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Joseph Addison

209 quotes

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

  Joseph Addison (1672–1719) said by 1719 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “Reading is to the mind, what exercise is to the body. As by the one, health is preserved, strengthened, and invigorated: by the other, virtue (which is the health of the mind) is kept alive, cherished, and confirmed.”

  Joseph Addison (1672–1719) said by 1719 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Also quoted by: ジョゼフ・アディソン (ja)

• “A cheerful temper joined with innocence will make beauty attractive, knowledge delightful and wit good-natured.”

  Joseph Addison (1672–1719) said by 1719 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “Advertisements are of great use to the vulgar. First of all, as they are instruments of ambition. A man that is by no means big enough for the Gazette, may easily creep into the advertisements; by which means we often see an apothecary in the same paper of news with a plenipotentiary, or a running footman with an ambassador.”

  Joseph Addison (1672–1719) said by 1719 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Also quoted by: ジョゼフ・アディソン (ja)

• “The great art in writing advertisements is the finding out a proper method to catch the reader's eye; without which a good thing may pass over unobserved, or be lost among commissions of bankrupt.”

  Joseph Addison (1672–1719) said by 1719 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Also quoted by: ジョゼフ・アディソン (ja)

• “I Have often thought if the minds of men were laid open, we should see but little difference between that of the wise man and that of the fool. There are infinite reveries, numberless extravagances, and a perpetual train of vanities which pass through both. The great difference is, that the first knows how to pick and cull his thoughts for conversation, by suppressing some, and communicating others; whereas the other lets them all indifferently fly out in words.”

  Joseph Addison (1672–1719) said by 1719 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “There are many more shining qualities in the mind of man, but there is none so useful as discretion; it is this, indeed, which gives a value to all the rest, which sets them at work in their proper times and places, and turns them to the advantage of the person who is possessed of them. Without it, learning is pedantry, and wit impertinence; virtue itself looks like weakness; the best parts only qualify a man to be more sprightly in errors, and active to his own prejudice.”

  Joseph Addison (1672–1719) said by 1719 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “The discreet man finds out the talents of those he converses with, and knows how to apply them to proper uses. Accordingly, if we look into particular communities and divisions of men, we may observe that it is the discreet man, not the witty, nor the learned, nor the brave, who guides the conversation, and gives measures to the society.”

  Joseph Addison (1672–1719) said by 1719 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “Though a man has all other perfections, and wants discretion, he will be of no great consequence in the world; but if he has this single talent in perfection, and but a common share of others, he may do what he pleases in his station of life.”

  Joseph Addison (1672–1719) said by 1719 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “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.”

  Joseph Addison (1672–1719) said by 1719 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “I have only one Request to make to my Readers, that they will peruse these Papers with the same Candor and Impartiality in which they are written; and shall hope for no other Prepossession in favor of them, than what one would think should be natural to every Man, a Desire to be happy, and a good Will towards those, who are the Instruments of making them so.”

  Joseph Addison (1672–1719) first seen 1715 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: No. 1. Friday, December 23. 1715

• “I have rather chosen this Title than any other, because it is what I most glory in, and what most effectually calls to my Mind the Happiness of that Government under which I live. As a British Free-Holder, I should not scruple taking place of a French Marquis; and when I see one of my Countrymen amusing himself in his little Cabbage-Garden, I naturally look upon him as a greater Person than the Owner of the richest Vineyard in Champagne.”

  Joseph Addison (1672–1719) first seen 1715 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: No. 1. Friday, December 23. 1715

• “How can we sufficiently extol the Goodness of His present Majesty, who is not willing to have a single Slave in his Dominions! Or enough rejoice in the Exercise of that Loyalty, which, instead of betraying a Man into the most ignominious Servitude, (as it does in some of our neighboring Kingdoms) entitles him to the highest Privileges of Freedom and Property!”

  Joseph Addison (1672–1719) first seen 1715 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: No. 1. Friday, December 23. 1715.

