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
attacking generally good human laugh men ridicule virtue
Ridicule is generally made use of to laugh men out of virtue and good sense, by attacking everything praiseworthy in human life.
english-writer good greatest heaven mortals
Music, the greatest good that mortals know and all of heaven we have here below.
agreeable air amiable beauty certain conversation gives good nature
Good nature is more agreeable in conversation than wit, and gives a certain air to the countenance which is more amiable than beauty
mind action good-intentions
It is of unspeakable advantage to possess our minds with an habitual good intention, and to aim all our thoughts, words, and actions at some laudable end.
advice literature good-advice
There is nothing which we receive with so much reluctance as advice.
against country earthquake good island pills remember sold
I remember when our whole island was shaken with an earthquake some years ago, there was an impudent mountebank who sold pills which (as he told the country people) were very good against an earthquake.
good greatest heaven mortals
Music, the greatest good that mortals know, and all of heaven we have below.
men good-man ancestry
Title and ancestry render a good man more illustrious, but an ill one more contemptible.
men good-nature good-humor
Men naturally warm and heady are transported with the greatest flush of good-nature.
above knowledge next raises truly virtue
Knowledge is that which, next to virtue, truly raises one person above another.
conversation himself less man method provided requisite talk understood
Method is not less requisite in conversation than in writing, provided a man would talk to make himself understood
enemy happiness noise retired true
True happiness is of a retired nature, and an enemy to pomp and noise
call rank romans tis
Tis pride, rank pride, and haughtiness of soul; I think the Romans call it stoicism
command deserve mortals tis
Tis not in mortals to command success, But we'll do more, Sempronius; we'll deserve it