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I have always preferred cheerfulness to mirth. The latter I consider as an act, the former as a habit of mind. Mirth is short and transient, cheerfulness fixed and permanent.

Joseph Addison

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Joseph Addison
Age: 47 †
Born: 1672
Born: May 1
Died: 1719
Died: June 17
Editor
Essayist
Journalist
Librettist
Playwright
Poet
Politician
Writer
Milston
Wiltshire
Joseph Addisson
Right Hon. Joseph Addison
Short
Pessimism
Mind
Optimism
Always
Latter
Fixed
Permanent
Mirth
Former
Preferred
Consider
Cheerfulness
Habit
Transient

More quotes by Joseph Addison

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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.
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The great number of the Jews furnishes us with a sufficient cloud of witnesses that attest the truth of the Bible.
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It is wonderful to see persons of sense passing away a dozen hours together in shuffling and dividing a pack of cards.
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What pity is it That we can die, but once to serve our country.
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Supposing all the great points of atheism were formed into a kind of creed, I would fain ask whether it would not require an infinite greater measure of faith than any set of articles which they so violently oppose.
Joseph Addison
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Were not this desire of fame very strong, the difficulty of obtaining it, and the danger of losing it when obtained, would be sufficient to deter a man from so vain a pursuit.
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Who does not more admire Cicero as an author than as a consul of Rome?
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From social intercourse are derived some of the highest enjoyments of life where there is a free interchange of sentiments the mind acquires new ideas, and by frequent exercise of its powers, the understanding gains fresh vigor.
Joseph Addison
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When a man is made up wholly of the dove, without the least grain of the serpent in his composition, he becomes ridiculous in many circumstances of life, and very often discredits his best actions.
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T is liberty crowns Britannia's Isle, And makes her barren rocks and her bleak mountains smile.
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A man whose extraordinary reputation thus lifts him up to the notice and observation of mankind, draws a multitude of eyes upon him, that will narrowly inspect every part of him.
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There is not a more melancholy object than a man who has his head turned with religious enthusiasm.
Joseph Addison
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There is nothing which one regards so much with an eye of mirth and pity as innocence when it has in it a dash of folly.
Joseph Addison
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Some virtues are only seen in affliction and others only in prosperity.
Joseph Addison
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I value my garden more for being full of blackbirds than of cherries, and very frankly give them fruit for their songs.
Joseph Addison
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The greatest sweetener of human life is Friendship. To raise this to the highest pitch of enjoyment, is a secret which but few discover.
Joseph Addison
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A jealous man is very quick in his application: he knows how to find a double edge in an invective, and to draw a satire on himself out of a panegyrick on another.
Joseph Addison
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Among those evils which befall us, there are many which have been more painful to us in the prospect than by their actual pressure.
Joseph Addison
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There is nothing that more betrays a base ungenerous spirit than the giving of secret stabs to a man's reputation. Lampoons and satires that are written with wit and spirit are like poisoned darts, which not only inflict a wound, but make it incurable.
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O ye powers that search The heart of man, and weigh his inmost thoughts, If I have done amiss, impute it not! The best may err, but you are good.
Joseph Addison