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
amusement innocent
Encourage innocent amusement.
inspirational life friendship
What sunshine is to flowers, smiles are to humanity. These are but trifles, to be sure; but scattered along life's pathway, the good they do is inconceivable.
time eternity
Eternity! thou pleasing, dreadful thought.
avoid care escape next
A man's first care should be to avoid the reproaches of his own heart, and his next to escape the censures of the world.
criticize himself man ridiculous works
It is ridiculous for any man to criticize the works of another if he has not distinguished himself by his own performances
half
He thought he was a wit, and he was half right.
moon listening stories
Soon as the evening shades prevail, The moon takes up the wondrous tale, And nightly to the listening earth Repeats the story of her birth.
reading men stories
A man improves more by reading the story of a person eminent for prudence and virtue, than by the finest rules and precepts of morality.
holiday age return
The schoolboy counts the time till the return of the holidays; the minor longs to be of age; the lover is impatient till he is married.
opposites balance weight
Upon laying a weight in one of the scales, inscribed eternity, though I threw in that of time, prosperity, affliction, wealth, and poverty, which seemed very ponderous, they were not able to stir the opposite balance.
religious men enthusiasm
There is not a more melancholy object than a man who has his head turned with religious enthusiasm.
men criticism ridiculous
It is ridiculous for any man to criticize on the works of another, who has not distinguished himself by his own performances.
women mind quality
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.
truth plato light
There is something very sublime, though very fanciful, in Plato's description of the Supreme Being,--that truth is His body and light His shadow. According to this definition there is nothing so contradictory to his nature as error and falsehood.