Joseph Addison
Joseph Addison
Joseph Addisonwas an English essayist, poet, playwright, and politician. He was the eldest son of The Reverend Lancelot Addison. His name is usually remembered alongside that of his long-standing friend, Richard Steele, with whom he founded The Spectator magazine...
NationalityEnglish
ProfessionWriter
Date of Birth1 May 1672
knowledge men next
Knowledge is, indeed, that which, next to virtue, truly and essentially raises one man above another.
jealousy disease jealously
The disease of jealously is so malignant that is converts all it takes into its own nourishment.
humor men laughing
Ridicule is generally made use of to laugh men out of virtue and good sense, by attacking everything praiseworthy in human life.
friends men thinking
In private conversation between intimate friends, the wisest men very often talk like the weakest : for indeed the talking with a friend is nothing else but thinking aloud.
courage soul daggers
The soul, secured in her existence, smiles At the drawn dagger, and defies its point.
literature posterity
We are always doing something for posterity, but I would fain see posterity do something for us.
happiness success men
To a man of pleasure every moment appears to be lost, which partakes not of the vivacity of amusement.
religious religion facts
To say that authority, whether secular or religious, supplies no ground for morality is not to deny the obvious fact that it supplies a sanction.
fashion nature literature
There is not so variable a thing in nature as a lady's head-dress.
nature literature weakness
Mutability of temper and inconsistency with ourselves is the greatest weakness of human nature.
friendship friends wonder
Friendships, in general, are suddenly contracted; and therefore it is no wonder they are easily dissolved.
happiness enemy literature
Suspicion is not less an enemy to virtue than to happiness; he that is already corrupt is naturally suspicious, and he that becomes suspicious will quickly be corrupt.
men umpires literature
To be perfectly just is an attribute of the divine nature; to be so to the utmost of our abilities, is the glory of man.
marriage wedding women
A woman seldom asks advice before she has bought her wedding clothes.