Authors:
  1. Quotes
  2. Authors
  3. J
  4. Joseph Addison
  5. Character

Joseph Addison Quotes about Character

All Joseph Addison Quotes Affection Age Ambition Appearance Art Atheism Beauty Bravery Character quotes 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
I never knew an early-rising, hard-working, prudent man, careful of his earnings and strictly honest, who complained of hard luck. A good character, good habits and iron industry are impregnable to the assaults of all

I never knew an early-rising, hard-working, prudent man, careful of his earnings and strictly honest, who complained of hard luck. A good character, good habits and iron industry are impregnable to the assaults of all ill-luck that fools ever dreamed.

Joseph Addison
Hard Work, Character, Men

The end of a man's life is often compared to the winding up of a well written play, where the principal persons still act in character, whatever the fate in which they undergo.

Joseph Addison
Character, Fate, Destiny
Joseph Addison, Richard Steele, Francis Prévost, Francis William Blagdon (1833). “The Spectator, in Miniature: Being the Principal Religious, Moral, Humourous, Satirical and Critical Essays, in that Publication Compressed Into Two Volumes”, p.212

Vanity is the natural weakness of an ambitious man, which exposes him to the secret scorn and derision of those he converses with, and ruins the character he is so industrious to advance by it.

Joseph Addison
Character, Men, Vanity
Joseph Addison, Richard Hurd, Henry George Bohn (1872). “The Works of the Right Honourable Joseph Addison”, p.158

When a man is made up wholly of the dove, without the least grain of the serpent in his composition, he becomes ridiculous in many circumstances of life, and very often discredits his best actions.

Joseph Addison
Character, Men, Personality
Joseph Addison (1858). “Works, Including the Whole Contents of Bp. Hurd's Edition: Withletters and Other Pieces Not Found in Any Previous Collection; and Macaulay's Essay on His Life and Works”, p.571

Persons in great stations have seldom their true character drawn till several years after their death. Their personal friendships and enmities must cease, and the parties they were engaged in be at an end, before their faults or their virtues can have justice done them. When writers have the least opportunities of knowing the truth, they are in the best disposition to tell it.

Joseph Addison
Party, Character, Opportunity
Joseph Addison (1839). “Essays Moral and Humorous: Also Essays on Imagination and Taste”, p.46

Virgil has very finely touched upon the female passion for dress and shows, in the character of Camilla; who though she seems to have shaken off all the other weaknesses of her sex, is still described as a woman in this particular.

Joseph Addison
Sex, Passion, Character
Joseph Addison, Sir Richard Steele (1852). “The Spectator”, p.22

It is indeed very possible, that the Persons we laugh at may in the main of their Characters be much wiser Men than our selves; but if they would have us laugh at them, they must fall short of us in those Respects which stir up this Passion.

Joseph Addison
Fall, Passion, Character
Joseph Addison, Thomas Tickell (1721). “Works”, p.505

You May Also Like: