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
religious men honor
The religious man fears, the man of honor scorns, to do an ill action.
may action notoriety
Even the greatest actions of a celebrated person labor under this disadvantage, that however surprising and extraordinary they may be, they are no more than what are expected from him.
writing two giving
Hudibras has defined nonsense, as Cowley does wit, by negatives. Nonsense, he says, is that which is neither true nor false. These two great properties of nonsense, which are always essential to it, give it such a peculiar advantage over all other writings, that it is incapable of being either answered or contradicted.
morality observance
There is nothing which strengthens faith more than the observance of morality.
modesty virtue
Virtue which shuns, the day.
men serious mirth
Man is the merriest species of the creation; all above or below him are serious.
memories animal may
The memory is perpetually looking back when we have nothing present to entertain us. It is like those repositories in animals that are filled with food, on which they may ruminate when their present pastures fail.
numbers clouds witness
The great number of the Jews furnishes us with a sufficient cloud of witnesses that attest the truth of the Bible.
wine soul littles
Wine displays every little spot of the soul in its utmost deformity.
wine men mind
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.
discovery talent reason
Reason shows itself in all occurrences of life; whereas the brute makes no discovery of such a talent, but in what immediately regards his own preservation or the continuance of his species.
half world next
The first of all virtues is innocence; the next is modesty. If we banish modesty out of the world, she carries away with her half the virtue that is in it.
favors mankind ingenuity
Mankind are more indebted to industry than ingenuity; the gods set up their favors at a price, and industry is the purchaser.
men enemy hurtful
An indiscreet man is more hurtful than an ill-natured one; for as the latter will only attack his enemies, and those he wishes ill to, the other injures indifferently both friends and foes.