JOSEPH ADDISON QUOTES V

English essayist, poet & playwright (1672-1719)

What means this heaviness that hangs upon me?
This lethargy that creeps through all my senses?
Nature, oppress'd and harrass'd out with care,
Sinks down to rest.

JOSEPH ADDISON

Cato

Tags: sleep


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

attributed, Wisdom for the Soul: Five Millennia of Prescriptions for Spiritual Healing

Tags: smiling


It is an unspeakable advantage to possess our minds with an habitual good intention, and to aim all our thoughts, words, and actions, at some laudable end.

JOSEPH ADDISON

The Spectator: In Eight Volumes, Volume 3

Tags: intentions


'Tis heaven itself, that points out an hereafter, and intimates eternity to man.

JOSEPH ADDISON

Cato

Tags: heaven, eternity


Good nature is more agreeable in conversation than wit, and gives a certain air to the countenance which is more amiable than beauty.

JOSEPH ADDISON

The Spectator, Sep. 13, 1711


In short, if you banish modesty out of the world, she carries away with her half the virtue that is in it.

JOSEPH ADDISON

The Spectator, November 24, 1711

Tags: modesty


It is odd to consider what great geniuses are sometimes thrown away upon trifles.

JOSEPH ADDISON

"Genius", Essays and Tales

Tags: genius


A day, an hour, of virtuous liberty is worth a whole eternity in bondage.

JOSEPH ADDISON

Cato

Tags: liberty


On you, my lord, with anxious fear I wait, and from your judgment must expect my fate.

JOSEPH ADDISON

A Poem to His Majesty

Tags: fate


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

Tags: laughter


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

JOSEPH ADDISON

The Spectator, May 24, 1711


A common civility to an impertinent fellow, often draws upon one a great many unforeseen troubles; and if one doth not take particular care, will be interpreted by him as an overture of friendship and intimacy.

JOSEPH ADDISON

The Tatler, Apr. 18, 1710


The sun, which is as the great soul of the universe, and produces all the necessaries of life, has a particular influence in cheering the mind of man, and making the heart glad.

JOSEPH ADDISON

The Spectator, May 24, 1712

Tags: sun


Charity is a virtue of the heart, and not of the hands.

JOSEPH ADDISON

The Guardian, Sep. 21, 1713

Tags: charity


Let echo, too, perform her part / Prolonging every note with art / And in a low expiring strain / Play all the concert o'er again.

JOSEPH ADDISON

Ode on St. Cecilia's Day

Tags: music


If you hate your enemies, you will contract such a vicious habit of mind, as by degrees will break out upon those who are your friends.

JOSEPH ADDISON

The Spectator, July 24, 1711

Tags: hate


Were all the vexations of life put together, we should find that a great part of them proceed from those calumnies and reproaches we spread abroad concerning one another.

JOSEPH ADDISON

The Spectator, September 15, 1714


A good conscience is to the soul what health is to the body; it preserves a constant ease and serenity within us, and more than countervails all the calamities and afflictions which can possibly befall us.

JOSEPH ADDISON

The Guardian, Aug. 15, 1713

Tags: conscience, soul


I am very much concerned when I see young gentlemen of fortune and quality so wholly set upon pleasures and diversions, that they neglect all those improvements in wisdom and knowledge which may make them easy to themselves and useful to the world.

JOSEPH ADDISON

The Guardian, Jul. 18, 1713

Tags: pleasure, wisdom


See in what peace a Christian can die!

JOSEPH ADDISON

last words, Jun. 17, 1719

Tags: death, Christianity