Quote

The greatest parts, without discretion as observed by an elegant writer, may be fatal to their owner as Polyphemus, deprived of his eyes, was only the more exposed on account of his enormous strength and stature.

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
Strength
Deprived
Writer
Elegant
Greatest
Owners
Polyphemus
Eyes
Exposed
Stature
Eye
Account
Discretion
May
Accounts
Owner
Without
Enormous
Fatal
Parts
Observed

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If our zeal were true and genuine we should be much more angry with a sinner than a heretic.
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Government mitigates the inequality of power, and makes an innocent man, though of the lowest rank, a match for the mightiest of his fellow-subjects.
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The lives of great men cannot be writ with any tolerable degree of elegance or exactness within a short time after their decease.
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To a man of pleasure every moment appears to be lost, which partakes not of the vivacity of amusement.
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A just and reasonable modesty does not only recommend eloquence, but sets off every great talent which a man can be possessed of.
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Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body.
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Mere bashfulness without merit is awkwardness.
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Thy steady temper, Portius, Can look on guilt, rebellion, fraud, and Cæsar, In the calm lights of mild philosophy.
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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.
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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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Books are the legacies that a great genius leaves to mankind
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I will indulge my sorrows, and give way to all the pangs and fury of despair.
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Rides in the whirlwind and directs the storm.
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Music can noble hints impart, Engender fury, kindle love, With unsuspected eloquence can move, And manage all the man with secret art.
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That he delights in the misery of others no man will confess, and yet what other motive can make a father cruel?
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It is ridiculous for any man to criticize on the works of another, who has not distinguished himself by his own performances.
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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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How can it enter into the thoughts of man, that the soul, which is capable of such immense perfections, and of receiving new improvements to all eternity, shall fall away into nothing almost as soon as it is created?
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Fame is a good so wholly foreign to our natures that we have no faculty in the soul adapted to it, nor any organ in the body to relish it an object of desire placed out of the possibility of fruition.
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