Quotes by Addison, Joseph

"Music, the greatest good that mortals know, And all of heaven we have below."

Addison, Joseph on music
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"Nothing is capable of being well set to music that is not nonsense."

Addison, Joseph on music   

"Men may change their climate, but they cannot change their nature. A man that goes out a fool cannot ride or sail himself into common sense."

Addison, Joseph on nature
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"Irregularity and want of method are only supportable in men of great learning or genius, who are often too full to be exact, and therefore they choose to throw down their pearls in heaps before the reader, rather than be at the pains of stringing them."

Addison, Joseph on organization   

"An ostentatious man will rather relate a blunder or an absurdity he has committed, than be debarred from talking of his own dear person."

Addison, Joseph on ostentation   

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"The unjustifiable severity of a parent is loaded with this aggravation, that those whom he injures are always in his sight."

Addison, Joseph on parents and parenting   

"Our real blessings often appear to us in the shape of pains, losses and disappointments; but let us have patience and we soon shall see them in their proper figures."

Addison, Joseph on patience
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"What pity is it That we can die, but once to serve our country."

Addison, Joseph on patriotism   

"It is only imperfection that complains of what is imperfect. The more perfect we are the more gentle and quiet we become towards the defects of others."

Addison, Joseph on perfection
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"The important question is not, what will yield to man a few scattered pleasures, but what will render his life happy on the whole amount."

Addison, Joseph on pleasure
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"Good nature is more agreeable in conversation than wit and gives a certain air to the countenance which is more amiable than beauty."

Addison, Joseph on attitude
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"No oppression is so heavy or lasting as that which is inflicted by the perversion and exorbitance of legal authority."

Addison, Joseph on authority   

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"There is nothing that makes its way more directly to the soul than beauty."

Addison, Joseph on beauty
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"We are always doing, says he, something for posterity, but I would see posterity do something for us."

Addison, Joseph on posterity   

"Prejudice and self-sufficiency naturally proceed from inexperience of the world, and ignorance of mankind."

Addison, Joseph on prejudice   

"It is the privilege of posterity to set matters right between those antagonists who, by their rivalry for greatness, divided a whole age."

Addison, Joseph on rivalry   

"We are growing serious, and let me tell you, that's the next step to being dull."

Addison, Joseph on seriousness   

"Our disputants put me in mind of the cuttlefish that, when he is unable to extricate himself, blackens the water about him till he becomes invisible."

Addison, Joseph on slander   

"To be exempt from the passions with which others are tormented, is the only pleasing solitude."

Addison, Joseph on solitude
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"There is not a more unhappy being than a superannuated idol."

Addison, Joseph on stardom   

"Our delight in any particular study, art, or science rises and improves in proportion to the application which we bestow upon it. Thus, what was at first an exercise becomes at length an entertainment."

Addison, Joseph on studying   

"With regard to donations always expect the most from prudent people, who keep their own accounts."

Addison, Joseph on benefactors   

"A man must be both stupid and uncharitable who believes there is no virtue or truth but on his own side."

Addison, Joseph on bigotry   

"Of all the diversions of life, there is none so proper to fill up its empty spaces as the reading of useful and entertaining authors."

Addison, Joseph on books - reading
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"Books are the legacies that a great genius leaves to mankind, which are delivered down from generation to generation as presents to the posterity of those who are yet unborn."

Addison, Joseph on books - reading
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"There is nothing more requisite in business than dispatch."

Addison, Joseph on business   

"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."

Addison, Joseph on censure   

"A man's first care should be to avoid the reproaches of his own heart, and his next to escape the censures of the world."

Addison, Joseph on censure   

"Cheerfulness is the best promoter of health and is as friendly to the mind as to the body."

Addison, Joseph on cheerfulness
4 fans of this quote   

"Suspicion is not less an enemy to virtue than to happiness; he that is already corrupt is naturally suspicious, and he that becomes suspicious will quickly be corrupt."

Addison, Joseph on suspicion   

"Eternity! thou pleasing, dreadful thought."

Addison, Joseph on time
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"Is there not some chosen curse, some hidden thunder in the stores of heaven, red with uncommon wrath, to blast the man who owes his greatness to his country's ruin!"

Addison, Joseph on reason   

"Some virtues are only seen in affliction and others only in prosperity."

Addison, Joseph on virtue   

"A cloudy day or a little sunshine have as great an influence on many constitutions as the most recent blessings or misfortunes."

Addison, Joseph on weather   

"Admiration is a very short-lived passion that immediately decays upon growing familiar with its object, unless it be still fed with fresh discoveries, and kept alive by a new perpetual succession of miracles rising up to its view."

Addison, Joseph on admiration
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"Mere bashfulness without merit is awkwardness."

Addison, Joseph on confidence   

"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."

Addison, Joseph on science   

"There is not any present moment that is unconnected with some future one. The life of every man is a continued chain of incidents, each link of which hangs upon the former. The transition from cause to effect, from event to event, is often carried on by secret steps, which our foresight cannot divine, and our sagacity is unable to trace. Evil may at some future period bring forth good; and good may bring forth evil, both equally unexpected."

Addison, Joseph on consequences   

"A contented mind is the greatest blessing a man can enjoy in this world."

Addison, Joseph on contentment
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"Courage that grows from constitution often forsakes a man when he has occasion for it; courage which arises from a sense of duty acts ;in a uniform manner."

Addison, Joseph on courage