The utmost we can hope for in this world is contentment; if we aim at anything higher, we shall meet with nothing… — Joseph Addison Copy Share Image
Were I to prescribe a rule for drinking, it should be formed upon a saying quoted by Sir William Temple: the first… — Joseph Addison Copy Share Image
I have often thought, says Sir Roger, it happens very well that Christmas should fall out in the middle of Winter. — Joseph Addison Copy Share Image
Should the whole frame of nature round him break, In ruin and confusion hurled, He, unconcerned, would hear the mighty crack, And… — Joseph Addison Copy Share Image
Complaisance, though in itself it be scarce reckoned in the number of moral virtues, is that which gives a lustre to every… — Joseph Addison Copy Share Image
Tradition is an important help to history, but its statements should be carefully scrutinized before we rely on them. — Joseph Addison Copy Share Image
One should take good care not to grow too wise for so great a pleasure of life as laughter. — Joseph Addison Copy Share Image
A satire should expose nothing but what is corrigible, and should make a due discrimination between those that are and those that… — Joseph Addison Copy Share Image
A man’s first care should be to avoid the reproaches of his own heart. — Joseph Addison Copy Share Image
It is a melancholy consideration that there should be several among us so hardened and deluded as to think an oath a… — Joseph Addison Copy Share Image
Is it not wonderful, that the love of the parent should be so violent while it lasts and that it should last… — Joseph Addison Copy Share Image
If our zeal were true and genuine we should be much more angry with a sinner than a heretic. — 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
I should think myself a very bad woman, if I had done what I do for a farthing less. — Joseph Addison Copy Share Image
He who would pass his declining years with honor and comfort, should, when young, consider that he may one day become old,… — Joseph Addison Copy Share Image
Though there is a benevolence due to all mankind, none can question but a superior degree of it is to be paid… — 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
Plutarch says very finely that a man should not allow himself to hate even his enemies. — Joseph Addison Copy Share Image
I do not propose to our British ladies, that they should turn Amazons in the service of their sovereign, nor so much… — Joseph Addison Copy Share Image
I Have often thought if the minds of men were laid open, we should see but little difference between that of the… — Joseph Addison Copy Share Image
A man's first care should be to avoid the reproaches of his own heart; his next, to escape the censures of the… — 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
