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I am very much concerned when I see young gentlemen of fortune and quality so wholly set upon pleasures and diversions, that they neglect all those improvements in wisdom and knowledge which may make them easy to themselves and useful to the world.

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
World
Pleasure
Neglect
Knowledge
Gentleman
Upon
Improvement
Diversions
Easy
Useful
Improvements
Young
Fortune
Diversion
May
Concerned
Gentlemen
Much
Wisdom
Wholly
Make
Quality
Pleasures

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A satire should expose nothing but what is corrigible, and should make a due discrimination between those that are and those that are not the proper objects of it.
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To be exempt from the passions with which others are tormented, is the only pleasing solitude.
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The Lord my pasture shall prepare, And feed me with a shepherd's care His presence shall my wants supply, And guard me with a watchful eye.
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The stars shall fade away, the sun himself Grow dim with age, and nature sink in years, But thou shalt flourish in immortal youth, Unhurt amidst the wars of elements, The wrecks of matter, and the crush of worlds.
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A man whose extraordinary reputation thus lifts him up to the notice and observation of mankind, draws a multitude of eyes upon him, that will narrowly inspect every part of him.
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Who does not more admire Cicero as an author than as a consul of Rome?
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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.
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With what astonishment and veneration may we look into our own souls, where there are such hidden stores of virtue and knowledge, such inexhaustible sources of perfection. We know not yet what we shall be, nor will it ever enter into the heart to conceive the glory that will be always in reserve for it.
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Talking with a friend is nothing else but thinking aloud.
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A man’s first care should be to avoid the reproaches of his own heart.
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My death and life, My bane and antidote, are both before me.
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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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We find the Works of Nature still more pleasant, the more they resemble those of art.
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The unassuming youth seeking instruction with humility gains good fortune.
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Nothing that isn't a real crime makes a man appear so contemptible and little in the eyes of the world as inconsistency.
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There is not a more unhappy being than a superannuated idol.
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A brother's sufferings claim a brother's pity.
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If we may believe our logicians, man is distinguished from all other creatures by the faculty of laughter. He has a heart capable of mirth, and naturally disposed to it.
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Knavery is ever suspicious of knavery.
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In my Lucia's absence Life hangs upon me, and becomes a burden I am ten times undone, while hope, and fear, And grief, and rage and love rise up at once, And with variety of pain distract me.
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