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
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
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
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
A true critic ought to dwell upon excellencies rather than imperfections, to discover the concealed beauties of a writer, and communicate to… — Joseph Addison Copy Share Image
There is no passion that is not finely expressed in those parts of the inspired writings which are proper for divine songs… — 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
To this end, nothing is to be more carefully consulted than plainness. In a lady's attire this is the single excellence; for… — Joseph Addison Copy Share Image
Hudibras has defined nonsense, as Cowley does wit, by negatives. Nonsense, he says, is that which is neither true nor false. These… — Joseph Addison Copy Share Image
The world is so full of ill-nature that I have lampoons sent me by people who cannot spell, and satires composed by… — Joseph Addison Copy Share Image
The greatest parts, without discretion as observed by an elegant writer, may be fatal to their owner; as Polyphemus, deprived of his… — Joseph Addison Copy Share Image
Peaceable times are the best to live in, though not so proper to furnish materials for a writer. — Joseph Addison Copy Share Image
Among the writers of antiquity there are none who instruct us more openly in the manners of their respective times in which… — Joseph Addison Copy Share Image
It was a saying of an ancient philosopher, which I find some of our writers have ascribed to Queen Elizabeth, who perhaps… — Joseph Addison Copy Share Image
Method is not less requisite in ordinary conversation than in writing, provided a man would talk to make himself understood. — Joseph Addison Copy Share Image
Persons in great stations have seldom their true character drawn till several years after their death. Their personal friendships and enmities must… — 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
