JOSEPH ADDISON QUOTES III

English essayist, poet & playwright (1672-1719)

Health and cheerfulness mutually beget each other.

JOSEPH ADDISON

The Spectator, No. 387

Tags: health


Men of warm imaginations and towering thoughts are apt to overlook the goods of fortune which are near them, for something that glitters in the sight at a distance; to neglect solid and substantial happiness for what is showy and superficial; and to contemn that good which lies within their reach, for that which they are not capable of attaining. Hope calculates its schemes for a long and durable life; presses forward to imaginary points of bliss; grasps at impossibilities; and consequently very often ensnares men into beggary, ruin, and dishonour.

JOSEPH ADDISON

The Spectator, Nov. 13, 1712

Tags: hope, imagination


Music religious heat inspires / It wakes the soul, and lifts it high / And wings it with sublime desires / And fits it to bespeak the Deity.

JOSEPH ADDISON

Song for St. Cecilia's Day

Tags: music


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

JOSEPH ADDISON

The Spectator, Mar. 5, 1711

Tags: passion, solitude


Title and ancestry render a good man more illustrious, but an ill one more contemptible.

JOSEPH ADDISON

The Guardian, Aug. 1, 1713


A true critic ought to dwell rather upon excellencies than imperfections, to discover the concealed beauties of a writer, and communicate to the world such things as are worth their observation.

JOSEPH ADDISON

The Spectator, Feb. 2, 1712

Tags: criticism


A common civility to an impertinent fellow, often draws upon one a great many unforeseen troubles; and if one doth not take particular care, will be interpreted by him as an overture of friendship and intimacy.

JOSEPH ADDISON

The Tatler, Apr. 18, 1710


Nature does nothing without purpose or uselessly.

JOSEPH ADDISON

Cato

Tags: nature


Modesty is not only an ornament, but also a guard to virtue.

JOSEPH ADDISON

The Spectator, Nov. 24, 1711

Tags: modesty, virtue


For wheresoe'er I turn my ravished eyes, gay gilded scenes and shining prospects rise, poetic fields encompass me around, and still I seem to tread on classic ground.

JOSEPH ADDISON

A Letter from Italy


Rais'd of themselves, their genuine charms they boast
And those who paint 'em truest praise 'em most.

JOSEPH ADDISON

The Campaign

Tags: painting


There is no virtue so truly great and godlike as justice.

JOSEPH ADDISON

The Guardian, Jul. 4, 1713

Tags: justice


When I read the several dates of the tombs, of some that died yesterday, and some six hundred years ago, I consider that great day when we shall all of us be contemporaries, and make our appearance together.

JOSEPH ADDISON

Thoughts in Westminster Abbey


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

JOSEPH ADDISON

Cato

Tags: youth, old age


Exercise ferments the humors, casts them into their proper channels, throws off redundancies, and helps nature in those secret distributions, without which the body cannot subsist in its vigor, nor the soul act with cheerfulness.

JOSEPH ADDISON

The Spectator, Jul. 12, 1711

Tags: exercise


The spacious firmament on nigh,
With all the blue ethereal sky,
And spangled heavens, a shining frame,
Their great Original proclaim.
Forever singing, as they shine,
The hand that made us is divine.

JOSEPH ADDISON

Ode: The Spacious Firmament on High

Tags: stars


Every wife ought to answer for her man. If the husband be engaged in a seditious club, or drinks mysterious healths, or be frugal of his candles on a rejoicing night, let her look to him and keep him out of harm's way; or the world will be apt to say, she has a mind to be a widow before her time. She ought, in such cases, to exert the authority of the curtain lecture; and if she finds him of a rebellious disposition, to tame him, as they do birds of prey, by dinning him in the ears all night long.

JOSEPH ADDISON

The Freeholder, Jan. 16, 1716

Tags: women


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

JOSEPH ADDISON

The Spectator, Dec. 15, 1711

Tags: faults


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.

JOSEPH ADDISON

The Spectator, Jul. 18, 1711

Tags: lust, hunger


For how few ambitious men are there, who have got as much fame as they desired, and whose thirst after it has not been as eager in the very height of their reputation, as it was before they became known and eminent among men?

JOSEPH ADDISON

The Spectator, No. 256

Tags: ambition