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Should a writer single out and point his raillery at particular persons, or satirize the miserable, he might be sure of pleasing a great part of his readers, but must be a very ill man if he could please himself.

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
Sure
Readers
Point
Ill
Part
Miserable
Persons
Reader
Might
Please
Raillery
Must
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Satirize
Great
Single
Satire
Men
Particular
Pleasing

More quotes by Joseph Addison

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That fine part of our construction, the eye, seems as much the receptacle and seat of our passions as the mind itself and at least it is the outward portal to introduce them to the house within, or rather the common thoroughfare to let our affections pass in and out.
Joseph Addison
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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 more of turn than of truth in a saying of Seneca, That drunkenness does not produce but discover faults. Common experience teaches the contrary. Wine throws a man out of himself, and infuses dualities into the mind which she is a stranger to in her sober moments.
Joseph Addison
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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
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If you wish to succeed in life, make perseverance your bosom friend, experience your wise counselor, caution your elder brother, and hope your guardian genius.
Joseph Addison
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Life is not long enough for a coquette to play all her tricks in.
Joseph Addison
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Talk not of love: thou never knew'st its force.
Joseph Addison
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Beauty soon grows familiar to the lover, Fades in his eye, and palls upon the sense.
Joseph Addison
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Some virtues are only seen in affliction and others only in prosperity.
Joseph Addison
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Riches expose a man to pride and luxury, and a foolish elation of heart.
Joseph Addison
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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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Upon laying a weight in one of the scales, inscribed eternity, though I threw in that of time, prosperity, affliction, wealth, and poverty, which seemed very ponderous, they were not able to stir the opposite balance.
Joseph Addison
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One of the most important but one of the most difficult things for a powerful mind is to be its own master.
Joseph Addison
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He only is a great man who can neglect the applause of the multitude and enjoy himself independent of its favor.
Joseph Addison
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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.
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 woman that deliberates is lost.
Joseph Addison
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A misery is not to be measure from the nature of the evil but from the temper of the sufferer.
Joseph Addison
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Whether zeal or moderation be the point we aim at, let us keep fire out of the one, and frost out of the other.
Joseph Addison
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The end of a man's life is often compared to the winding up of a well written play, where the principal persons still act in character, whatever the fate in which they undergo.
Joseph Addison