Joseph Addison
Joseph Addison
Joseph Addisonwas an English essayist, poet, playwright, and politician. He was the eldest son of The Reverend Lancelot Addison. His name is usually remembered alongside that of his long-standing friend, Richard Steele, with whom he founded The Spectator magazine...
NationalityEnglish
ProfessionWriter
Date of Birth1 May 1672
Joseph Addison quotes about
criminals modesty false-modesty
True modesty avoids everything that is criminal; false modesty everything that is unfashionable.
luxury vices ancient
We see the pernicious effects of luxury in the ancient Romans, who immediately found themselves poor as soon as this vice got footing among them.
kindness men dull
Authors have established it as a kind of rule, that a man ought to be dull sometimes; as the most severe reader makes allowances for many rests and nodding-places in a voluminous writer.
flattery persons listeners
The most skillful flattery is to let a person talk on, and be a listener.
jealousy pain men
Jealousy is that pain which a man feels from the apprehension that he is not equally beloved by the person whom he entirely loves.
birthday men thinking
It is folly for an eminent man to think of escaping censure, and a weakness to be affected with it. All the illustrious persons of antiquity, and indeed of every age in the world, have passed through this fiery persecution.
laughter believe heart
If we may believe our logicians, man is distinguished from all other creatures by the faculty of laughter. He has a heart capable of mirth, and naturally disposed to it.
birthday crush easter
The stars shall fade away, the sun himself Grow dim with age, and nature sink in years, But thou shalt flourish in immortal youth, Unhurt amidst the wars of elements, The wrecks of matter, and the crush of worlds.
courage soul daggers
The soul, secured in her existence, smiles At the drawn dagger, and defies its point.
crush fear men
What can that man fear who takes care to please a Being that is able to crush all his adversaries?
jealousy disease jealously
The disease of jealously is so malignant that is converts all it takes into its own nourishment.
humor men laughing
Ridicule is generally made use of to laugh men out of virtue and good sense, by attacking everything praiseworthy in human life.
lust firsts literature
The most violent appetites in all creatures are lust and hunger; the first is a perpetual call upon them to propagate their kind, the latter to preserve themselves.
block education human sculpture
What sculpture is to a block of marble, education is to a human soul.