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The world is so full of ill-nature that I have lampoons sent me by people who cannot spell, and satires composed by those who scarce know how to write.

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
Cannot
Scarce
Writing
Spell
World
Spells
People
Sent
Ill
Full
Satires
Write
Satire
Nature
Composed

More quotes by Joseph Addison

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Others proclaim the infirmities of a great man with satisfaction and complacence, if they discover none of the like in themselves.
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Tis not my talent to conceal my thoughts, Or carry smiles and sunshine in my face, When discontent sits heavy at my heart.
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Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body.
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The union of the Word and the Mind produces that mystery which is called Life... Learn deeply of the Mind and its mystery, for therein lies the secret of immortality.
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Plutarch has written an essay on the benefits which a man may receive from his enemies and among the good fruits of enmity, mentions this in particular, that by the reproaches which it casts upon us, we see the worst side of ourselves.
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There are no more useful members in a commonwealth than merchants. They knit mankind together in a mutual intercourse of good offices, distribute the gifts of Nature, find work for the poor, and wealth to the rich, and magnificence to the great.
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Mere bashfulness without merit is awkwardness.
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What can that man fear who takes care to please a Being that is able to crush all his adversaries?
Joseph Addison
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From hence, let fierce contending nations know, what dire effects from civil discord flow.
Joseph Addison
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Were I to prescribe a rule for drinking, it should be formed upon a saying quoted by Sir William Temple: the first glass for myself, the second for my friends, the third for good humor, and the fourth for mine enemies.
Joseph Addison
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Were not this desire of fame very strong, the difficulty of obtaining it, and the danger of losing it when obtained, would be sufficient to deter a man from so vain a pursuit.
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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?
Joseph Addison
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What can be nobler than the idea it gives us of the Supreme Being?
Joseph Addison
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Among the English authors, Shakespeare has incomparably excelled all others. That noble extravagance of fancy, which he had in so great perfection, thoroughly qualified him to touch the weak, superstitious part of his readers' imagination, and made him capable of succeeding where he had nothing to support him besides the strength of his own genius.
Joseph Addison
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There is nothing which one regards so much with an eye of mirth and pity as innocence when it has in it a dash of folly.
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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Eternity! thou pleasing, dreadful thought.
Joseph Addison
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Wine heightens indifference into love, love into jealousy, and jealousy into madness. It often turns the good-natured man into an idiot, and the choleric into an assassin. It gives bitterness to resentment, it makes vanity insupportable, and displays every little spot of the soul in its utmost deformity.
Joseph Addison
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Some virtues are only seen in affliction and others only in prosperity.
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Let freedom never perish in your hands.
Joseph Addison