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Joseph Addison Quotes - Page 6

All Quotes Affection Age Ambition Appearance Art Atheism Beauty Bravery Character Children Community Compassion Contentment Country Courage Criticism Critics Death Design Desire Destiny Earth Education Enthusiasm Eternity Evil Exercise Fame Fate Flattery Friends Friendship Funny Genius Giving Glory God Gold Gratitude Greatness Grief Happiness Health Heart Heaven Honesty Honor Hope Human Nature Humanity Humility Husband Imagination Imperfection Innocence Inspirational Inspiring Judgment Justice Kindness Knowledge Laughter Liberty Life Life And Death Literature Losing Love Lying Mankind Marriage Modesty Morality Mountain Music Nature Opportunity Pain Passion Perfection Philosophy Plato Praise Prejudice Pride Prosperity Quality Reading Religion Running Safety Satire Science Serenity Silence Sorrow Soul Success Suffering Sunshine Talent Time Tragedy Understanding Violence Virtue War Weakness Wine Wisdom Wit Work Writing

How is it possible for those who are men of honor in their persons, thus to become notorious liars in their party

How is it possible for those who are men of honor in their persons, thus to become notorious liars in their party

Liars, Party, Men

Joseph Addison, Sir Richard Steele (1860). “The Spectator”, p.601

To be exempt from the passions with which others are tormented, is the only pleasing solitude.

Single, Passion, Pleasing Others

Joseph Addison, Sir Richard Steele (1853). “The Spectator”, p.100

What an absurd thing it is to pass over all the valuable parts of a man, and fix our attention on his infirmities.

Men, Attention, Absurd

Joseph Addison, Sir Richard Steele (1853). “The Spectator”, p.243

The English Writers of Tragedy are possessed with a Notion, that when they represent a virtuous or innocent Person in Distress, they ought not to leave him till they have delivered him out of his Troubles, or made him triumph over his Enemies.

Innocent Person, Enemy, Criticism

Joseph Addison, Sir Richard Steel (1858). “The Spectator”, p.80

Good nature is more agreeable in conversation than wit and gives a certain air to the countenance which is more amiable than beauty.

Attitude, Air, Giving

Joseph Addison (1839). “Essays, Moral and Humorous: Also Essays on Imagination and Taste”, p.67

He only is a great man who can neglect the applause of the multitude and enjoy himself independent of its favor.

Independent, Greatness, Men

Joseph Addison, Sir Richard Steel (1858). “The Spectator”, p.227

To a man of pleasure every moment appears to be lost, which partakes not of the vivacity of amusement.

Happiness, Success, Men

Joseph Addison (1794). “Interesting Anecdotes, Memoirs, Allegories, Essays, and Poetical Fragments: Tending to Amuse the Fancy, and Inculcate Morality”, p.159

I have always preferred cheerfulness to mirth. The latter I consider as an act, the former as a habit of mind. Mirth is short and transient, cheerfulness fixed and permanent.

Optimism, Mind, Mirth

Joseph Addison (1839). “Essays, Moral and Humorous: Also Essays on Imagination and Taste”, p.103

Admiration is a very short lived passion that immediately decays upon growing familiar with its object, unless it still be fed with fresh discoveries, and kept alive by a new perpetual succession of miracles rising up to its view.

Life, Respect, Passion

Joseph Addison, Sir Richard Steele (1856). “The Spectator”, p.318

It is only imperfection that complains of what is imperfect. The more perfect we are the more gentle and quiet we become towards the defects of others.

Inspiring, Perfect, Excellence

Beauty commonly produces love, but cleanliness preserves it. Age itself is not unamiable while it is preserved clean and unsullied; like a piece of metal constantly kept smooth and bright, we look on it with more pleasure than on a new vessel cankered with rust.

Age, Looks, Pieces

Joseph Addison, Richard Steele (1855). “The Spectator”, p.446

Among those evils which befall us, there are many which have been more painful to us in the prospect than by their actual pressure.

