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Title and ancestry render a good man more illustrious, but an ill one more contemptible.
Joseph Addison
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Joseph Addison
Age: 47 †
Born: 1672
Born: May 1
Died: 1719
Died: June 17
Editor
Essayist
Journalist
Librettist
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Poet
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Writer
Milston
Wiltshire
Joseph Addisson
Right Hon. Joseph Addison
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Ill
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Illustrious
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More quotes by Joseph Addison
A man governs himself by the dictates of virtue and good sense, who acts without zeal or passion in points that are of no consequence but when the whole community is shaken, and the safety of the public endangered, the appearance of a philosophical or an affected indolence must arise either from stupidity or perfidiousness.
Joseph Addison
There is nothing which we receive with so much reluctance as advice.
Joseph Addison
There is sometimes a greater judgement shewn in deviating from the rules of art, than in adhering to them and?there ismore beauty inthe works of a great genius who is ignorant of all the rules of art, than in the works of a little genius, who not only knows but scrupulously observes them.
Joseph Addison
We are apt to rely upon future prospects, and become really expensive while we are only rich in possibility. We live up to our expectations, not to our possessions, and make a figure proportionable to what we may be, not what we are.
Joseph Addison
Hunting is not a proper employment for a thinking man.
Joseph Addison
There is not a more unhappy being than a superannuated idol.
Joseph Addison
The most exquisite words and finest strokes of an author are those which very often appear the most doubtful and exceptionable to a man who wants a relish for polite learning and they are those which a sour undistinguishing critic generally attacks with the greatest violence.
Joseph Addison
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
What can that man fear who takes care to please a Being that is able to crush all his adversaries?
Joseph Addison
It is impossible for authors to discover beauties in one another's works they have eyes only for spots and blemishes.
Joseph Addison
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.
Joseph Addison
From hence, let fierce contending nations know, what dire effects from civil discord flow.
Joseph Addison
Health and happiness give rise to each other.
Joseph Addison
Some virtues are only seen in affliction and others only in prosperity.
Joseph Addison
Beauty commonly produces love, but cleanliness preserves it. Age itself is not unamiable while it is preserved clean and unsullied like a piece of metal constantly kept smooth and bright, we look on it with more pleasure than on a new vessel cankered with rust.
Joseph Addison
Good Nature, and Evenness of Temper, will give you an easie Companion for Life Vertue and good Sense, an agreeable Friend Love and Constancy, a good Wife or Husband. Where we meet one Person with all these Accomplishments, we find an Hundred without any one of them.
Joseph Addison
Nature does nothing without purpose or uselessly.
Joseph Addison
Silence is sometimes more significant and sublime than the most noble and most expressive eloquence, and is on many occasions the indication of a great mind.
Joseph Addison
Quick sensitivity is inseperable from a ready understanding.
Joseph Addison
The time never lies heavy upon him it is impossible for him to be alone.
Joseph Addison