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
lust firsts literature
The most violent appetites in all creatures are lust and hunger; the first is a perpetual call upon them to propagate their kind, the latter to preserve themselves.
writing ambitious literature
Among all kinds of Writing, there is none in which Authors are more apt to miscarry than in Works of Humour, as there is none in which they are more ambitious to excel.
life men literature
I have somewhere met with the epitaph on a charitable man which has pleased me very much. I cannot recollect the words, but here is the sense of it: 'What I spent I lost; what I possessed is left to others; what I gave away remains with me.'
literature posterity
We are always doing something for posterity, but I would fain see posterity do something for us.
fashion nature literature
There is not so variable a thing in nature as a lady's head-dress.
nature literature weakness
Mutability of temper and inconsistency with ourselves is the greatest weakness of human nature.
happiness enemy literature
Suspicion is not less an enemy to virtue than to happiness; he that is already corrupt is naturally suspicious, and he that becomes suspicious will quickly be corrupt.
men umpires literature
To be perfectly just is an attribute of the divine nature; to be so to the utmost of our abilities, is the glory of man.
literature prophet prove
Jesters do often prove prophets.
marriage long literature
Those Marriages generally abound most with Love and Constancy, that are preceded by a long Courtship.
knowledge men literature
The utmost extent of man's knowledge, is to know that he knows nothing.
humble humility literature
The unassuming youth seeking instruction with humility gains good fortune.
idols unhappy literature
There is not a more unhappy being than a superannuated idol.
literature ornaments modesty
Modesty is not only an ornament, but also a guard to virtue.