There are many more shining qualities in the mind of man, but there is none so useful as discretion. — Joseph Addison Copy Share Image
Nothing that isn't a real crime makes a man appear so contemptible and little in the eyes of the world as inconsistency. — Joseph Addison Copy Share Image
The lives of great men cannot be writ with any tolerable degree of elegance or exactness within a short time after their… — Joseph Addison Copy Share Image
A man's reputation draws eyes upon him that will narrowly inspect every part of him. — Joseph Addison Copy Share Image
Tis heaven itself, that points out an hereafter, and intimates eternity to man. — Joseph Addison Copy Share Image
Men may change their climate, but they cannot change their nature. A man that goes out a fool cannot ride or sail… — Joseph Addison Copy Share Image
Ridicule is generally made use of to laugh men out of virtue and good sense, by attacking everything praiseworthy in human life. — Joseph Addison Copy Share Image
The talent of turning men into ridicule, and exposing to laughter those one converses with, is the qualification of little ungenerous tempers. — Joseph Addison Copy Share Image
Unbounded courage and compassion join'd, Tempering each other in the victor's mind, Alternately proclaim him good and great, And make the hero… — Joseph Addison Copy Share Image
Though we seem grieved at the shortness of life in general, we are wishing every period of it at an end. The… — Joseph Addison Copy Share Image
Cunning is only the mimic of discretion, and may pass upon weak men in the same manner as vivacity is often mistaken… — Joseph Addison Copy Share Image
There is not any present moment that is unconnected with some future one. The life of every man is a continued chain… — 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
Why, a spirit is such a little, little thing, that I have heard man, who was a great scholar, say that he'll… — Joseph Addison Copy Share Image
There is nothing that more betrays a base ungenerous spirit than the giving of secret stabs to a man's reputation. Lampoons and… — Joseph Addison Copy Share Image
Learning, like traveling and all other methods of improvement, as it finishes good sense, so it makes a silly man ten thousand… — Joseph Addison Copy Share Image
Courage that grows from constitution very often forsakes a man when he has occasion for it, and when it is only a… — Joseph Addison Copy Share Image
To look upon the soul as going on from strength to strength, to consider that she is to shine forever with new… — Joseph Addison Copy Share Image
It must be so,-Plato, thou reasonest well! Else whence this pleasing hope, this fond desire, This longing after immortality? Or whence this… — Joseph Addison Copy Share Image
Man's first care should be to avoid the reproaches of his own heart, and next to escape the censures of the world.… — Joseph Addison Copy Share Image
If gratitude, when exerted towards another, naturally produces a very pleasing sensation in the mind of a grateful man, it exalts the… — Joseph Addison Copy Share Image
A man governs himself by the dictates of virtue and good sense, who acts without zeal or passion in points that are… — Joseph Addison Copy Share Image
Music, the greatest good that mortals know, And all of heaven we have below. Music can noble hints impart, Engender fury, kindle… — Joseph Addison Copy Share Image
Men who profess a state of neutrality in times of public danger, desert the common interest of their fellow subjects; and act… — Joseph Addison Copy Share Image
There is not a more melancholy object than a man who has his head turned with religious enthusiasm. — Joseph Addison Copy Share Image
When men are easy in their circumstances, they are naturally enemies to innovations. — Joseph Addison Copy Share Image
When a man becomes familiar with his goddess, she quickly sinks into a woman. — Joseph Addison Copy Share Image
One may know a man that never conversed in the world, by his excess of good-breeding. — Joseph Addison Copy Share Image
A man improves more by reading the story of a person eminent for prudence and virtue, than by the finest rules and… — Joseph Addison Copy Share Image
Animals, in their generation, are wiser than the sons of men; but their wisdom is confined to a few particulars, and lies… — 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… — Joseph Addison Copy Share Image
The end of a man's life is often compared to the winding up of a well written play, where the principal persons… — 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
It is usual for a Man who loves Country Sports to preserve the Game in his own Grounds, and divert himself upon… — Joseph Addison Copy Share Image
An idol may be undeified by many accidental causes. Marriage, in particular, is a kind of counter apotheosis, as a deification inverted.… — Joseph Addison Copy Share Image
In private conversation between intimate friends, the wisest men very often talk like the weakest : for indeed the talking with a… — Joseph Addison Copy Share Image
If men would consider not so much where they differ, as wherein they agree, there would be far less of uncharitableness and… — Joseph Addison Copy Share Image
I always rejoice when I see a tribunal filled with a man of an upright and inflexible temper, who in the execution… — Joseph Addison Copy Share Image
A man who is furnished with arguments from the mint will convince his antagonist much sooner than one who draws them from… — Joseph Addison Copy Share Image
A contemplation of God's works, a generous concern for the good of mankind, and the unfeigned exercise of humility only, denominate men… — 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
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
There is nothing touches our imagination so much as a beautiful woman in a plain dress. — Joseph Addison Copy Share
We are always doing something for posterity, but I would fain see posterity do something for us. — Joseph Addison Copy Share
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
As addictions go, reading is among the cleanest, easiest to feed, happiest. — Joseph Addison Copy Share
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
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
Many actions calculated to procure fame are not conducive to ultimate happiness. — Joseph Addison Copy Share
T is liberty crowns Britannia's Isle, And makes her barren rocks and her bleak mountains smile. — Joseph Addison Copy Share
The moral perfections of the Deity, the more attentively, we consider, the more perfectly still shall we know them. — Joseph Addison Copy Share
The utmost we can hope for in this world is contentment; if we aim at anything higher, we shall meet with nothing but grief… — Joseph Addison Copy Share
Courage that grows from constitution often forsakes a man when he has occasion for it; courage which arises from a sense of duty acts;… — Joseph Addison Copy Share
The most skillful flattery is to let a person talk on, and be a listener. — Joseph Addison Copy Share
