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A man with great talents, but void of discretion, is like Polyphemus in the fable, strong and blind, endued with an irresistible force, which for want of sight is of no use to him.

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
Force
Fables
Use
Discretion
Strong
Irresistible
Great
Talents
Men
Void
Like
Blind
Endued
Sight
Polyphemus
Talent
Fable

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There is not a more pleasante exercise of the mind than gratitude.
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True fortitude is seen in great exploits That justice warrants, and that wisdom guides And all else is tow'ring phrenzy and distraction.
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Sweet are the slumbers of the virtuous man.
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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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If there's a power above us, (And that there is all nature cries aloud Through all her works,) he must delight in virtue.
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There is not so variable a thing in nature as a lady's head-dress.
Joseph Addison
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The Fear of Death often proves Mortal.
Joseph Addison
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It is easier for an artful Man, who is not in Love, to persuade his Mistress he has a Passion for her, and to succeed in his Pursuits, than for one who loves with the greatest Violence. True Love hath ten thousand Griefs, Impatiencies and Resentments, that render a Man unamiable in the Eyes of the Person whose Affection he sollicits.
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The great number of the Jews furnishes us with a sufficient cloud of witnesses that attest the truth of the Bible.
Joseph Addison
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T is liberty crowns Britannia's Isle, And makes her barren rocks and her bleak mountains smile.
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I consider time as an in immense ocean, in which many noble authors are entirely swallowed up.
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A thousand trills and quivering sounds In airy circles o'er us fly, Till, wafted by a gentle breeze, They faint and languish by degrees, And at a distance die.
Joseph Addison
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Honour's a sacred tie, the law of kings, The noble mind's distinguishing perfection That aids and strengthens virtue where it meets her And imitates her actions where she is not: It is not to be sported with.
Joseph Addison
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Poverty palls the most generous spirits it cows industry, and casts resolution itself into despair.
Joseph Addison
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I consider an human soul without education like marble in the quarry, which shows none of its inherent beauties till the skill of the polisher fetches out the colours, makes the surface shine, and discovers every ornamental cloud, spot and vein that runs through the body of it.
Joseph Addison
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Courage is the thing. All goes if courage goes.
Joseph Addison
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The dawn is overcast, the morning lowers, And heavily in clouds brings on the day, The great, the important day, big with the fate Of Cato and of Rome.
Joseph Addison
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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.
Joseph Addison
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The spacious firmament on high, And all the blue ethereal sky, And spangled heavens, a shining frame, Their great Original proclaim.
Joseph Addison
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Is it not wonderful, that the love of the parent should be so violent while it lasts and that it should last no longer than is necessary for the preservation of the young?
Joseph Addison