Joseph Addison Quotes - BrainyQuote

English - Writer May 1, 1672 - June 17, 1719

Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body. - Joseph Addison

Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body. Joseph Addison

Fitness Mind Body

Three grand essentials to happiness in this life are something to do, something to love, and something to hope for. - Joseph Addison

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

Life Love Happiness

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. Joseph Addison

Life Smile Good

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. Joseph Addison

Life Success Hope

What sculpture is to a block of marble, education is to the soul. - Joseph Addison

What sculpture is to a block of marble, education is to the soul. Joseph Addison

Education Soul Marble

Sunday clears away the rust of the whole week. - Joseph Addison

Sunday clears away the rust of the whole week. Joseph Addison

Rust Week Sunday

The greatest sweetener of human life is Friendship. To raise this to the highest pitch of enjoyment, is a secret which but few discover. Joseph Addison

Life Friendship Human

A contented mind is the greatest blessing a man can enjoy in this world. - Joseph Addison

A contented mind is the greatest blessing a man can enjoy in this world. Joseph Addison

Happiness Man Mind

Cheerfulness is the best promoter of health and is as friendly to the mind as to the body. - Joseph Addison

Cheerfulness is the best promoter of health and is as friendly to the mind as to the body. Joseph Addison

Best Health Mind

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. Joseph Addison

Friendship Happiness True

Top 10
Joseph Addison
Quotes

Reading is a basic tool in the living of a good life. - Joseph Addison

Reading is a basic tool in the living of a good life. Joseph Addison

Life Good Living

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. Joseph Addison

Patience Blessings See

Even a stopped clock is right twice a day. - Joseph Addison

Even a stopped clock is right twice a day. Joseph Addison

Day Clock Right

The stars shall fade away, the sun himself Grow dim with age, and nature sink in years, But thou shalt flourish in immortal youth, Unhurt amidst the wars of elements, The wrecks of matter, and the crush of worlds. Joseph Addison

Nature Age Youth

I value my garden more for being full of blackbirds than of cherries, and very frankly give them fruit for their songs. - Joseph Addison

I value my garden more for being full of blackbirds than of cherries, and very frankly give them fruit for their songs. Joseph Addison

Gardening Fruit Value

Mirth is like a flash of lightning, that breaks through a gloom of clouds, and glitters for a moment; cheerfulness keeps up a kind of daylight in the mind, and fills it with a steady and perpetual serenity. Joseph Addison

Moment Clouds Serenity

Music, the greatest good that mortals know and all of heaven we have hear below. Joseph Addison

Good Music Heaven

There is nothing which we receive with so much reluctance as advice. - Joseph Addison

There is nothing which we receive with so much reluctance as advice. Joseph Addison

Nothing Advice Much

Better to die ten thousand deaths than wound my honor. Joseph Addison

Better Die Honor

A cloudy day or a little sunshine have as great an influence on many constitutions as the most recent blessings or misfortunes. Joseph Addison

Great Sunshine Day

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. Joseph Addison

Writing More Excel

Modesty is not only an ornament, but also a guard to virtue. Joseph Addison

Ornament Modesty Virtue

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. Joseph Addison

Justice Violence Cannot

A man should always consider how much he has more than he wants. - Joseph Addison

A man should always consider how much he has more than he wants. Joseph Addison

Wisdom Always Man

I will indulge my sorrows, and give way to all the pangs and fury of despair. - Joseph Addison

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

Sympathy Way Will

Men may change their climate, but they cannot change their nature. A man that goes out a fool cannot ride or sail himself into common sense. Joseph Addison

Nature Change Men

It is only imperfection that complains of what is imperfect. The more perfect we are the more gentle and quiet we become towards the defects of others. Joseph Addison

Imperfection Perfect Gentle

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

Legal Authority Oppression

There is nothing that makes its way more directly into the soul than beauty. Joseph Addison

Beauty Soul Nothing

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. Joseph Addison

Life Nature Man

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. Joseph Addison

Happiness Will Enemy

Mysterious love, uncertain treasure, hast thou more of pain or pleasure! Endless torments dwell about thee: Yet who would live, and live without thee! Joseph Addison

Love Pain Treasure

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. Joseph Addison

Imagination Soul New

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. Joseph Addison

Great Generation Genius

The woman that deliberates is lost. Joseph Addison

The fear of death often proves mortal, and sets people on methods to save their Lives, which infallibly destroy them. Joseph Addison

Death Fear People

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. Joseph Addison

Day Remember Comfort

Joseph Addison Life Quotes

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

Truth Stupid Man

What pity is it That we can die, but once to serve our country. Joseph Addison

Die Country Once

Those Marriages generally abound most with Love and Constancy, that are preceded by a long Courtship. Joseph Addison

Love Long Courtship

Mutability of temper and inconsistency with ourselves is the greatest weakness of human nature. Joseph Addison

Nature Weakness Temper

When men are easy in their circumstances, they are naturally enemies to innovations. Joseph Addison

Men Enemies Circumstances

Plenty of people wish to become devout, but no one wishes to be humble. Joseph Addison

Humble People Wish

Is there not some chosen curse, some hidden thunder in the stores of heaven, red with uncommon wrath, to blast the man who owes his greatness to his country's ruin! Joseph Addison

Man Red Greatness

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

Man Will Person

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

Always Sight Parent

Their is no defense against criticism except obscurity. Joseph Addison

Criticism Against Defense

Admiration is a very short-lived passion, that immediately decays upon growing familiar with its object. Joseph Addison

Passion Admiration Familiar

The post of honour is a private station. Joseph Addison

Private Honour Post

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. Joseph Addison

Mere bashfulness without merit is awkwardness. Joseph Addison

Merit Without Awkwardness

The unassuming youth seeking instruction with humility gains good fortune. Joseph Addison

Good Youth Humility

The chief ingredients in the composition of those qualities that gain esteem and praise, are good nature, truth, good sense, and good breeding. Joseph Addison

Nature Good Truth

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. Joseph Addison

World True Observation

Nothing is more gratifying to the mind of man than power or dominion. Joseph Addison

We are always doing something for posterity, but I would fain see posterity do something for us. Joseph Addison

Always Doing See

Talking with a friend is nothing else but thinking aloud. Joseph Addison

Thinking Nothing Friend

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.' Joseph Addison

Nothing is capable of being well set to music that is not nonsense. Joseph Addison

Music Nothing Nonsense

To be an atheist requires an indefinitely greater measure of faith than to recieve all the great truths which atheism would deny. Joseph Addison

Faith Great Atheist

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