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
consider figure man pray republic
Pray consider what a figure a man would make in the republic of letters.
conversation himself less man method provided requisite talk understood
Method is not less requisite in conversation than in writing, provided a man would talk to make himself understood
active best itself learning looked man parts qualify virtue
Learning is pedantry, wit, impertinence, virtue itself looked like weakness, and the best parts only qualify a man to be more sprightly in errors, and active to his own prejudice.
air both judgement man might roger sir
Sir Roger told them, with the air of a man who would not give his judgement rashly, that much might be said on both sides.
mankind rather species spectator
I live in the world rather as a spectator of mankind than as one of the species
consider man might unhappy
A man should always consider how much more unhappy he might be than he is
few happy life man question render scattered yield
The important question is not what will yield to man a few scattered pleasures, but what will render his life happy on the whole amount.
men good-man ancestry
Title and ancestry render a good man more illustrious, but an ill one more contemptible.
men hunger he-man
The man who lives by hope, will die by hunger.
men innocent-man inequality
Government mitigates the inequality of power, and makes an innocent man, though of the lowest rank, a match for the mightiest of his fellow-subjects.
favors mankind ingenuity
Mankind are more indebted to industry than ingenuity; the gods set up their favors at a price, and industry is the purchaser.
men weak-man may
Cunning is only the mimic of discretion, and may pass upon weak men in the same manner as vivacity is often mistaken for wit, and gravity for wisdom.
adventure men innocent-man
There are a sort of knight-errants in the world, who, quite contrary to those in romance, are perpetually seeking adventures to bring virgins into distress, and to ruin innocence. When men of rank and figure pass away their lives in these criminal pursuits and practices, they ought to consider that they render themselves more vile and despicable than any innocent man can be, whatever low station his fortune or birth have placed him in.
world mankind spectators
Thus I live in the world rather as a spectator of mankind than as one of the species.