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
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
conceited men talking
An ostentatious man will rather relate a blunder or an absurdity he has committed, than be debarred from talking of his own dear person.
sex men talking
It has been said in praise of some men, that they could take whole hours together upon anything; but it must be owned to the honor of the other sex that there are many among them who can talk whole hours together upon nothing. I have known a woman branch out into a long extempore dissertation on the edging of a petticoat, and chide her servant for breaking a china cup, in all the figures of rhetoric.
happiness self talking
True happiness arises, in the first place, from the enjoyment of one's self, and in the next, from the friendship and conversation of a few select companions.
thinking talking intimate-friends
Talking with a friend is nothing else but thinking aloud.
force gives great ideas lively sight themselves
Words, when well chosen, have so great a force in them that a description often gives us more lively ideas than the sight of things themselves
eternity joyful short song thy utter
Through all eternity to thee, a joyful song I'll raise; for oh! Eternity's too short to utter all thy praise.
both happiness happy love marriage pleasures scene
Marriage enlarges the scene of our happiness and of our miseries. A marriage of love is pleasant, of interest, easy, and where both meet, happy. A happy marriage has in it all the pleasures of friendship, all the enjoyments of sense and reason, and,
against country earthquake good island pills remember sold
I remember when our whole island was shaken with an earthquake some years ago, there was an impudent mountebank who sold pills which (as he told the country people) were very good against an earthquake.
dull growing next step
We are growing serious, and let me tell you, that's the very next step to being dull
growing next step
We are growing serious, and let me tell you, that's the next step to being dull.
abound constancy english-writer generally love marriages
Those Marriages generally abound most with Love and Constancy that are preceded by a long Courtship.
enemy happiness noise retired true
True happiness is of a retired nature, and an enemy to pomp and noise
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?