• “I have lived in one Reign, when the Prince, instead of invigorating the Laws of our Country, or giving them their proper Course, assumed a Power of dispensing with them: And in another, when the Sovereign was flattered by a Set of Men into a Persuasion, that the Regal Authority was unlimited and uncircumscribed. In either of these Cases, good Laws are at best but a dead Letter; and by shewing the People how happy they ought to be, only serve to aggravate the Sense of their Oppressions.”

  Joseph Addison (1672–1719) first seen 1715 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: No. 2 Monday,(26 December 1715)

• “It is with great Satisfaction I observe, that the Women of our Island, who are the most eminent for Virtue and good Sense, are in the Interest of the present Government. As the fair Sex very much recommend the Cause they are engaged in, it would be no small Misfortune to a Sovereign, tho' he had all the Male Part of the Nation on his Side, if he did not find himself King of the most beautiful Half of his Subjects. Ladies are always of great use to the Party they espouse, and never fail to win over Numbers to it.”

  Joseph Addison (1672–1719) first seen 1716 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: No. 4 Monday, (2 January 1716)

• “The Female World are likewise indispensably necessary in the best Causes to manage the Controversial Part of them, in which no Man of tolerable Breeding is ever able to refute them. Arguments out of a pretty Mouth are unanswerable.”

  Joseph Addison (1672–1719) first seen 1716 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: No. 4 Monday, (2 January 1716)

• “There is no greater sign of a general decay of virtue in a nation, than a want of zeal in its inhabitants for the good of their country. This generous and public-spirited Passion has been observed of late Years to languish and grow cold in this our Island; where a Party of Men have made it their Business to represent it as chimerical and romantic, to destroy in the Minds of the People the Sense of national Glory, and to turn into Ridicule our natural and ancient Allies, who are united to us by the common interests both of Religion and Policy.”

  Joseph Addison (1672–1719) first seen 1716 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: No. 5 (6 January 1716)

• “It may not therefore be unseasonable to recommend to this present Generation the Practice of that Virtue, for which their Ancestors were particularly famous, and which is called The Love of one's Country. This Love to our Country, as a moral Virtue, is a fixed Disposition of Mind to promote the Safety; Welfare, and Reputation of the Community in which we are born, and of the Constitution under which we are protected”

  Joseph Addison (1672–1719) first seen 1716 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: No. 5 (6 January 1716)

• “Though there is a benevolence due to all mankind, none can question but a superior degree of it is to be paid to a father, a wife, or a child. In the same manner, though our love should reach to the whole species, a greater proportion of it should exert itself towards that community in which Providence has placed us. This is our proper sphere of action, the province allotted us for the exercise of our civil virtues, and in which alone we have opportunities of expressing our good-will to mankind.”

  Joseph Addison (1672–1719) first seen 1716 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: No. 5 (6 January 1716)

• “I question not but the more virtuous and considerate parts of our malcontents are now stung with a very just remorse, for this their manner of proceeding, which has so visibly tended to the destruction of their friends, and the sufferings of their country. This may, at the same time, prove an instructive lesson to the boldest and bravest among the disaffected, not to build any hopes upon the talkative zealots of their party; who have shown, by their whole behaviour, that their hearts are equally filled with treason and cowardice.”

  Joseph Addison (1672–1719) first seen 1716 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: No. 28. Monday, March 26, 1716

• “An army of trumpeters would give as great a strength to a cause, as this confederacy of tongue-warriors; who, like those military musicians, content themselves with animating their friends to battle, and run out of the engagement upon the first onset. No. 28. Monday, March 26, 1716”

  Joseph Addison (1672–1719) first seen 1716 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: No. 28. Monday, March 26, 1716

• “Prejudice and self-sufficiency naturally proceed from inexperience of the world, and ignorance of mankind.”

