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
men giving gossip
There is nothing that more betrays a base ungenerous spirit than the giving of secret stabs to a man's reputation. Lampoons and satires that are written with wit and spirit are like poisoned darts, which not only inflict a wound, but make it incurable.
serenity soul ease
A good conscience is to the soul what health is to the body; it preserves constant ease and serenity within us; and more than countervails all the calamities and afflictions which can befall us from without.
giving silence advantage
But silence never shows itself to so great an advantage, as when it is made the reply to calumny and defamation, provided that we give no just occasion for them.
greatness age matter
It is the privilege of posterity to set matters right between those antagonists who, by their rivalry for greatness, divided a whole age.
facts aversion figures
Facts are plain spoken; hopes and figures are its aversion.
fall pride haughtiness
Pride goes before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall.
important helping tradition
Tradition is an important help to history, but its statements should be carefully scrutinized before we rely on them.
health exercise substitutes
Physic, for the most part, is nothing else but the substitute of exercise and temperance.
character fate destiny
The end of a man's life is often compared to the winding up of a well written play, where the principal persons still act in character, whatever the fate in which they undergo.
beautiful art strong
It is impossible for us, who live in the latter ages of the world, to make observations in criticism, morality, or in any art or science, which have not been touched upon by others. We have little else left us but to represent the common sense of mankind in more strong, more beautiful, or more uncommon lights.
mouths argument
Arguments out of a pretty mouth are unanswerable.
life respect passion
Admiration is a very short lived passion that immediately decays upon growing familiar with its object, unless it still be fed with fresh discoveries, and kept alive by a new perpetual succession of miracles rising up to its view.
respect men cherish
Men who cherish for women the highest respect are seldom popular with them.
morning tea bread
All well-regulated families set apart an hour every morning for tea and bread and butter