Quotes By Joseph Addison

Justice is an unassailable fortress, built on the brow of a mountain which cannot be overthrown by the violence of torrents, nor demolished by the force of armies.

It is folly for an eminent man to think of escaping censure, and a weakness to be affected with it. All the illustrious persons of antiquity, and indeed of every age in the world, have passed through this fiery persecution.

A true critic ought to dwell upon excellencies rather than imperfections, to discover the concealed beauties of a writer, and communicate to the world such things as are worth their observation.

Mutability of temper and inconsistency with ourselves is the greatest weakness of human nature.

The woman that deliberates is lost.

Three grand essentials to happiness in this life are something to do, something to love, and something to hope for.

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

The Mind that lies fallow but a single Day, sprouts up in Follies that are only to be killed by a constant and assiduous Culture.

The unjustifiable severity of a parent is loaded with this aggravation, that those whom he injures are always in his sight.

Suspicion is not less an enemy to virtue than to happiness; he that is already corrupt is naturally suspicious, and he that becomes suspicious will quickly be corrupt.

Some virtues are only seen in affliction and others only in prosperity.

The fear of death often proves mortal, and sets people on methods to save their Lives, which infallibly destroy them.

If we may believe our logicians, man is distinguished from all other creatures by the faculty of laughter. He has a heart capable of mirth, and naturally disposed to it.

A woman seldom asks advice before she has bought her wedding clothes.

If we hope for what we are not likely to possess, we act and think in vain, and make life a greater dream and shadow than it really is.

The important question is not, what will yield to man a few scattered pleasures, but what will render his life happy on the whole amount.

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

A contented mind is the greatest blessing a man can enjoy in this world.

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

No oppression is so heavy or lasting as that which is inflicted by the perversion and exorbitance of legal authority.

An ostentatious man will rather relate a blunder or an absurdity he has committed, than be debarred from talking of his own dear person.

There is nothing which we receive with so much reluctance as advice.

I will indulge my sorrows, and give way to all the pangs and fury of despair.

The most violent appetites in all creatures are lust and hunger; the first is a perpetual call upon them to propagate their kind, the latter to preserve themselves.

Young men soon give, and soon forget, affronts; old age is slow in both.

Mirth is like a flash of lightning, that breaks through a gloom of clouds, and glitters for a moment; cheerfulness keeps up a kind of daylight in the mind, and fills it with a steady and perpetual serenity.

Among all kinds of Writing, there is none in which Authors are more apt to miscarry than in Works of Humour, as there is none in which they are more ambitious to excel.

There is not so variable a thing in nature as a lady's head-dress.

Nothing is capable of being well set to music that is not nonsense.

It is only imperfection that complains of what is imperfect. The more perfect we are the more gentle and quiet we become towards the defects of others.