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There is not, in my opinion, anything more mysterious in nature than this instinct in animals, which thus rise above reason, and yet fall infinitely short of it.

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
Animals
Short
Animal
Opinion
Infinitely
Fall
Mysterious
Nature
Rise
Anything
Instinct
Reason
Thus

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Government mitigates the inequality of power, and makes an innocent man, though of the lowest rank, a match for the mightiest of his fellow-subjects.
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It is certain that there is no other passion which does produce such contrary effects in so great a degree. But this may be said for love, that if you strike it out of the soul, life would be insipid, and our being but half animated.
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Books are the legacies that a great genius leaves to mankind
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There is no greater sign of a bad cause, than when the patrons of it are reduced to the necessity of making use of the most wicked artifices to support it.
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Modesty is not only an ornament, but also a guard to virtue.
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One would think that the larger the company is in which we are engaged, the greater variety of thoughts and subjects would be started into discourse but, instead of this we find that conversation is never so much straightened and confined, as in numerous assemblies.
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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.
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It is ridiculous for any man to criticize on the works of another, who has not distinguished himself by his own performances.
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A well regulated commerce is not, like law, physic, or divinity, to be overstocked with hands but, on the contrary, flourishes by multitudes, and gives employment to all its professors.
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The unassuming youth seeking instruction with humility gains good fortune.
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My voice is still for war. Gods! can a Roman senate long debate Which of the two to choose, slavery or death?
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There is not a more pleasante exercise of the mind than gratitude.
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Music religious heat inspires, It wakes the soul, and lifts it high, And wings it with sublime desires, And fits it to bespeak the Deity.
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Most of the trades, professions, and ways of living among mankind, take their original either from the love of the pleasure, or the fear of want. The former, when it becomes too violent, degenerates into luxury, and the latter into avarice.
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Fame is a good so wholly foreign to our natures that we have no faculty in the soul adapted to it, nor any organ in the body to relish it an object of desire placed out of the possibility of fruition.
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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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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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Health and cheerfulness naturally beget each other.
Joseph Addison
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As addictions go, reading is among the cleanest, easiest to feed, happiest.
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But in all despotic governments, though a particular prince may favour arts and letter, there is a natural degeneracy of mankind.
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