Evil, Anxiety, Pressure

Joseph Addison, Sir Richard Steele (1822). “The Spectator: with notes and illustrations. In six volumes”, p.265

On you, my lord, with anxious fear I wait, and from your judgment must expect my fate.

Fate, Waiting, Judgment

Joseph Addison (1854). “The Works of the Right Honourable Joseph Addison”, p.4

I am wonderfully pleased when I meet with any passage in an old Greek or Latin author, that is not blown upon, and which I have never met with in any quotation.

Latin, Greek, Mets

Joseph Addison (1868). “The Works of Joseph Addison: Including the Whole Contents of Bp. Hurd's Edition, with Letters and Other Pieces Not Found in Any Previous Collection; and Macaulay's Essay on His Life and Works”, p.437

Women were formed to temper Mankind, and sooth them into Tenderness and Compassion; not to set an Edge upon their Minds, and blowup in them those Passions which are too apt to rise of their own Accord.

Women, Passion, Mind

Joseph Addison (1721). “Remarks on several parts of Italy , &c in the years 1701, 1702, 1703. The Tatler. By Isaac Bickerstaffe, esq. The Spectator, no.1-89”, p.519

The most violent appetites in all creatures are lust and hunger; the first is a perpetual call upon them to propagate their kind, the latter to preserve themselves.

Lust, Literature, Firsts

Joseph Addison, Sir Richard Steele (1826). “The Spectator: With Notes, and a General Index”, p.156

It is the duty of all who make philosophy the entertainment of their lives, to turn their thoughts to practical schemes for the good of society, and not pass away their time in fruitless searches, which tend rather to the ostentation of knowledge than the service of life.

Philosophy, Passing Away, Entertainment

Joseph Addison (1837). “The Tatler. The Guardian. The Freeholder. The Whig-examiner. The lover. Dialogues upon the usefulness of ancient medals. Remarks on several parts of Italy, etc. The present state of the war. The late trial and conviction of Count Tariff. The evidences of the Christian religion. Essay on Virgil's Georgics. Poems on several occasions. Translations from Ovid's Metamorphoses. Notes on some of the foregoing stories in Ovid's Metamorphoses. Poemata. Rosamond. Cato. The drummer”, p.90

Health and cheerfulness naturally beget each other.

Inspirational, Get Well, Yoga

The Spectator Vol. V, No. 387 (1712)

I value my garden more for being full of blackbirds than of cherries, and very frankly give them fruit for their songs.

Song, Animal, Garden

Joseph Addison, Sir Richard Steel (1810). “The Spectator”, p.20

Man is subject to innumerable pains and sorrows by the very condition of humanity, and yet, as if nature had not sown evils enough in life, we are continually adding grief to grief and aggravating the common calamity by our cruel treatment of one another.

Honesty, Pain, Integrity

Joseph Addison (1837). “The Spectator, no. 1-314”, p.251

Rides in the whirlwind and directs the storm.

Editing, Editors, Storm

'The Campaign' (1705) l. 291

This not in mortals to command success, but we'll do more, Sempronius, we'll deserve it.

Success, Merit, Command

'Cato' (1713) act 1, sc. 2, l. 43

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.

Pain, Learning, Men

Joseph Addison (1839). “Essays Moral and Humorous: Also Essays on Imagination and Taste”, p.135

What I spent I lost; what I possessed is left to others; what I gave away remains with me.

Giving, Lost, Epitaph

Joseph Addison, Sir Richard Steele (1822). “The Spectator: With Notes and Illustrations. In Six Volumes”, p.270

When I read the epitaphs of the beautiful, every inordinate desire goes out; when I meet with the grief of parents upon a tombstone, my heart melts with compassion; when I see the tomb of the parents themselves, I consider the vanity of grieving for those whom we must quickly follow: when I see kings lying by those who deposed them, when I consider rival wits placed side by side, or the holy men that divided the world with their contests and disputes, I reflect with sorrow and astonishment on the little competitions, factions, and debates of mankind.

Beautiful, Kings, Tombstone

Joseph Addison, Sir Richard Steele (1853). “The Spectator: With a Biographical and Critical Preface, and Explanatory Notes ...”, p.83

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