Quotes By Joseph Addison

Jesters do often prove prophets.

To a man of pleasure every moment appears to be lost, which partakes not of the vivacity of amusement.

What sculpture is to a block of marble, education is to the soul.

I value my garden more for being full of blackbirds than of cherries, and very frankly give them fruit for their songs.

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.

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.

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.

Better to die ten thousand deaths than wound my honor.

Talking with a friend is nothing else but thinking aloud.

If you wish to succeed in life, make perseverance your bosom friend, experience your wise counselor, caution your elder brother, and hope your guardian genius.

What pity is it That we can die, but once to serve our country.

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.

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

Modesty is not only an ornament, but also a guard to virtue.

There is nothing that makes its way more directly into the soul than beauty.

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.

That he delights in the misery of others no man will confess, and yet what other motive can make a father cruel?

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.

The union of the Word and the Mind produces that mystery which is called Life... Learn deeply of the Mind and its mystery, for therein lies the secret of immortality.

Music, the greatest good that mortals know and all of heaven we have hear below.

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.

Cheerfulness is the best promoter of health and is as friendly to the mind as to the body.

A cloudy day or a little sunshine have as great an influence on many constitutions as the most recent blessings or misfortunes.

Plenty of people wish to become devout, but no one wishes to be humble.

Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body.

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.

To be an atheist requires an indefinitely greater measure of faith than to recieve all the great truths which atheism would deny.

The unassuming youth seeking instruction with humility gains good fortune.

Admiration is a very short-lived passion, that immediately decays upon growing familiar with its object.

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!