Joseph Addison the Writer, biography, facts and quotes

"What sunshine is to flowers, smiles are to humanity. These are but trifles, to be sure; but scattered along life's pathway, the good they do is inconceivable"

"Everything that is new or uncommon raises a pleasure in the imagination, because it fills the soul with an agreeable surprise, gratifies its curiosity, and gives it an idea of which it was not before possessed"

"Sunday clears away the rust of the whole week"

"Reading is a basic tool in the living of a good life"

"Books are the legacies that a great genius leaves to mankind, which are delivered down from generation to generation as presents to the posterity of those who are yet unborn"

"No oppression is so heavy or lasting as that which is inflicted by the perversion and exorbitance of legal authority"

"Justice is an unassailable fortress, built on the brow of a mountain which cannot be overthrown by the violence of torrents, nor demolished by the force of armies"

"When men are easy in their circumstances, they are naturally enemies to innovations"

"If you wish to succeed in life, make perseverance your bosom friend, experience your wise counselor, caution your elder brother, and hope your guardian genius"

"He who would pass his declining years with honor and comfort, should, when young, consider that he may one day become old, and remember when he is old, that he has once been young"

"Animals, in their generation, are wiser than the sons of men; but their wisdom is confined to a few particulars, and lies in a very narrow compass"

"A woman seldom asks advice before she has bought her wedding clothes"

"A true critic ought to dwell upon excellencies rather than imperfections, to discover the concealed beauties of a writer, and communicate to the world such things as are worth their observation"

"A man should always consider how much he has more than he wants"

"Young men soon give, and soon forget, affronts; old age is slow in both"

"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"

"There is nothing more requisite in business than despatch"

"There is not so variable a thing in nature as a lady's head-dress"

"The woman that deliberates is lost"

"Some virtues are only seen in affliction and others only in prosperity"

"Irregularity and want of method are only supportable in men of great learning or genius, who are often too full to be exact, and therefore they choose to throw down their pearls in heaps before the reader, rather than be at the pains of stringing them"

"A man must be both stupid and uncharitable who believes there is no virtue or truth but on his own side"

"A contented mind is the greatest blessing a man can enjoy in this world"

"With regard to donations always expect the most from prudent people, who keep their own accounts"

"There is nothing that makes its way more directly into the soul than beauty"

"Our real blessings often appear to us in the shape of pains, losses and disappointments; but let us have patience and we soon shall see them in their proper figures"

"An ostentatious man will rather relate a blunder or an absurdity he has committed, than be debarred from talking of his own dear person"

"Three grand essentials to happiness in this life are something to do, something to love, and something to hope for"

"There is not a more unhappy being than a superannuated idol"

"The utmost extent of man's knowledge, is to know that he knows nothing"

"Jesters do often prove prophets"

"I will indulge my sorrows, and give way to all the pangs and fury of despair"

"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"

"Their is no defense against criticism except obscurity"

"The unjustifiable severity of a parent is loaded with this aggravation, that those whom he injures are always in his sight"

"The union of the Word and the Mind produces that mystery which is called Life... Learn deeply of the Mind and its mystery, for therein lies the secret of immortality"

"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"

"Talking with a friend is nothing else but thinking aloud"

"Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body"

"Nothing is more gratifying to the mind of man than power or dominion"

"It is folly for an eminent man to think of escaping censure, and a weakness to be affected with it. All the illustrious persons of antiquity, and indeed of every age in the world, have passed through this fiery persecution"

"If we hope for what we are not likely to possess, we act and think in vain, and make life a greater dream and shadow than it really is"

"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.""

"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"

"Plenty of people wish to become devout, but no one wishes to be humble"

"One should take good care not to grow too wise for so great a pleasure of life as laughter"

"Modesty is not only an ornament, but also a guard to virtue"

"Man is subject to innumerable pains and sorrows by the very condition of humanity, and yet, as if nature had not sown evils enough in life, we are continually adding grief to grief and aggravating the common calamity by our cruel treatment of one another"

"There is nothing which we receive with so much reluctance as advice"

"If we may believe our logicians, man is distinguished from all other creatures by the faculty of laughter. He has a heart capable of mirth, and naturally disposed to it"

Occup.	Writer
From	England
Born	May 1, 1672 Milstreet, Wiltshire, England
Died	June 17, 1719 Kensington, London, England
Aged	47 years

Joseph Addison Biography

66 Famous quotes by Joseph Addison