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
grave living mirth nor pleasant thee thy whether wit
In all thy humors, whether grave or mellow, Thou'rt such a touchy, testy, pleasant fellow, hast so much wit and mirth and spleen about thee, there is no living with thee, nor without thee
criticize himself man ridiculous works
It is ridiculous for any man to criticize the works of another if he has not distinguished himself by his own performances
cheerfulness daylight filling keeps perpetual serenity steady
Cheerfulness keeps up a kind of daylight in the mind, filling it with a steady and perpetual serenity
complacency equal acceptable
Complaisance renders a superior amiable, an equal agreeable, and an inferior acceptable.
contempt
Nothing, says Longinus, can be great, the contempt of which is great.
wrath safety atheism
One would fancy that the zealots in atheism would be exempt from the single fault which seems to grow out of the imprudent fervor of religion. But so it is, that irreligion is propagated with as much fierceness and contention, wrath and indignation, as if the safety of mankind depended upon it.
ill-will vanity secret
It generally takes its rise either from an ill-will to mankind, a private inclination to make ourselves esteemed, an ostentation of wit, and vanity of being thought in the secrets of the world; or from a desire of gratifying any of these dispositions of mind in those persons with whom we converse.
modesty virtue
Virtue which shuns, the day.
hypocrisy pedants form
Pedantry in learning is like hypocrisy inn religion--a form of knowledge without the power of it.
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!