Joseph Addison Quotes - Page 22

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Loveliest of women! heaven is in thy soul,
Beauty and virtue shine forever round thee,
Bright'ning each other! thou art all divine!

Joseph Addison

Art, Women, Soul Beauty

"Cato, A Tragedy". Play by Joseph Addison, 1713.

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Guard thy heart on this weak side, where most our nature fails.

Joseph Addison

Heart, Weakness, Sides

Joseph Addison (1825). “Cato: A Tragedy, in Five Acts”, p.1

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Amidst the soft variety I'm lost.

Joseph Addison

Lost, Variety

Joseph Addison, Henry George Bohn, Richard Hurd (1856). “The Works of the Right Honourable Joseph Addison: Poems on several occasions. Poemata. Dialogues upon the usefulness of ancient medals, especially in relation to the Latin and Greek poets. Remarks on several parts of Italy, in the years 1701, 1702, 1703”, p.35

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The dawn is overcast, the morning lowers, And heavily in clouds brings on the day, The great, the important day, big with the fate Of Cato and of Rome.

Joseph Addison

Morning, Fate, Clouds

Joseph Addison (1825). “Cato: A Tragedy, in Five Acts”, p.1

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I have often reflected within myself on this unaccountable humor in womankind of being smitten with everything that is showy and superficial, and on the numberless evils that befall the sex from this light fantastical disposition.

Joseph Addison

Sex, Light, Evil

Joseph Addison, Richard Hurd, Henry George Bohn (1873). “The Works of the Right Honourable Joseph Addison”, p.263

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O ye powers that search The heart of man, and weigh his inmost thoughts, If I have done amiss, impute it not! The best may err, but you are good.

Joseph Addison

Heart, Men, Done

Joseph Addison (1837). “The Tatler. The Guardian. The Freeholder. The Whig-examiner. The lover. Dialogues upon the usefulness of ancient medals. Remarks on several parts of Italy, etc. The present state of the war. The late trial and conviction of Count Tariff. The evidences of the Christian religion. Essay on Virgil's Georgics. Poems on several occasions. Translations from Ovid's Metamorphoses. Notes on some of the foregoing stories in Ovid's Metamorphoses. Poemata. Rosamond. Cato. The drummer”, p.499

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A thousand trills and quivering sounds In airy circles o'er us fly, Till, wafted by a gentle breeze, They faint and languish by degrees, And at a distance die.

Joseph Addison

Distance, Circles, Sound

Joseph Addison (2017). “Delphi Complete Works of Joseph Addison (Illustrated)”, p.323, Delphi Classics

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Our friends don't see our faults, or conceal them, or soften them.

Joseph Addison

Faults

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A man who is furnished with arguments from the mint, will convince his antagonist much sooner than one who draws them from reason and philosophy. - Gold is a wonderful clearer of the understanding; it dissipates every doubt and scruple in an instant; accommodates itself to the meanest capacities; silences the loud and clamorous, and cringes over the most obstinate and inflexible. - Philip of Macedon was a man of most invincible reason this way. He refuted by it all the wisdom of Athens; confounded their statesmen; struck their orators dumb; and at length argued them out of all their liberties.

Joseph Addison

Wisdom, Philosophy, Men

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True modesty avoids everything that is criminal; false modesty everything that is unfashionable.

Joseph Addison

Criminals, Modesty, False Modesty

Joseph Addison, Sir Richard Steele (1854). “The Spectator: With a Biographical and Critical Preface, and Explanatory Notes ...”, p.406

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A source of cheerfulness to a good mind is the consideration of that Being on whom we have our dependence, and in whom, though we behold Him as yet but in the first faint discoveries of His perfections, we see everything that we can imagine as great glorious, or amiable. We find ourselves everywhere upheld by His goodness and surrounded by an immensity of love and mercy.

Joseph Addison

God, Discovery, Perfection

Joseph Addison (1872). “The Works of the Right Honourable Joseph Addison”, p.359

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There is nobody so weak of invention that cannot make some little stories to villify his enemy.

Joseph Addison

Enemy, Stories, Littles

Joseph Addison, Sir Richard Steele (1822). “The Spectator: with notes and illustrations. In six volumes”, p.192

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Half the misery of human life might be extinguished if men would alleviate the general curse they lie under by mutual offices of compassion, benevolence, and humanity.

Joseph Addison

Kindness, Lying, Men

Joseph Addison (2017). “Delphi Complete Works of Joseph Addison (Illustrated)”, p.2953, Delphi Classics

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Husband a lie, and trump it up in some extraordinary emergency.

