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Men Quotes by Joseph Addison

155 Men quotes by Joseph Addison

All Men quotes Joseph Addison’s page

Joseph Addison suggests that compassion can lift much of humanity's misery and that a contented mind is the greatest blessing a man can enjoy. He warns that vanity weakens ambitious people and invites scorn. He also advises against criticizing others' work unless one has achieved similar success oneself.

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As Vivacity is the Gift of Women, Gravity is that of Men.

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A man’s first care should be to avoid the reproaches of his own heart.

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Though a man cannot abstain from being weak, he may from being vicious.

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As vivacity is the gift of woman, gravity is that of men.

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Nothing makes men sharper than want.

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The religious man fears, the man of honor scorns, to do an ill action.

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A friend exaggerates a man's virtues; an enemy inflames his crimes.

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An honest man, that is not quite sober, has nothing to fear.

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When a man becomes familiar with his goddess, she quickly sinks into a woman.

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

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There is not a more melancholy object than a man who has his head turned with religious enthusiasm.

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The talent of turning men into ridicule, and exposing to laughter those one converses with, is the qualification of little ungenerous tempers.

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Ridicule is generally made use of to laugh men out of virtue and good sense, by attacking everything praiseworthy in human life.

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Men may change their climate, but they cannot change their nature. A man that goes out a fool cannot ride or sail…

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A man improves more by reading the story of a person eminent for prudence and virtue, than by the finest rules and…

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One may know a man that never conversed in the world, by his excess of good-breeding.

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If men, who in their hearts are friends to a government, forbear giving it their utmost assistance against its enemies, they put…

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The most exquisite words and finest strokes of an author are those which very often appear the most doubtful and exceptionable to…

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In that disputable point of persecuting men for conscience sake, I see such dreadful consequences rising, I would be as fully convinced…

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Every passion gives a particular cast to the countenance, and is apt to discover itself in some feature or other. I have…

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Were not this desire of fame very strong, the difficulty of obtaining it, and the danger of losing it when obtained, would…

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There is a sort of economy in Providence that one shall excel where another is defective, in order to make men more…

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The utmost we can hope for in this world is contentment; if we aim at anything higher, we shall meet with nothing…

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It is indeed very possible, that the Persons we laugh at may in the main of their Characters be much wiser Men…

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There are a sort of knight-errants in the world, who, quite contrary to those in romance, are perpetually seeking adventures to bring…

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Education is a companion which no misfortune can depress, no crime can destroy, no enemy can alienate, no despotism can enslave. At…

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I always rejoice when I see a tribunal filled with a man of an upright and inflexible temper, who in the execution…

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It is easier for an artful Man, who is not in Love, to persuade his Mistress he has a Passion for her,…

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Men of warm imaginations and towering thoughts are apt to overlook the goods of fortune which are near them, for something that…

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A man's first care should be to avoid the reproaches of his own heart; his next, to escape the censures of the…

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Nothing that is not a real crime makes a man appear so contemptible and little in the eyes of the world as…

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I do not propose to our British ladies, that they should turn Amazons in the service of their sovereign, nor so much…

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One would wonder to hear skeptical men disputing for the reason of animals, and telling us it is only our pride and…

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There is a kind of grandeur and respect which the meanest and most insignificant part of mankind endeavor to procure in the…

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A man who is furnished with arguments from the mint, will convince his antagonist much sooner than one who draws them from…

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Riches are apt to betray a man into arrogance.

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The hours of a wise man are lengthened by his ideas.

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The man who lives by hope, will die by hunger.

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Sweet are the slumbers of the virtuous man.

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Hunting is not a proper employment for a thinking man.

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More by Joseph Addison

Half the misery of human life might be extinguished if men would alleviate the general curse they lie under by mutual offices of compassion,…

Every wife ought to answer for her man. If the husband be engaged in a seditious club, or drinks mysterious healths, or be frugal…

There is nothing touches our imagination so much as a beautiful woman in a plain dress.

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

Female Virtues are of a Domestick turn. The Family is the proper Province for Private Women to Shine in. If they must be showing…

As addictions go, reading is among the cleanest, easiest to feed, happiest.

There is no society or conversation to be kept up in the world without good-nature, or something which must bear its appearance and supply…

When love once pleads admission to our hearts, In spite of all the virtue we can boast, The woman that deliberates is lost.

Many actions calculated to procure fame are not conducive to ultimate happiness.

T is liberty crowns Britannia's Isle, And makes her barren rocks and her bleak mountains smile.

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

The moral perfections of the Deity, the more attentively, we consider, the more perfectly still shall we know them.

The utmost we can hope for in this world is contentment; if we aim at anything higher, we shall meet with nothing but grief…

Courage that grows from constitution often forsakes a man when he has occasion for it; courage which arises from a sense of duty acts;…

The most skillful flattery is to let a person talk on, and be a listener.