JAJoseph Addison

209 collected words

Joseph Addison

Life dates: 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.

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Quotations and sayings

01c. 1695 AD

The family is the proper province for private women to shine in.

Joseph Addison / quote

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02c. 1695 AD

The man who will live above his present circumstances is in great danger of living in a little time much beneath them, or, as the Italian proverb says, "The man who lives by hope will die by despair."

Joseph Addison / quote

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03c. 1695 AD

The proverb says of the Genoese, that they have a sea without fish, lands without trees, and men without faith.

Joseph Addison / quote

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04c. 1695 AD

The schoolboy counts the time till the return of the holidays; the minor longs to be of age; the lover is impatient till he is married.

Joseph Addison / quote

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05c. 1695 AD

The stars shall fade away, the sun himself / Grow dim with age, and Nature sink in years; / But thou shalt flourish in immortal youth, / Unhurt amidst the war of elements, / The wrecks of matter and the crash of worlds.

Joseph Addison / quote

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06c. 1695 AD

The true art of being agreeable is to appear well pleased with all the company, and rather to seem well entertained with them than to bring entertainment to them.

Joseph Addison / quote

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07c. 1695 AD

There is no defence against reproach but obscurity.

Joseph Addison / quote

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08c. 1695 AD

There is no real life but cheerful life.

Joseph Addison / quote

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09c. 1695 AD

There is not in earth a spectacle more worthy than a great man superior to his sufferings.

Joseph Addison / quote

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10c. 1695 AD

Those are often raised into the greatest transports of mirth who are subject to the greatest depressions of melancholy.

Joseph Addison / quote

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11c. 1695 AD

Unbounded courage and compassion join'd, / Tempting each other in the victor's mind, / Alternately proclaim him good and great, / And make the hero and the man complete.

Joseph Addison / quote

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12c. 1695 AD

We are always complaining our days are few, and acting as though there would be no end of them.

Joseph Addison / quote

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13c. 1695 AD

Wit is a pernicious thing when it is not tempered with virtue and humanity.

Joseph Addison / quote

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14c. 1695 AD

Without discretion learning is pedantry and wit impertinence; virtue itself looks like weakness. The best parts only qualify a man to be more sprightly in errors, and active to his own prejudice.

Joseph Addison / quote

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15c. 1695 AD

Young men soon give, and soon forget affronts; old age is slow in both.

Joseph Addison / quote

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16c. 1695 AD

An indiscreet man is more hurtful than an ill-natured one; for as the latter will only attack his enemies, and those he wishes ill to, the other injures indifferently both his friends and foes.

Joseph Addison / quote

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17c. 1695 AD

It is very hard for the mind to disengage itself from a subject on which it has been long employed. The thoughts will be rising of themselves from time to time, though we have given them no encouragement, as the tossings and fluctuations of the sea continue several hours after the winds are laid.

Joseph Addison / quote

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18c. 1695 AD

A just and reasonable modesty does not only recommend eloquence, but sets off every talent which a man can be possessed of. It heightens all the virtues which it accompanies; like the shades of paintings, it raises and rounds every figure, and makes the colours more beautiful, though not so glowing as they would be without it.

Joseph Addison / quote

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19c. 1695 AD

We ought always to make choice of persons of such worth and honor for our friends, that, if they should even cease to be so, they will not abuse our confidence, nor give us cause to fear them as enemies.

Joseph Addison / quote

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20c. 1695 AD

Thy father's merit sets thee up to view, And shows thee in the fairest point of light, To make thy virtues, or thy faults conspicuous.

Joseph Addison / quote

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21c. 1695 AD

'Tis not my talent to conceal my thoughts, Or carry smiles and sunshine in my face, When discontent sits heavy at my heart.

Joseph Addison / quote

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22c. 1695 AD

It must be so—Plato, thou reasonest well!— Else whence this pleasing hope, this fond desire, This longing after immortality? Or whence this secret dread, and inward horror, Of falling into naught? Why shrinks the soul Back on herself, and startles at destruction? 'Tis the Divinity that stirs within us; 'Tis Heaven itself that points out an hereafter, And intimates eternity to man. The stars shall fade away, the sun himself Grow dim with age, and nature sink in years, But thou shalt flourish in immortal youth, Unhurt amidst the war of elements, The wreck of matter, and the crush of worlds.

Joseph Addison / quote

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23c. 1695 AD

He serves you in the present tense; He lends you in the conditional mood; Keeps you in the subjunctive; And is apt to ruin you in the future!

Joseph Addison / quote

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24c. 1695 AD

Virtues like these Make human nature shine, reform the soul, And break our fierce barbarians into men.

Joseph Addison / quote

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