A contented mind is the greatest blessing a man can enjoy in this world.
- Joseph Addison Quote
A man must be both stupid and uncharitable who believes there is no virtue or truth but on his own side.
- Joseph Addison Quote
A man should always consider how much he has more than he wants.
- Joseph Addison Quote
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.
- Joseph Addison Quote
A woman seldom asks advice before she has bought her wedding clothes.
- Joseph Addison Quote
Admiration is a very short-lived passion that immediately decays upon growing familiar with its object, unless it be still fed with fresh discoveries, and kept alive by a new perpetual succession of miracles rising up to its view.
- Joseph Addison Quote
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.
- Joseph Addison Quote
An ostentatious man will rather relate a blunder or an absurdity he has committed, than be debarred from talking of his own dear person.
- Joseph Addison Quote
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.
- Joseph Addison Quote
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.
- Joseph Addison Quote
Cheerfulness is the best promoter of health and is as friendly to the mind as to the body.
- Joseph Addison Quote
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.
- Joseph Addison Quote
Friendships, in general, are suddenly contracted; and therefore it is no wonder they are easily dissolved.
- Joseph Addison Quote
He who would pass his declining years with honor and comfort, should, when young, consider that he may one day become old, and remember when he is old, that he has once been young.
- Joseph Addison Quote
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.''
- Joseph Addison Quote
I value my garden more for being full of blackbirds than of cherries, and very frankly give them fruit for their songs.
- Joseph Addison Quote
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.
- Joseph Addison Quote
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.
- Joseph Addison Quote
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.
- Joseph Addison Quote
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!
- Joseph Addison Quote
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.
- Joseph Addison Quote
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.
- Joseph Addison Quote
Jesters do often prove prophets.
- Joseph Addison Quote
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.
- Joseph Addison Quote
Mere bashfulness without merit is awkwardness.
- Joseph Addison Quote
Mirth is like a flash of lightning, that breaks through a gloom of clouds, and glitters for a moment; cheerfulness keeps up a kind of daylight in the mind, and fills it with a steady and perpetual serenity.
- Joseph Addison Quote
Modesty is not only an ornament, but also a guard to virtue.
- Joseph Addison Quote
Mutability of temper and inconsistency with ourselves is the greatest weakness of human nature.
- Joseph Addison Quote
Mysterious love, uncertain treasure, hast thou more of pain or pleasure! Endless torments dwell about thee: Yet who would live, and live without thee!
- Joseph Addison Quote
Nothing is more gratifying to the mind of man than power or dominion.
- Joseph Addison Quote
One should take good care not to grow too wise for so great a pleasure of life as laughter.
- Joseph Addison Quote
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.
- Joseph Addison Quote
Plenty of people wish to become devout, but no one wishes to be humble.
- Joseph Addison Quote
Reading is a basic tool in the living of a good life.
- Joseph Addison Quote
Sunday clears away the rust of the whole week.
- Joseph Addison Quote
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.
- Joseph Addison Quote
Talking with a friend is nothing else but thinking aloud.
- Joseph Addison Quote
The chief ingredients in the composition of those qualities that gain esteem and praise, are good nature, truth, good sense, and good breeding.
- Joseph Addison Quote
The fear of death often proves mortal, and sets people on methods to save their Lives, which infallibly destroy them.
- Joseph Addison Quote
The greatest sweetener of human life is Friendship. To raise this to the highest pitch of enjoyment, is a secret which but few discover.
- Joseph Addison Quote
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 Quote
The post of honour is a private station.
- Joseph Addison Quote
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.
- Joseph Addison Quote
The unassuming youth seeking instruction with humility gains good fortune.
- Joseph Addison Quote
The utmost extent of man's knowledge, is to know that he knows nothing.
- Joseph Addison Quote
The woman that deliberates is lost.
- Joseph Addison Quote
There is not a more unhappy being than a superannuated idol.
- Joseph Addison Quote
There is not so variable a thing in nature as a lady's head-dress.
- Joseph Addison Quote
There is nothing that makes its way more directly into the soul than beauty.
- Joseph Addison Quote
There is nothing which we receive with so much reluctance as advice.
- Joseph Addison Quote
Those Marriages generally abound most with Love and Constancy, that are preceded by a long Courtship.
- Joseph Addison Quote
Three grand essentials to happiness in this life are something to do, something to love, and something to hope for.
- Joseph Addison Quote
To be an atheist requires an indefinitely greater measure of faith than to recieve all the great truths which atheism would deny.
- Joseph Addison Quote
To be perfectly just is an attribute of the divine nature; to be so to the utmost of our abilities, is the glory of man.
- Joseph Addison Quote
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.
- Joseph Addison Quote
We are always doing something for posterity, but I would fain see posterity do something for us.
- Joseph Addison Quote
What pity is it That we can die, but once to serve our country.
- Joseph Addison Quote
What sculpture is to a block of marble, education is to an human soul.
- Joseph Addison Quote
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.
- Joseph Addison Quote
When men are easy in their circumstances, they are naturally enemies to innovations.
- Joseph Addison Quote
With regard to donations always expect the most from prudent people, who keep their own accounts.
- Joseph Addison Quote
