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
love life pain
Mysterious love, uncertain treasure, hast thou more of pain or pleasure! Endless torments dwell about thee: Yet who would live, and live without thee!
humble humility people
Plenty of people wish to become devout, but no one wishes to be humble.
war two voice
My voice is still for war. Gods! can a Roman senate long debate Which of the two to choose, slavery or death?
eye gay shining
For wheresoe'er I turn my ravish'd eyes, Gay gilded scenes and shining prospects rise, Poetic fields encompass me around, And still I seem to tread on classic ground.
men good-man ancestry
Title and ancestry render a good man more illustrious, but an ill one more contemptible.
queens taken letters
It was a saying of an ancient philosopher, which I find some of our writers have ascribed to Queen Elizabeth, who perhaps might have taken occasion to repeat it, that a good face is a letter of recommendation.
gold disposition latter
A good disposition is more valuable than gold, for the latter is the gift of fortune, but the former is the dower of nature.
complaining pompey shade
Great Pompey's shade complains that we are slow, And Scipio's ghost walks unaveng'd amongst us!
secret divinity causes
The transition from cause to effect, from event to event, is often carried on by secret steps, which our foresight cannot divine, and our sagacity is unable to trace.
hands shining singing
For ever singing as they shine, The hand that made us is divine.
book men black
A reader seldom peruses a book with pleasure until he knows whether the writer of it be a black man or a fair man, of a mild or choleric disposition, married or a bachelor.
religious heaven rewards
Heaven is not to be looked upon only as the reward, but the natural effect, of a religious life.
mind may cleanliness
Cleanliness may be defined to be the emblem of purity of mind.
sweet men slumber
Sweet are the slumbers of the virtuous man.