  Joseph Addison (1672–1719) first seen 1716 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: No. 30 (2 April 1716)

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

  Joseph Addison (1672–1719) first seen 1716 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: No. 42 (16 May 1716)

• “As to the Reasonings in these several Papers, I must leave them to the Judgment of others. I have taken particular Care that they should be conformable to our Constitution, and free from that Mixture of Violence and Passion, which so often creeps into the Works of Political Writers.”

  Joseph Addison (1672–1719) first seen 1716 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: No. 55 (Friday, 29 June 1716)

• “A good Cause doth not want any Bitterness to support it, as a bad one cannot subsist without it. It is indeed observable, that an Author is scurrilous in proportion as he is dull; and seems rather to be in a Passion, because he cannot find out what to say for his own Opinion, than because he has discovered any pernicious Absurdities in that of his Antagonists.”

  Joseph Addison (1672–1719) first seen 1716 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: No. 55 (Friday, 29 June 1716)

• “Round-heads and Wooden-shoes are standing jokes.”

  Joseph Addison (1672–1719) said by 1719 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “We are growing serious, and, Let me tell you, that's the very next step to being dull.”

  Joseph Addison (1672–1719) said by 1719 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “Antidotes are what you take to prevent dotes.”

  Joseph Addison (1672–1719) said by 1719 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “There is nothing more requisite in business than dispatch.”

  Joseph Addison (1672–1719) said by 1719 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Also quoted by: ジョゼフ・アディソン (ja)

• “When I was at Grand Cairo, I picked up several Oriental manuscripts... Among others I met with one entitled “The Visions of Mirza,” which I have read over with great pleasure... I have translated word for word as follows:”

  Joseph Addison (1672–1719) said by 1719 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “On the fifth day of the moon, which, according to the custom of my forefathers, I always keep holy, after having washed myself, and offered up my morning devotions, I ascended the high hills of Bagdad, in order to pass the rest of the day in meditation and prayer.”

  Joseph Addison (1672–1719) said by 1719 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “As I was here airing myself on the tops of the mountains, I fell into a profound contemplation on the vanity of human life; and passing from one thought to another, ‘Surely,’ said I, ‘man is but a shadow, and life a dream.’”

  Joseph Addison (1672–1719) said by 1719 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “I cast my eyes towards the summit of a rock that was not far from me, where I discovered one in the habit of a shepherd, with a musical instrument in his hand... and began to play upon it. The sound of it was exceeding sweet, and wrought into a variety of tunes that were inexpressibly melodious, and altogether different from anything I had ever heard. ...My heart melted away in secret raptures.”

  Joseph Addison (1672–1719) said by 1719 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “The genius smiled upon me with a look of compassion and affability that familiarised him to my imagination, and at once dispelled all the fears and apprehensions with which I approached him. He lifted me from the ground, and, taking me by the hand, ‘Mirza,’ said he, ‘I have heard thee in thy soliloquies; follow me.’”

  Joseph Addison (1672–1719) said by 1719 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “He then led me to the highest pinnacle of the rock, and placing me on the top of it, ‘Cast thy eyes eastward,’ said he, ‘and tell me what thou seest.’ ‘I see,’ said I, ‘a huge valley, and a prodigious tide of water rolling through it.’ ‘The valley that thou seest,’ said he, ‘is the Vale of Misery, and the tide of water that thou seest is part of the great tide of Eternity.’”

  Joseph Addison (1672–1719) said by 1719 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “I then turned again to the vision which I had been so long contemplating: but instead of the rolling tide, the arched bridge, and the happy islands, I saw nothing but the long hollow valley of Bagdad, with oxen, sheep, and camels grazing upon the sides of it.”

