Joseph Addison

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

There is a kind of sluggish resignation, as well as poorness and degeneracy of spirit, in a state of slavery, that very few will recover themselves out of it.

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

The stars shall fade away the sun himself Grow dim with age and nature sink in years But thou shalt flourish in immortal youth Unhurt amidst the wars of elements The wrecks of matter and the crush of worlds.

With regard to donations always expect the most from prudent people, who keep their own accounts.

There is nothing which we receive with so much reluctance as advice.

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

Reading is a basic tool in the living of a good life.

Their is no defense against criticism except obscurity.

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.

I have somewhere met with the epitaph on a charitable man which has pleased me very much. I cannot recollect the words, but here is the sense of it: 'What I spent I lost; what I possessed is left to others; what I gave away remains with me.'

Sweet are the slumbers of a virtuous man.

There is not a more unhappy being than a superannuated idol.

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.

Courage that grows from constitution often forsakes a man when he has occasion for it; courage which arises from a sense of duty acts; in a uniform manner.

When a man has been guilty of any vice or folly I think the best atonement he can make for it is to warn others not to fall into the like.

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

Certain is it that there is no kind of affection so purely angelic as of a father to a daughter. In love to our wives there is desire to our sons ambition but to our daughters there is something which there are no words to express.

Mysterious love, uncertain treasure, hast thou more of pain or pleasure! Endless torments dwell about thee: Yet who would live, and live without thee!

Mere bashfulness without merit is awkwardness.

Temperance gives Nature her full play, and enables her to exert herself in all her force and vigour.

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.

Nothing makes men sharper than want.

Nothing is capable of being well set to music that is not nonsense.

It is the privilege of posterity to set matters right between those antagonists who, by their rivalry for greatness, divided a whole age.

Content thyself to be obscurely good. When vice prevails and impious men bear away, the post of honor is a private station.

Silence is sometimes more significant and sublime than the most noble and most expressive eloquence and is on many occasions the indication of a great mind.

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

Hunting is not a proper employment for a thinking man.

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.

Let freedom never perish in your hands.

An indiscreet man is more hurtful than an ill natured one for as the latter will only attack his enemies and those he wishes ill to the other injures indifferently both friends and foes.

The unjustifiable severity of a parent is loaded with this aggravation, that those whom he injures are always in his sight.

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

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.

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

Friendships, in general, are suddenly contracted; and therefore it is no wonder they are easily dissolved.

Health and cheerfulness naturally beget each other.

The post of honour is a private station.

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

Cleanliness can be defined as the purest emblem of the mind.

A just and reasonable modesty does not only recommend eloquence, but sets off every great talent which a man can be possessed of.

We are always doing something for posterity, but I would fain see posterity do something for us.

Cunning is only the mimic of discretion and may pass upon weak men in the same manner as vivacity is often mistaken for wit and gravity for wisdom.

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

From hence let fierce contending nations know what dire effects from civil discord flow.

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

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.

Those Marriages generally abound most with Love and Constancy, that are preceded by a long Courtship.

Among all kinds of Writing, there is none in which Authors are more apt to miscarry than in Works of Humour, as there is none in which they are more ambitious to excel.

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.

A woman seldom asks advice before she has bought her wedding clothes.

A misery is not to be measured from the nature of the evil, but from the temper of the sufferer.

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

The unassuming youth seeking instruction with humility gains good fortune.

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.

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

Sunday clears away the rust of the whole week.

To be an atheist requires an indefinitely greater measure of faith than to recieve all the great truths which atheism would deny.

True happiness arises, in the first place, from the enjoyment of one's self, and in the next, from the friendship and conversation of a few select companions.

Words, when well chosen, have so great a force in them that a description often gives us more lively ideas than the sight of things themselves

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

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

If we may believe our logicians, man is distinguished from all other creatures by the faculty of laughter. He has a heart capable of mirth, and naturally disposed to it.

There is no defense against criticism except obscurity.

Mutability of temper and inconsistency with ourselves is the greatest weakness of human nature.

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

There is nobody so weak of invention that he cannot make up some little stories to vilify his enemy.

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

The greatest sweetener of human life is friendship.

A wealthy doctor who can help a poor man and will not without a fee has less sense of humanity than a poor ruffian who kills a rich man to supply his necessities.

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.

Jesters do often prove prophets.

Quick sensitivity is inseperable from a ready understanding.

Tradition is an important help to history, but its statements should be carefully scrutinized before we rely on them.

Colors speak all languages.

If we hope for what we are not likely to possess, we act and think in vain, and make life a greater dream and shadow than it really is.

Gratitude is the best attitude. 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.

Nature is full of wonders; every atom is a standing miracle, and endowed with such qualities, as could not be impressed on it by a power and wisdom less than infinite.

Admiration is a very short lived passion that immediately decays upon growing familiar with its object.

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

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.

I will indulge my sorrows, and give way to all the pangs and fury of despair.

That he delights in the misery of others no man will confess, and yet what other motive can make a father cruel?

A man must be both stupid and uncharitable who believes there is no virtue or truth but on his own side.

The woman that deliberates is lost.

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.

Animals, in their generation, are wiser than the sons of men; but their wisdom is confined to a few particulars, and lies in a very narrow compass.

Talking with a friend is nothing else but thinking aloud.

Is there not some chosen curse, some hidden thunder in the stores of heaven, red with uncommon wrath, to blast the man who owes his greatness to his country's ruin!

It is folly for an eminent man to think of escaping censure, and a weakness to be affected with it. All the illustrious persons of antiquity, and indeed of every age in the world, have passed through this fiery persecution.

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.

Men may change their climate, but they cannot change their nature. A man that goes out a fool cannot ride or sail himself into common sense.

There is nothing more requisite in business than despatch.

Some virtues are only seen in affliction and others only in prosperity.

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

To say that authority, whether secular or religious, supplies no ground for morality is not to deny the obvious fact that it supplies a sanction.

There is not so variable a thing in nature as a lady's head-dress.

Mere bashfulness without merit is awkward.

Let echo too perform her part Prolonging every note with art And in a low expiring strain Play all the comfort oer again.