English essayist, poet & playwright (1672-1719)
For how few ambitious men are there, who have got as much fame as they desired, and whose thirst after it has not been as eager in the very height of their reputation, as it was before they became known and eminent among men?
JOSEPH ADDISON
The Spectator, No. 256
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
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
But further, a man whose extraordinary reputation thus lifts him up to the notice and Observation of mankind, draws a multitude of eyes upon him that will narrowly inspect every part of him.
JOSEPH ADDISON
The Spectator, No. 256
It is ridiculous for any man to criticize on the works of another, who has not distinguished himself by his own performances.
JOSEPH ADDISON
The Tatler, Oct. 19, 1710
Music religious heat inspires / It wakes the soul, and lifts it high / And wings it with sublime desires / And fits it to bespeak the Deity.
JOSEPH ADDISON
Song for St. Cecilia's Day
I do not propose to our British ladies, that they should turn Amazons in the service of their sovereign, nor so much as let their nails grow for the defence of their country. The men will take the work of the field off their hands, and show the world, that English valour cannot be matched when it is animated by English beauty.
JOSEPH ADDISON
The Freeholder, Jan. 16, 1716
There is no virtue so truly great and godlike as justice.
JOSEPH ADDISON
The Guardian, Jul. 4, 1713
A man must be excessively stupid, as well as uncharitable, who believes that there is no virtue but on his own side, and that there are not men as honest as himself who may differ from him in political principles.
JOSEPH ADDISON
The Spectator, Dec. 8, 1711
A just and reasonable modesty does not only recommend eloquence, but sets off every great talent which a man can be possessed of. It heightens all the virtues which it accompanies; like the shades in paintings, it raises and rounds every figure, and makes the colours more beautiful, though not so glaring as they would be without it.
JOSEPH ADDISON
The Spectator, November 24, 1711
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.
JOSEPH ADDISON
The Tatler, Aug. 26, 1710
When I read the several dates of the tombs, of some that died yesterday, and some six hundred years ago, I consider that great day when we shall all of us be contemporaries, and make our appearance together.
JOSEPH ADDISON
Thoughts in Westminster Abbey
Music, the greatest good that mortals know, and all of heaven we have here below.
JOSEPH ADDISON
A Song for St. Cecilia's Day
What an absurd thing it is to pass over all the valuable parts of a man, and fix our attention on his infirmities.
JOSEPH ADDISON
The Spectator, Dec. 15, 1711
Among great geniuses those few draw the admiration of all the world upon them, and stand up as the prodigies of mankind, who, by the mere strength of natural parts, and without any assistance of art or learning, have produced works that were the delight of their own times and the wonder of posterity. There appears something nobly wild and extravagant in these great natural geniuses, that is infinitely more beautiful than all turn and polishing of what the French call a bel esprit, by which they would express a genius refined by conversation, reflection, and the reading of the most polite authors. The greatest genius which runs through the arts and sciences takes a kind of tincture from them and falls unavoidably into imitation.
JOSEPH ADDISON
"Genius", Essays and Tales
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
Title and ancestry render a good man more illustrious, but an ill one more contemptible.
JOSEPH ADDISON
The Guardian, Aug. 1, 1713
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
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
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