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Beauty soon grows familiar to the lover, Fades in his eye, and palls upon the sense.
Those marriages generally abound most with love and constancy that are preceded by a long courtship.
JOSEPH ADDISON, The Spectator, Dec. 29, 1711
- Music, the greatest good that mortals know,
- And all of heaven we have here below.
JOSEPH ADDISON, A Song for St. Cecilia's Day
- If there's a power above us,
- (And that there is all nature cries aloud
- Through all her works) he must delight in virtue.
There is nothing we receive with so much reluctance as advice.
JOSEPH ADDISON, The Spectator, Oct. 12, 1712
I value my garden more for being full of blackbirds than of cherries, and very frankly give them fruit for their songs.
JOSEPH ADDISON, The Spectator
To be an atheist requires an indefinitely greater measure of faith than to recieve all the great truths which atheism would deny.
JOSEPH ADDISON, The Spectator, Mar. 8, 1711
I think a Person who is thus terrified with the Imagination of Ghosts and Spectres much more reasonable, than one who contrary to the Reports of all Historians sacred and profane, ancient and modern, and to the Traditions of all Nations, thinks the Appearance of Spirits fabulous and groundless.
JOSEPH ADDISON, The Spectator, 1711
When I consider the Question, Whether there are such Persons in the World as those we call Witches? my Mind is divided between the two opposite Opinions; or rather (to speak my Thoughts freely) I believe in general that there is, and has been such a thing as Witchcraft; but at the same time can give no Credit to any Particular Instance of it.
JOSEPH ADDISON, The Spectator, No. 117
If we may believe our logicians, man is distinguished from all other creatures by the faculty of laughter.
JOSEPH ADDISON, The Spectator, Sept. 26, 1712
In doing what we ought we deserve no praise, because it is our duty.
One hope no sooner dies in us but another rises up in its stead. We are apt to fancy that we shall be happy and satisfied if we possess ourselves of such and such particular enjoyments; but either by reason of their emptiness, or the natural inquietude of the mind, we have no sooner gained one point, but we extend our hopes to another. We still find new inviting scenes and landscapes lying behind those which at a distance terminated our view.
JOSEPH ADDISON, The Spectator, Nov. 13, 1712
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, The Spectator, Nov. 13, 1712
Men of warm imaginations and towering thoughts are apt to overlook the goods of fortune which are near them, for something that glitters in the sight at a distance; to neglect solid and substantial happiness for what is showy and superficial; and to contemn that good which lies within their reach, for that which they are not capable of attaining. Hope calculates its schemes for a long and durable life; presses forward to imaginary points of bliss; grasps at impossibilities; and consequently very often ensnares men into beggary, ruin, and dishonour.
JOSEPH ADDISON, The Spectator, Nov. 13, 1712
It is a great presumption to ascribe our successes to our own management, and not to esteem ourselves upon any blessing, rather as it is the bounty of heaven, than the acquisition of our own prudence.
JOSEPH ADDISON, The Spectator, Feb. 5, 1712
There is no virtue so truly great and godlike as justice.
JOSEPH ADDISON, The Guardian, Jul. 4, 1713
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