Among all kinds of Writing, there is none in which Authors are more apt to miscarry than in Works of Humour, as… — Joseph Addison Copy Share Image
I shall endeavour to enliven Morality with Wit, and to temper Wit with Morality, that my Readers may, if possible, both Ways… — Joseph Addison Copy Share Image
A man who has any relish for fine writing either discovers new beauties or receives stronger impressions from the masterly strokes of… — Joseph Addison Copy Share Image
Who does not more admire Cicero as an author than as a consul of Rome? — Joseph Addison Copy Share Image
It is impossible for authors to discover beauties in one another's works; they have eyes only for spots and blemishes. — Joseph Addison Copy Share Image
The circumstance which gives authors an advantage above all these great masters, is this, that they can multiply their originals; or rather,… — Joseph Addison Copy Share Image
Sir Francis Bacon observed that a well-written book, compared with its rivals and antagonists, is like Moses' serpent, that immediately swallowed up… — Joseph Addison Copy Share Image
I think I may define taste to be that faculty of the soul which discerns the beauties of an author with pleasure,… — Joseph Addison Copy Share Image
A reader seldom peruses a book with pleasure until he knows whether the writer of it be a black man or a… — Joseph Addison Copy Share Image
Irregularity and want of method are only supportable in men of great learning or genius, who are often too full to be… — Joseph Addison Copy Share Image
Authors have established it as a kind of rule, that a man ought to be dull sometimes; as the most severe reader… — Joseph Addison Copy Share Image
The most exquisite words and finest strokes of an author are those which very often appear the most doubtful and exceptionable to… — Joseph Addison Copy Share Image
I am wonderfully pleased when I meet with any passage in an old Greek or Latin author, that is not blown upon,… — Joseph Addison Copy Share Image
The great art in writing advertisements is the finding out of a proper method to catch the reader's eye; without which, a… — Joseph Addison Copy Share Image
Should a writer single out and point his raillery at particular persons, or satirize the miserable, he might be sure of pleasing… — Joseph Addison Copy Share Image
No man writes a book without meaning something, though he may not have the faculty of writing consequentially and expressing his meaning. — Joseph Addison Copy Share Image
The productions of a great genius, with many lapses and inadvertences, are infinitely preferable to the works of an inferior kind of… — Joseph Addison Copy Share Image
Among the English authors, Shakespeare has incomparably excelled all others. That noble extravagance of fancy, which he had in so great perfection,… — Joseph Addison Copy Share Image
I believe that everyone, some time or other, dreams that he is reading papers, books, or letters; in which case the invention… — Joseph Addison Copy Share Image
Simonides, a poet famous in his generation, is, I think, author of the oldest satire that is now extant, and, as some… — Joseph Addison Copy Share Image
I... recommend to every one of my Readers, the keeping a Journal of their Lives for one Week, and setting down punctually… — Joseph Addison Copy Share Image
I consider time as an in immense ocean, in which many noble authors are entirely swallowed up. — Joseph Addison Copy Share Image
Books are the legacies that a great genius leaves to mankind, which are delivered down from generation to generation as presents to… — Joseph Addison Copy Share Image
When I read the rules of criticism, I immediately inquire after the works of the author who has written them, and by… — Joseph Addison Copy Share Image
Half the misery of human life might be extinguished if men would alleviate the general curse they lie under by mutual offices of compassion,… — Joseph Addison Copy Share Image
Every wife ought to answer for her man. If the husband be engaged in a seditious club, or drinks mysterious healths, or be frugal… — Joseph Addison Copy Share Image
There is nothing touches our imagination so much as a beautiful woman in a plain dress. — Joseph Addison Copy Share Image
We are always doing something for posterity, but I would fain see posterity do something for us. — Joseph Addison Copy Share Image
Female Virtues are of a Domestick turn. The Family is the proper Province for Private Women to Shine in. If they must be showing… — Joseph Addison Copy Share Image
As addictions go, reading is among the cleanest, easiest to feed, happiest. — Joseph Addison Copy Share Image
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… — Joseph Addison Copy Share Image
When love once pleads admission to our hearts, In spite of all the virtue we can boast, The woman that deliberates is lost. — Joseph Addison Copy Share Image
Many actions calculated to procure fame are not conducive to ultimate happiness. — Joseph Addison Copy Share Image
T is liberty crowns Britannia's Isle, And makes her barren rocks and her bleak mountains smile. — Joseph Addison Copy Share Image
The moral perfections of the Deity, the more attentively, we consider, the more perfectly still shall we know them. — Joseph Addison Copy Share Image
