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
kings law ties
Honour's a sacred tie, the law of kings, The noble mind's distinguishing perfection That aids and strengthens virtue where it meets her And imitates her actions where she is not: It is not to be sported with.
kings prayer war
'Tis Liberty that crowns Britannia's isle, and makes her barren rocks and her bleak mountains smile... 'Tis Britain's care to watch o'er Europe's fate, and hold in balance each contending state, To threaten bold presumptuous kings with war, and answer her afflicted neighbours' prayer... Soon as her fleets appear their terrors cease.
beautiful kings tombstone
When I read the epitaphs of the beautiful, every inordinate desire goes out; when I meet with the grief of parents upon a tombstone, my heart melts with compassion; when I see the tomb of the parents themselves, I consider the vanity of grieving for those whom we must quickly follow: when I see kings lying by those who deposed them, when I consider rival wits placed side by side, or the holy men that divided the world with their contests and disputes, I reflect with sorrow and astonishment on the little competitions, factions, and debates of mankind.
grave living mirth nor pleasant thee thy whether wit
In all thy humors, whether grave or mellow, Thou'rt such a touchy, testy, pleasant fellow, hast so much wit and mirth and spleen about thee, there is no living with thee, nor without thee
angry consider far feeling less men
If men would consider not so much where they differ, as wherein they agree, there would be far less of uncharitableness and angry feeling in the world
desire fond longing pleasing thou
It must be so - Plato, thou reason'st well! -/ Else whence this pleasing hope, this fond desire, / This longing after immortality?
business requisite
There is nothing more requisite in business than dispatch.
block education english-writer human sculpture
What sculpture is to a block of marble, education is to the human soul.
block education human sculpture
What sculpture is to a block of marble, education is to a human soul.
apt glory incurable men vices
No vices are so incurable as those which men are apt to glory in
consider figure man pray republic
Pray consider what a figure a man would make in the republic of letters.
age age-and-aging forget people slow soon
Young people soon give, and forget insults, but old age is slow in both.
creatures perverse
These widows, sir, are the most perverse creatures in the world.
blue firmament great original shining
The spacious firmament on high, / And all the blue ethereal sky, / And spangled heavens, a shining frame, / Their great Original proclaim.