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
fall grief tears
In rising sighs and falling tears.
men good-nature good-humor
Men naturally warm and heady are transported with the greatest flush of good-nature.
men world may
One may know a man that never conversed in the world, by his excess of good-breeding.
passing-away together dozen
It is wonderful to see persons of sense passing away a dozen hours together in shuffling and dividing a pack of cards.
dream future men
Why will any man be so impertinently officious as to tell me all prospect of a future state is only fancy and delusion? Is there any merit in being the messenger of ill news. If it is a dream, let me enjoy it, since it makes me both the happier and better man.
eye mirth innocence
There is nothing which one regards so much with an eye of mirth and pity as innocence when it has in it a dash of folly.
weed rocks myrtle
E'en the rough rocks with tender myrtle bloom, and trodden weeds send out a rich perfume.
crush fear men
What can that man fear who takes care to please a Being that is able to crush all his adversaries?
party passion men
The pleasantest part of a man's life is generally that which passes in courtship, provided his passion be sincere, and the party beloved kind with discretion. Love, desire, hope, all the pleasing emotions of the soul, rise in the pursuit.
office together magnificence
There are no more useful members in a commonwealth than merchants. They knit mankind together in a mutual intercourse of good offices, distribute the gifts of Nature, find work for the poor, and wealth to the rich, and magnificence to the great.
thinking would-be conversation
One would think that the larger the company is in which we are engaged, the greater variety of thoughts and subjects would be started into discourse; but, instead of this we find that conversation is never so much straightened and confined, as in numerous assemblies.
men satisfaction infirmity
Others proclaim the infirmities of a great man with satisfaction and complacence, if they discover none of the like in themselves.
notorious spleen converting
It is pleasant to see a notorious profligate seized with a concern for religion, and converting his spleen into zeal.
offending bravery uniforms
That courage which arises from the sense of our duty, and from the fear of offending Him that made us, acts always in a uniform manner, and according to the dictates of right reason.