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

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A great large book is a great evil.
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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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The Mind that lies fallow but a single Day, sprouts up in Follies that are only to be killed by a constant and assiduous Culture.
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For my own part, I am apt to join in the opinion with those who believe that all the regions of Nature swarm with spirits, and that we have multitudes of spectators on all our actions when we think ourselves most alone.
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It generally takes its rise either from an ill-will to mankind, a private inclination to make ourselves esteemed, an ostentation of wit, and vanity of being thought in the secrets of the world or from a desire of gratifying any of these dispositions of mind in those persons with whom we converse.
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An ostentatious man will rather relate a blunder or an absurdity he has committed, than be debarred from talking of his own dear person.
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What can that man fear who takes care to please a Being that is able to crush all his adversaries?
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I have often wondered that learning is not thought a proper ingredient in the education of a woman of quality or fortune. Since they have the same improvable minds as the male part of their species.
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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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Poverty palls the most generous spirits it cows industry, and casts resolution itself into despair.
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Beauty commonly produces love, but cleanliness preserves it. Age itself is not unamiable while it is preserved clean and unsullied like a piece of metal constantly kept smooth and bright, we look on it with more pleasure than on a new vessel cankered with rust.
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Health and cheerfulness naturally beget each other.
Joseph Addison
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The fear of death often proves mortal, and sets people on methods to save their Lives, which infallibly destroy them.
Joseph Addison
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Music religious heat inspires, It wakes the soul, and lifts it high, And wings it with sublime desires, And fits it to bespeak the Deity.
Joseph Addison
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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?
Joseph Addison
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When a man has been guilty of any vice or folly, the best atonement he can make for it is to warn others not to fall into the like.
Joseph Addison
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Without constancy there is neither love, friendship, nor virtue in the world.
Joseph Addison
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Courage is the thing. All goes if courage goes.
Joseph Addison
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Knowledge is, indeed, that which, next to virtue, truly and essentially raises one man above another.
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