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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.

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
Particular
Despotic
Though
Favour
Natural
Prince
Art
Letter
Government
Governments
May
Arts
Letters
Mankind
Degeneracy

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Nature in her whole drama never drew such a part she has sometimes made a fool, but a coxcomb is always of a man's own making.
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My voice is still for war.
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Knowledge is, indeed, that which, next to virtue, truly and essentially raises one man above another.
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It is odd to consider the connection between despotism and barbarity, and how the making one person more than man makes the rest less.
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Nature is full of wonders every atom is a standing miracle, and endowed with such qualities, as could not be impressed on it by a power and wisdom less than infinite.
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One would fancy that the zealots in atheism would be exempt from the single fault which seems to grow out of the imprudent fervor of religion. But so it is, that irreligion is propagated with as much fierceness and contention, wrath and indignation, as if the safety of mankind depended upon it.
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A good disposition is more valuable than gold, for the latter is the gift of fortune, but the former is the dower of nature.
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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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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.
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It was a saying of an ancient philosopher, which I find some of our writers have ascribed to Queen Elizabeth, who perhaps might have taken occasion to repeat it, that a good face is a letter of recommendation.
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Misery and ignorance are always the cause of great evils. Misery is easily excited to anger, and ignorance soon yields to perfidious counsels.
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Cunning is only the mimic of discretion, and may pass upon weak men in the same manner as vivacity is often mistaken for wit, and gravity for wisdom.
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The fear of death often proves mortal, and sets people on methods to save their Lives, which infallibly destroy them.
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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.
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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.
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How is it possible for those who are men of honor in their persons, thus to become notorious liars in their party
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Irresolution on the schemes of life which offer themselves to our choice, and inconstancy in pursuing them, are the greatest causes of all our unhappiness.
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Ridicule is generally made use of to laugh men out of virtue and good sense, by attacking everything praiseworthy in human life.
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Title and ancestry render a good man more illustrious, but an ill one more contemptible.
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As addictions go, reading is among the cleanest, easiest to feed, happiest.
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