  Joseph Addison (1672–1719) said by 1719 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “The French are certainly the most implacable, and the most dangerous Enemys of the British Nation. Their Form of Government, their Religion, their Jealousy of the British Power, as well as their Prosecutions of Commerce, and Pursuits of Universal Monarchy, will fix them for ever in their Animosities and Aversions towards us, and make them catch at all Opportunities of subverting our Constitution, destroying our Religion, ruining our Trade, and sinking the Figure which we make among the Nations of Europe... As we are thus in a natural State of War, if I may so call it, with the French Nation; it is our Misfortune, that they are not only the most inveterate, but most formidable of our Enemies; and have the greatest Power, as well as the strongest Inclination to ruin us.”

  Joseph Addison (1672–1719) first seen 1708 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: The Present State of the War, and the Necessity of an Augmentation, Consider'd (1708), pp. 1-2

• “The French King hath often enter'd on several expensive Projects, on purpose to dissipate the Wealth that is continually gathering in his Coffers in times of peace... But if he once engrosses the commerce of the Spanish Indies, whatever Quantities of Gold and Silver stagnate in his private Coffers, there will be still enough to carry on the Circulation among his Subjects. By this means in a short space of time he may heap up greater Wealth than all the Princes of Europe join'd together; and in the present Constitution of the World, Wealth and Power are but different Names for the same thing. Let us therefore suppose that after eight or ten Years of Peace, he hath a mind to infringe any of his Treaties, or invade a neighbouring State; to revive the pretensions of Spain upon Portugal, or attempt the taking those Places which were granted us for our Security; what Resistance, what Opposition can we make to so formidable an Enemy? Shou'd the same Alliance rise against him that is now in War with him, what cou'd we hope for from it, at a time when the States engag'd in it will be comparatively weaken'd, and the Enemy who is now able to keep them at a stand, will have receiv'd so many new Accessions of Strength.”

  Joseph Addison (1672–1719) first seen 1708 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: The Present State of the War, and the Necessity of an Augmentation, Consider'd (1708), pp. 11-12

• “Great souls by instinct to each other turn, Demand alliance, and in friendship burn; A sudden friendship, while with stretched-out rays They meet each other, mingling blaze with blaze. Polished in courts, and hardened in the field, Renowned for conquest, and in council skilled, Their courage dwells not in a troubled flood Of mounting spirits, and fermenting blood: Lodged in the soul, with virtue overruled, Inflamed by reason, and by reason cooled, In hours of peace content to be unknown. And only in the field of battle shown: To souls like these, in mutual friendship joined, Heaven dares intrust the cause of humankind.”

  Joseph Addison (1672–1719) said by 1719 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “If men of eminence are exposed to censure on one hand, they are as much liable to flattery on the other. If they receive reproaches which are not due to them, they likewise receive praises which they do not deserve. In a word, the man in a high post is never regarded with an indifferent eye, but always considered as a friend or an enemy. For this reason persons in great stations have seldom their true characters drawn till several years after their deaths. Their personal friendships and enmities must cease, and the parties they were engaged in be at an end, before their faults or their virtues can have justice done them. When writers have the least opportunity of knowing the truth, they are in the best disposition to tell it. It is therefore the privilege of posterity to adjust the characters of illustrious persons, and to set matters right between those antagonists who by their rivalry for greatness divided a whole age into factions.”

  Joseph Addison (1672–1719) first seen 1711 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: No. 101 (26 June 1711), this has sometimes been quoted as "It is the privilege of posterity to set matters right between those antagonists who, by their rivalry for greatness, divided a whole age".

• “At the same time that I think discretion the most useful talent a man can be master of, I look upon cunning to be the accomplishment of little, mean, ungenerous minds. Discretion points out the noblest ends to us, and pursues the most proper and laudable methods of attaining them: cunning has only private selfish aims, and sticks at nothing which may make them succeed. Discretion has large and extended views, and, like a well-formed eye, commands a whole horizon: cunning is a kind of short-sightedness, that discovers the minutest objects which are near at hand, but is not able to discern things at a distance. Discretion the more it is discovered, gives a greater authority to the person who possesses it: cunning, when it is once detected, loses its force, and makes a man incapable of bringing about even those events which he might have done had he passed only for a plain man. Discretion is the perfection of reason, and a guide to us in all the duties of life: cunning is a kind of instinct, that only looks out after our immediate interest and welfare. Discretion is only found in men of strong sense and good understandings, cunning is often to be met with in brutes themselves, and in persons who are but the fewest removes from them.”

