Quote

A reader seldom peruses a book with pleasure until he knows whether the writer of it be a black man or a fair man, of a mild or choleric disposition, married or a bachelor.

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
Book
Fairs
Men
Fair
Reader
Married
Bachelor
Writer
Bachelors
Pleasure
Mild
Whether
Disposition
Black
Seldom

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An opera may be allowed to be extravagantly lavish in its decorations, as its only design is to gratify the senses and keep up an indolent attention in the audience.
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The spacious firmament on high, And all the blue ethereal sky, And spangled heavens, a shining frame, Their great Original proclaim.
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Whether dark presages of the night proceed from any latent power of the soul during her abstraction, or from any operation of subordinate spirits, has been a dispute.
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Husband a lie, and trump it up in some extraordinary emergency.
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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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An honest man, that is not quite sober, has nothing to fear.
Joseph Addison
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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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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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What pity is it That we can die, but once to serve our country.
Joseph Addison
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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.
Joseph Addison
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Physic is, for the most part, only a substitute for temperance and exercise.
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What I spent I lost what I possessed is left to others what I gave away remains with me.
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Friendships, in general, are suddenly contracted and therefore it is no wonder they are easily dissolved.
Joseph Addison
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There is nobody so weak of invention that cannot make some little stories to villify his enemy.
Joseph Addison
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The greatest parts, without discretion as observed by an elegant writer, may be fatal to their owner as Polyphemus, deprived of his eyes, was only the more exposed on account of his enormous strength and stature.
Joseph Addison
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Love, anger, pride and avarice all visibly move in those little orbs.
Joseph Addison
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As addictions go, reading is among the cleanest, easiest to feed, happiest.
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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Though a man cannot abstain from being weak, he may from being vicious.
Joseph Addison
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The fear of death often proves mortal, and sets people on methods to save their Lives, which infallibly destroy them.
Joseph Addison