheerfulness · anthology attribution: Addison
Christianity · anthology attribution: Addison
Conceit · anthology attribution: Addison
Conscience · anthology attribution: Addison
Courtship · anthology attribution: Addison
Discretion · anthology attribution: Addison
Faith · anthology attribution: Addison
Friendship · anthology attribution: Addison
Futurity · anthology attribution: Addison
Gluttony · anthology attribution: Addison
Happiness · anthology attribution: Addison
Heroes · anthology attribution: Addison
Hope · anthology attribution: Addison
Hypocrisy · anthology attribution: Addison
Jealousy · anthology attribution: Addison
Justice · anthology attribution: Addison
Marriage · anthology attribution: Addison
Misfortune · anthology attribution: Addison
Modesty · anthology attribution: Addison
Parents · anthology attribution: Addison

Archive entries

01c. 1695 AD

For ever singing as they shine, The hand that made us is divine.

Joseph Addison / quote

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02c. 1695 AD

Should the whole frame of Nature round him break, In ruin and confusion hurled, He, unconcerned, would hear the mighty crack, And stand secure amidst a falling world.

Joseph Addison / quote

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03c. 1695 AD

In all thy humours, whether grave or mellow, Thou 'rt such a touchy, testy, pleasant fellow, Hast so much wit and mirth and spleen about thee, There is no living with thee, nor without thee.

Joseph Addison / quote

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04c. 1695 AD

Much may be said on both sides.

Joseph Addison / quote

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05c. 1695 AD

The Lord my pasture shall prepare, And feed me with a shepherd's care; His presence shall my wants supply, And guard me with a watchful eye.

Joseph Addison / quote

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06c. 1695 AD

Round-heads and wooden-shoes are standing jokes.

Joseph Addison / quote

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07Undated

He who would pass the declining years of his life 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 Addison / quote

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08Undated

Good nature will always supply the absence of beauty; but beauty cannot supply the absence of good nature.

Joseph Addison / quote

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09Undated

A man must be excessively stupid, as well as uncharitable, who believes there is no virtue but on his own side.

Joseph Addison / quote

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10Undated

A cheerful temper, joined with innocence, will make beauty attractive, knowledge delightful and wit good-natured. It will lighten sickness, poverty and affliction, convert ignorance into an amiable simplicity, and render deformity itself agreeable.

Joseph Addison / quote

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11Undated

A few persons of an odious and despised country could not have filled the world with believers, had they not shown undoubted credentials from the divine person who sent them on such a message.

Joseph Addison / quote

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12Undated

Nature has sometimes made a fool, but a coxcomb is always of a man's own making.

Joseph Addison / quote

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13Undated

A man's first care should be to avoid the reproaches of his own heart; his next, to escape the censures of the world. If the last interferes with the former, it ought to be entirely neglected; but otherwise there cannot be a greater satisfaction to an honest mind, than to see those approbations which it gives itself seconded by the applause of the public.

Joseph Addison / quote

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14Undated

The pleasantest part of a man's life is generally that which passes in courtship, provided his passion be sincere, and the party beloved kind with discretion. Love, desire, hope, all the pleasing emotions of the soul, rise in the pursuit.

Joseph Addison / quote

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15Undated

There are many more shining qualities in the mind of man, but there is none so useful as discretion.

Joseph Addison / quote

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16Undated

Discretion is the perfection of reason, and a guide to win all the duties of life.

Joseph Addison / quote

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17Undated

The person who has a firm trust in the Supreme Being is powerful in his power, wise by his wisdom, happy by his happiness.

Joseph Addison / quote

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18Undated

A friendship that makes the least noise is very often the most useful; for which reason I should prefer a prudent friend to a zealous one.

Joseph Addison / quote

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19Undated

Why will any man be so impertinently officious as to tell me all prospect of a future state is only fancy and delusion? Is there any merit in being the messenger of ill news. If it is a dream, let me enjoy it, since it makes me both the happier and better man.

Joseph Addison / quote

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20Undated

When I behold a fashionable table set out in all its magnificence, I fancy that I see gouts and dropsies, fevers and lethargies, with other innumerable distempers lying in ambuscade among the dishes. Nature delights in the most plain and simple diet. Every animal but man keeps to one dish. Herbs are the food of this species, fish of that, and flesh of a third. Man falls upon everything that comes in his way; not the smallest fruit or excrescence of the earth, scarce a berry or a mushroom can escape him.

Joseph Addison / quote

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21Undated

The utmost we can hope for in this world is contentment; if we aim at anything higher, we shall meet with nothing but grief and disappointment. A man should direct all his studies and endeavors at making himself easy now and happy hereafter.

Joseph Addison / quote

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22Undated

Troops of heroes undistinguished die.

Joseph Addison / quote

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23Undated

A religious hope does not only bear up the mind under her sufferings but makes her rejoice in them.

Joseph Addison / quote

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24Undated

Hypocrisy itself does great honor, or rather justice, to religion, and tacitly acknowledges it to be an ornament to human nature. The hypocrite would not be at so much pains to put on the appearance of virtue, if he did not know it was the most proper and effectual means to gain the love and esteem of mankind.

Joseph Addison / quote

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Joseph Addison

Archive entries

Read further

Meditations

The Republic

Tao Te Ching