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

How are thy servants blest O Lord! How sure is their defence! Eternal wisdom is their guide, Their help omnipotence. In midst of dangers, fears, and death, Thy goodness I’ll adore; And praise thee for thy mercies past, And humbly hope for more. My life, if thou preserv’st my life, Thy sacrifice shall be; And death, if death must be my doom, Shall join my soul to Thee.

Joseph Addison / quote

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02c. 1695 AD

Though in the paths of death I tread, With gloomy horrors overspread, My steadfast heart shall fear no ill, For thou, O Lord, art with me still; Thy friendly crook shall give me aid, And guide me through the dreadful shade.

Joseph Addison / quote

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03c. 1695 AD

Honour’s a sacred tie—the law of kings, The noble mind’s distinguishing perfection, That aids and strengthens virtue when it meets her, And imitates her actions where she is not.

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04c. 1695 AD

How are thy servants bless’d, O Lord! How sure is their defence! Eternal wisdom is their guide, Their help, Omnipotence! In foreign realms, and lands remote, Supported by thy care, Through burning climes I pass’d unhurt, And breathed in tainted air. In midst of dangers, fears, and death, Thy goodness I’ll adore; And praise thee for thy mercies past, And humbly hope for more.

Joseph Addison / quote

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05c. 1695 AD

The soul, secure in her existence, smiles At the drawn dagger, and defies its point: 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 crash of worlds!

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06c. 1695 AD

The storm was laid, the winds retired, Obedient to Thy will; The sea, that roared at Thy command, At Thy command was still.

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07c. 1695 AD

When all thy mercies, O my God, My rising soul surveys, Transported with the view, I’m lost In wonder, love, and praise. Unnumber’d blessings on my head Thy tender care bestow’d, Before my infant heart conceived From whom those blessings flow’d. Ten thousand thousand precious gifts My daily thanks employ; Nor is the least a grateful heart, To taste those gifts with joy. Through every period of my life Thy goodness I’ll pursue; And, after death, in distant worlds, The glorious theme renew.

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08c. 1695 AD

Outward actions can never give a just estimate of us, since there are many perfections of a man which are not capable of appearing in actions.

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09c. 1695 AD

We are apt to rely upon future prospects, and become really expensive while we are only rich in possibility. We live up to our expectations, not to our possessions, and make a figure proportionable to what we may be, not what we are. We outrun our present income, as not doubting to disburse ourselves out of the profits of some future place, project, or reversion that we have in view.

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10c. 1695 AD

However consonant to reason his precepts appeared, nothing could have tempted men to acknowledge him as their God and Saviour but their being firmly persuaded of the miracles he wrought.

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11c. 1695 AD

They who have the true taste of conversation enjoy themselves in a communication of each other's excellences, and not in a triumph over their imperfections.

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12c. 1695 AD

Courage that grows from constitution often forsakes the man when he has occasion for it; courage which arises from a sense of duty acts in a uniform manner.

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13c. 1695 AD

Though a man has all other perfections and wants discretion, he will be of no great consequence in the world; but if he has this single talent in perfection, and but a common share of others, he may do what he pleases in his particular station of life.

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14c. 1695 AD

A good disposition is more valuable than gold; for the latter is the gift of fortune, but the former is the dower of nature.

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15c. 1695 AD

What sculpture is to a block of marble, education is to a human soul. The philosopher, the saint, and the hero,—the wise, the good, and the great man, very often lie hid and concealed in a plebeian, which a proper education might have disinterred and brought to light.

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16c. 1695 AD

Many passions dispose us to depress and vilify the merit of one rising in the esteem of mankind.

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17c. 1695 AD

Upon laying a weight in one of the scales, inscribed eternity, though I threw in that of time, prosperity, affliction, wealth, and poverty, which seemed very ponderous, they were not able to stir the opposite balance.

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18c. 1695 AD

Falsehood and fraud shoot up in every soil, the product of all climes.

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19c. 1695 AD

Our admiration of a famous man lessens upon our nearer acquaintance with him; and we seldom hear of a celebrated person without a catalogue of some notorious weaknesses and infirmities.

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20c. 1695 AD

A multitude of eyes will narrowly inspect every part of an eminent man, consider him nicely in all views, and not be a little pleased when they have taken him in the worst and most disadvantageous lights.

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21c. 1695 AD

These poor gentlemen endeavor to gain themselves the reputation of wits and humorists, by such monstrous conceits as almost qualify them for bedlam; not considering that humor should always lie under the check of reason, and that it requires the direction of the nicest judgment, by so much the more as it indulges itself in the most boundless freedoms.

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22c. 1695 AD

Nothing that is not a real crime makes a man appear so contemptible and little in the eyes of the world as inconstancy.

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23c. 1695 AD

Mankind are more indebted to industry than ingenuity; the gods set up their favors at a price, and industry is the purchaser.

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24c. 1695 AD

Irresolution on the schemes of life which offer themselves to our choice, and inconstancy in pursuing them, are the greatest causes of all our unhappiness.

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