  Joseph Addison (1672–1719) said by 1719 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “The cast of mind which is natural to a discreet man, make him look forward into futurity, and consider what will be his condition millions of ages hence, as well as what it is at present. He knows that the misery or happiness which are reserved for him in another world, lose nothing of their reality by being placed at so great a distance from him. The objects do not appear little to him because they are remote. He considers that those pleasures and pains which lie hid in eternity, approach nearer to him every moment, and will be present with him in their full weight and measure, as much as those pains and pleasures which he feels at this very instant. For this reason he is careful to secure to himself that which is the proper happiness of his nature, and the ultimate design of his being. He carries his thoughts to the end of every action, and considers the most distant as well as the most immediate effects of it. He supersedes every little prospect of gain and advantage which offers itself here, if he does not find it consistent with his views of an hereafter. In a word, his hopes are full of immortality, his schemes are large and glorious, and his conduct suitable to one who knows his true interest, and how to pursue it by proper methods.”

  Joseph Addison (1672–1719) said by 1719 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “The House of Commons is the Representative of Men in my Condition. I consider my self as one who give my Consent to every Law which passes: A Free-Holder in our Government being of the Nature of a Citizen of Rome in that famous Commonwealth; who, by the Election of a Tribune, had a kind of remote Voice in every Law that was enacted. So that a Freeholder is but one Remove from a Legislator, and for that Reason ought to stand up in the Defense of those Laws, which are in some degree of his own making. For such is the Nature of our happy Constitution, that the Bulk of the People virtually give their Approbation to every thing they are bound to obey, and prescribe to themselves those Rules by which they are to walk.”

  Joseph Addison (1672–1719) first seen 1715 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: No. 1. Friday, December 23. 1715

• “We are told, that in Turkey, when any Man is the Author of Notorious Falsehoods, it is usual to blacken the whole Front of his House. Nay we have sometimes heard, that an Embassador, whose Business it is (if I may quote his Character in Sir Henry Wotton's Words) to lie for the Good of his Country, has sometimes had this Mark set upon his House; when he been detected in any Piece of feign'd Intelligence, that has prejudiced the Government, and misled the Minds of the People. One could almost wish that the Habitations of such of our own Countrymen as deal in Forgeries detrimental to the Public, were distinguished in the same Manner; that their Fellow-Subjects might be cautioned not to be too easy in giving Credit to them. Were such a Method put in Practice, this Metropolis would be strangely checquered; some entire Parishes would be in Mourning, and several Streets darkened from one End to the other.”

  Joseph Addison (1672–1719) said by 1719 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “'T is not in mortals to command success, But we 'll do more, Sempronius,--we 'll deserve it.”

  Joseph Addison (1672–1719) said by 1719 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source

• “Blesses his stars and thinks it luxury.”

  Joseph Addison (1672–1719) said by 1719 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source

• “'T 's pride, rank pride, and haughtiness of soul; I think the Romans call it stoicism.”

  Joseph Addison (1672–1719) said by 1719 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source

• “Beauty soon grows familiar to the lover, Fades in his eye, and palls upon the sense. The virtuous Marcia towers above her sex.”

  Joseph Addison (1672–1719) said by 1719 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source

• “My voice is still for war. Gods! can a Roman senate long debate Which of the two to choose, slavery or death?”

  Joseph Addison (1672–1719) said by 1719 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source

• “Great Pompey's shade complains that we are slow, And Scipio's ghost walks unaveng'd amongst us!”

  Joseph Addison (1672–1719) said by 1719 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source

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