Joseph Addison Quotes

Quotes about:

• 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

  Inspirational, Life, Friendship

  105 Copy quote

• No one is more cherished in this world than someone who lightens the burden of another. Thank you.

  Joseph Addison

  Appreciation, Volunteer, World

  81 Copy quote
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  Three grand essentials to happiness in this life are something to do, something to love, and something to hope for.

  Joseph Addison

  Love, Inspirational, Life

  97 Copy quote

• Hunting is not a proper employment for a thinking man.

  Joseph Addison

  Men, Thinking, Hunting

  Quoted in Colin Jarman The Guinness Dictionary of Sports Quotations (1990).

  8 Copy quote

• Wit is the fetching of congruity out of incongruity.

  Joseph Addison

  Wit, Incongruity

  8 Copy quote

• 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.

  Joseph Addison

  Wisdom, Lying, Son

  Joseph Addison, Richard Steele (1853). “The Spectator”, p.383

  8 Copy quote

• The most skillful flattery is to let a person talk on, and be a listener.

  Joseph Addison

  Flattery, Persons, Skillful

  25 Copy quote

• The ways of heaven are dark and intricate,
  Puzzled in mazes, and perplex'd with errors;
  Our understanding traces them in vain,
  Lost and bewilder'd in the fruitless search;
  Nor sees with how much art the windings run,
  Nor where the regular confusion ends.

  Joseph Addison

  Running, Art, Dark

  Joseph Addison (1868). “The Works of Joseph Addison”, p.481

  7 Copy quote

• The important question is not, what will yield to man a few scattered pleasures, but what will render his life happy on the whole amount.

  Joseph Addison

  Life, Happiness, Men

  Joseph Addison (1793). “A Collection of Interesting Anecdotes, Memoirs, Allegories, Essays, and Poetical Fragments”, p.336

  20 Copy quote

• Jesters do often prove prophets.

  Joseph Addison

  Literature, Prophet, Jester

  53 Copy quote

• Two persons who have chosen each other out of all the species with a design to be each other's mutual comfort and entertainment have, in that action, bound themselves to be good-humored, affable, discreet, forgiving, patient, and joyful, with respect to each other's frailties and perfections, to the end of their lives.

  Joseph Addison

  Anniversary, Two, Perfection

  Joseph Addison, Sir Richard Steele (1860). “The Spectator: A New Edition”, p.583

  12 Copy quote

• Jealousy is that pain which a man feels from the apprehension that he is not equally beloved by the person whom he entirely loves.

  Joseph Addison

  Jealousy, Pain, Men

  Joseph Addison, Richard Hurd (1811). “The Spectator”, p.356

  10 Copy quote

• Artificial intelligence will never be a match for natural stupidity.

  Joseph Addison

  Stupid, People, Natural

  20 Copy quote

• A person may be qualified to do greater good to mankind and become more beneficial to the world, by morality without faith than by faith without morality.

  Joseph Addison

  World, May, Morality

  Joseph Addison, Sir Richard Steele (1854). “The Spectator: With a Biographical and Critical Preface, and Explanatory Notes ...”, p.408

  11 Copy quote

• The hours of a wise man are lengthened by his ideas.

  Joseph Addison

  Wise, Men, Ideas

  Joseph Addison, Sir Richard Steele (1853). “The Spectator: With a Biographical and Critical Preface, and Explanatory Notes ...”, p.309

  14 Copy quote

• The utmost extent of man's knowledge, is to know that he knows nothing.

  Joseph Addison

  Knowledge, Men, Literature

  Joseph Addison (1794). “Interesting Anecdotes, Memoirs, Allegories, Essays, and Poetical Fragments: Tending to Amuse the Fancy, and Inculcate Morality”, p.230

  23 Copy quote

• 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.

  Joseph Addison

  Inspirational, Life, Success

  94 Copy quote

• 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.

  Joseph Addison

  Happiness, Patience, Pain

  46 Copy quote

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

  Joseph Addison

  Inspirational, Education, Book

  Joseph Addison, Sir Richard Steele (1837). “The Tatler: With Notes and a General Index ; Complete in One Volume”, p.270

  80 Copy quote

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

  Joseph Addison

  Happiness, Inspiration, Health

  "Pray It Forward:daily Meditations". Book by Rowena Holloway and Joyce Bullion, p. 25, 2007.

  90 Copy quote

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

  Joseph Addison

  Music, Wisdom, Heaven

  'A Song for St Cecilia's Day'

  35 Copy quote

• Were a man's sorrows and disquietudes summed up at the end of his life, it would generally be found that he had suffered more from the apprehension of such evils as never happened to him than from those evils which had really befallen him.

  Joseph Addison

  Fear, Men, Evil

  Joseph Addison (1858). “Works, Including the Whole Contents of Bp. Hurd's Edition: Withletters and Other Pieces Not Found in Any Previous Collection; and Macaulay's Essay on His Life and Works”, p.505

  10 Copy quote

• The greatest sweetener of human life is friendship.

  Joseph Addison

  Friendship, Real, Life Is

  317 Copy quote

• Content thyself to be obscurely good.

  Joseph Addison

  Thyself

  'Cato' (1713) act 4, sc. 1, l. 319

  7 Copy quote

• 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

  Nature, Miracle, Quality

  Joseph Addison, Sir Richard Steele (1804). “Selections from the Spectator, Tatler, Guardian, and Freeholder: Selections from the Tatler. Selections from the Spectator [no.5-150”, p.106

  16 Copy quote

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