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
generous-spirit despair cows
Poverty palls the most generous spirits; it cows industry, and casts resolution itself into despair.
thyself
Content thyself to be obscurely good.
affliction prosperity virtue
Some virtues are only seen in affliction and others only in prosperity.
serenity soul ease
A good conscience is to the soul what health is to the body; it preserves constant ease and serenity within us; and more than countervails all the calamities and afflictions which can befall us from without.
eternity scene variety
Eternity! thou pleasing dreadful thought! Through what variety of untried being, Through what new scenes and changes must we pass!
complaining entertainment novelty
Novelty serves us for a kind of refreshment, and takes off from that satiety we are apt to complain of in our usual and ordinary entertainments.
conceited men talking
An ostentatious man will rather relate a blunder or an absurdity he has committed, than be debarred from talking of his own dear person.
idols unhappy literature
There is not a more unhappy being than a superannuated idol.
break-through clouds serenity
Mirth is like a flash of lightning, that breaks through a gloom of clouds, and glitters for a moment; cheerfulness keeps up a kind of daylight in the mind, and fills it with a steady and perpetual serenity.
modesty virtue betray
Nothing is more amiable than true modesty, and nothing more contemptible than the false. The one guards virtue, the other betrays it.
passing-away together dozen
It is wonderful to see persons of sense passing away a dozen hours together in shuffling and dividing a pack of cards.
criminals modesty false-modesty
True modesty avoids everything that is criminal; false modesty everything that is unfashionable.
flattery persons listeners
The most skillful flattery is to let a person talk on, and be a listener.
eternity joyful short song thy utter
Through all eternity to thee, a joyful song I'll raise; for oh! Eternity's too short to utter all thy praise.