Joseph Addison Quotes

The greatest sweetener of human life is Friendship.

What sunshine is to flowers, smiles are to humanity. These are but trifles, to be sure; but scattered along life's pathway, the good they do is inconceivable.

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

If you wish to succeed in life, make perseverance your bosom friend, experience your wise counselor, caution your elder brother, and hope your guardian genius.

Cheerfulness is the best promoter of health and is as friendly to the mind as to the body.

Three grand essentials to happiness in this life are something to do, something to love, and something to hope for.

Sunday clears away the rust of the whole week.

No one is more cherished in this world than someone who lightens the burden of another. Thank you.

The voice of reason is more to be regarded than the bent of any present inclination; since inclination will at length come over to reason, though we can never force reason to comply with inclination.

Ridicule is generally made use of to laugh men out of virtue and good sense, by attacking everything praiseworthy in human life.

A man should always consider how much he has more than he wants.

In all thy humours, whether grave or mellow, Thou'rt such a touchy, testy, pleasant fellow, Hast so much wit and mirth and spleen about thee, There is no living with thee, nor without thee.

The dawn is overcast, the morning lowers, And heavily in clouds brings on the day, The great, the important day, big with the fate Of Cato and of Rome.

T is liberty crowns Britannia's Isle, And makes her barren rocks and her bleak mountains smile.

There is nothing that makes its way more directly into the soul than beauty.

A day, an hour, of virtuous liberty Is worth a whole eternity in bondage.

The greatest sweetener of human life is Friendship. To raise this to the highest pitch of enjoyment, is a secret which but few discover.

Love is a second life; it grows into the soul, warms every vein, and beats in every pulse.

Our real blessings often appear to us in the shape of pains, losses and disappointments; but let us have patience and we soon shall see them in their proper figures.

Their is no defense against criticism except obscurity.

The spacious firmament on high, And all the blue ethereal sky, And spangled heavens, a shining frame, Their great Original proclaim.

What sculpture is to a block of marble, education is to the human soul.

Allegories, when well chosen, are like so many tracks of light in a discourse, that make everything about them clear and beautiful.

Cleanliness may be defined to be the emblem of purity of mind.

Encourage innocent amusement.

A cloudy day or a little sunshine have as great an influence on many constitutions as the most recent blessings or misfortunes.

Music, the greatest good that mortals know and all of heaven we have hear below.

Loveliest of women! heaven is in thy soul, Beauty and virtue shine forever round thee, Bright'ning each other! thou art all divine!

Our disputants put me in mind of the cuttlefish that, when he is unable to extricate himself, blackens the water about him till he becomes invisible.

All well-regulated families set apart an hour every morning for tea and bread and butter

An ostentatious man will rather relate a blunder or an absurdity he has committed, than be debarred from talking of his own dear person.

True benevolence or compassion, extends itself through the whole of existence and sympathizes with the distress of every creature capable of sensation.

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

When men are easy in their circumstances, they are naturally enemies to innovations.

A man’s first care should be to avoid the reproaches of his own heart.

Certain is it that there is no kind of affection so purely angelic as of a father to a daughter.

If you wish success in life, make perseverance your bosom friend.

The utmost extent of man's knowledge, is to know that he knows nothing.

Justice is that which is practiced by God himself, and to be practiced in its perfection by none but him. Omniscience and omnipotence are requisite for the full exertion of it.

There is not a more pleasing exercise of the mind than gratitude. It is accompanied with such an inward satisfaction that the duty is sufficiently rewarded by the performance

Nothing is more gratifying to the mind of man than power or dominion.

The most skillful flattery is to let a person talk on, and be a listener.

Love is a second life.

Among the several kinds of beauty, the eye takes most delight in colors.

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.

I shall endeavor to enliven morality with wit, and to temper wit with morality.

When all thy mercies, O my God, My rising soul surveys, Transported with the view I'm lost, in wonder, love and praise.

Books are the legacies that a great genius leaves to mankind, which are delivered down from generation to generation as presents to the posterity of those who are yet unborn.

Man is distinguished from all other creatures by the faculty of laughter.

The important question is not, what will yield to man a few scattered pleasures, but what will render his life happy on the whole amount.