Joseph Addison Quotes
A man that has a taste of music, painting, or architecture, is like one that has another sense, when compared with such as have no relish of those arts
Poverty palls the most generous spirits; it cows industry, and casts resolution itself into despair.
In England we see people lulled sleep with solid and elaborate discourses of piety, who would be warmed and transported out of themselves by the bellowings and distortions of enthusiasm.
There is no defence against reproach, but obscurity; it is a kind of concomitant to greatness, as satires and invectives were an essential part of a Roman triumph.
Good nature is more agreeable in conversation than wit and gives a certain air to the countenance which is more amiable than beauty.
The soul, secured in her existence, smiles At the drawn dagger, and defies its point.
The very first discovery of beauty strikes the mind with an inward joy, and spreads a cheerfulness and delight through all its faculties.
From hence, let fierce contending nations know, what dire effects from civil discord flow.
In the loss of an object we do not proportion our grief to the real value it bears, but to the value our fancies set upon it.
What can that man fear who takes care to please a Being that is able to crush all his adversaries?
A man improves more by reading the story of a person eminent for prudence and virtue, than by the finest rules and precepts of morality.
Devotion, when it does not lie under the check of reason, is apt to degenerate into enthusiasm.
There is not a more melancholy object than a man who has his head turned with religious enthusiasm.
The schoolboy counts the time till the return of the holidays; the minor longs to be of age; the lover is impatient till he is married.
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.
Reason shows itself in all occurrences of life; whereas the brute makes no discovery of such a talent, but in what immediately regards his own preservation or the continuance of his species.
It must be a prospect pleasing to God Himself to see His creation forever beautifying in His eyes, and drawing nearer Him by greater degrees of resemblance.
Suspicion is not less an enemy to virtue than to happiness; he that is already corrupt is naturally suspicious, and he that becomes suspicious will quickly be corrupt.
That he delights in the misery of others no man will confess, and yet what other motive can make a father cruel?
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.
Justice is an unassailable fortress, built on the brow of a mountain which cannot be overthrown by the violence of torrents, nor demolished by the force of armies.
We are always doing something for posterity, but I would fain see posterity do something for us.
The union of the Word and the Mind produces that mystery which is called Life... Learn deeply of the Mind and its mystery, for therein lies the secret of immortality.
Sir Francis Bacon observed that a well-written book, compared with its rivals and antagonists, is like Moses' serpent, that immediately swallowed up and devoured those of the Egyptians.
A man with great talents, but void of discretion, is like Polyphemus in the fable, strong and blind, endued with an irresistible force, which for want of sight is of no use to him.
Religion prescribes to every miserable man the means of bettering his condition; nay, it shows him that the bearing of his afflictions as he ought to do, will naturally end in the removal of them.
The fear of death often proves mortal, and sets people on methods to save their Lives, which infallibly destroy them.
There is nobody so weak of invention that cannot make some little stories to villify his enemy.
When I read the rules of criticism, I immediately inquire after the works of the author who has written them, and by that means discover what it is he likes in a composition.
God discovers the martyr and confessor without the trial of flames and tortures, and will hereafter entitle many to the reward of actions which they had never the opportunity of performing.
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.
There are greater depths and obscurities, greater intricacies and perplexities, in an elaborate and well-written piece of nonsense, than in the most abstruse and profound tract of school divinity.
This party spirit has so ill an effect on our morals, it has likewise a very great one upon our judgments.
Yet then from all my grief, O Lord, Thy mercy set me free, Whilst in the confidence of pray'r My soul took hold on thee.
Let echo, too, perform her part, Prolonging every note with art; And in a low expiring strain, Play all the comfort o'er again.