Joseph Addison

Husband, Lying, Emergencies

Joseph Addison (1828). “A Selection [- Second Selection] from the Paper of Addison: In the Spectator and Guardian, for the Use of Young Persons”, p.93

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Reason shows itself in all occurrences of life; whereas the brute makes no discovery of such a talent, but in what immediately regards his own preservation or the continuance of his species.

Joseph Addison

Discovery, Talent, Reason

Joseph Addison, Sir Richard Steel (1840). “Selections from the Spectator: Embracing the Most Interesting Papers by Addison, Steel, and Others”, p.52

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I believe that everyone, some time or other, dreams that he is reading papers, books, or letters; in which case the invention prompts so readily that the mind is imposed upon, and mistakes its own suggestions for the composition of another.

Joseph Addison

Dream, Mistake, Believe

Joseph Addison, Sir Richard Steele (1819). “The Spectator”, p.59

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Why, a spirit is such a little, little thing, that I have heard man, who was a great scholar, say that he'll dance ye a hornpipe upon the point of a needle.

Joseph Addison

Men, Littles, Spirit

Joseph Addison, Richard Steele, George Farquhar, Mr. Ambrose Philips (1750). “A Select Collection of the Best Modern English Plays: Vol. IV.”, p.29

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One would wonder to hear skeptical men disputing for the reason of animals, and telling us it is only our pride and prejudices that will not allow them the use of that faculty. Reason shows itself in all occurrences of life; whereas the brute makes no discovery of such a talent, but in what immediately regards his own preservation, or the continuance of his species. 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. Take a brute out of his instinct, and you find him wholly deprived of understanding.

Joseph Addison

Lying, Pride, Son

Joseph Addison, Sir Richard Steel (1858). “The Spectator”, p.169

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The Obedience of Children to their Parents is the Basis of all Government, and set forth as the measure of that Obedience which weowe to those whom Providence hath placed over us.

Joseph Addison

Children, Government, Childhood

Joseph Addison (1721). “The Spectator, no. 90-505”, p.159

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A woman seldom asks advice before she has bought her wedding clothes.

Joseph Addison

Marriage, Wedding, Women

'The Spectator' no. 475, 4 September 1712

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In that disputable point of persecuting men for conscience sake, I see such dreadful consequences rising, I would be as fully convinced of the truth of it, as a mathematical demonstration, before I would venture to act upon it or make it a part of my religion.

Joseph Addison

Men, Would Be, Rising

Joseph Addison (1812). “The evidences of the Christian religion: with additional discourses on the following subjects, viz: Of God, and his attributes. The power and wisdom of God in the creation. The providence of God. The worship of God. Advantages of revelation above natural reason. Excellency of the Christian institution. Dignity of the Scripture language. Against atheism and infidelity. Against the modern free-thinkers. Immortality of the soul, and a future state. Death and judgment”, p.169

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A cheerful temper, joined with innocence will make beauty attractive, knowledge delightful, and wit good-natured.

Joseph Addison

Cheerful, Innocence, Attractive

Joseph Addison (1856). “The works of ... Joseph Addison, with notes by R. Hurd”, p.153

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A statue lies hid in a block of marble, and the art of the statuary only clears away the superfluous matter and removes the rubbish. The figure is in the stone; the sculptor only finds it. What sculpture is to a block of marble, education is to a human soul. The philosopher, the saint, or the hero,--the wise, the good, or the great man,--very often lies hid and concealed in a plebeian, which a proper education might have disinterred, and have brought to light.

Joseph Addison

Education, Wise, Art

Joseph Addison (1856). “The works of ... Joseph Addison, with notes by R. Hurd”, p.96

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The passion for praise, which is so very vehement in the fair sex, produces excellent effects in women of sense, who desire to be admired for that which only deserves admiration.

Joseph Addison

Sex, Passion, Desire

Joseph Addison, Richard Steele (1853). “The Spectator”, p.236

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In England we see people lulled sleep with solid and elaborate discourses of piety, who would be warmed and transported out of themselves by the bellowings and distortions of enthusiasm.

Joseph Addison

Sleep, People, Would Be

Joseph Addison, Sir Richard Steele (1832). “The Spectator: with notes and general index, from the London stereotype edition ...”

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Born: May 1, 1672
Died: June 17, 1719
Occupation: Essayist
Cite this Page: Citation

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