Joseph Addison

Joseph Addison (1 May 1672 - 17 June 1719)

English politician and writer

Table of contents

1 Sourced 1.1 Cato (1713) 2 Attributed 3 External links

Sourced

• A cheerful temper joined with innocence will make beauty attractive, knowledge delightful and wit good-natured.
  • The Tatler" no. 192

• A little nonsense now and then Is relished by the wisest men.
  • Sir Roger on the Bench

• A man's first care should be to avoid the reproaches of his own heart, his next to escape the censures of the world.
  • Sir Roger on the Bench

• Advertisements are of great use to the vulgar. First of all, as they are instruments of ambition. A man that is by no means big enough for the Gazette, may easily creep into the advertisements; by which means we often see an apothecary in the same paper of news with a plenipotentiary, or a running footman with an ambassador.
  • The Tatler" no. 224

• Amidst the soft variety I'm lost.
  • Letter from Italy (l. 100)

• Antidotes are what you take to prevent dotes.
  • The Drummer (Act IV, sc. 6)

• Books are the legacies that a great genius leaves to mankind, which are delivered down from generation to generation, as presents to the posterity of those who are yet unborn.
  • The Spectator issue no.166

• Charity is a virtue of the heart, and not of the hands.
  • "The Guardian", no. 166

• Exercise ferments the humors, casts them into their proper channels, throws off redundancies, and helps nature in those secret distributions, without which the body cannot subsist in its vigor, nor the soul act with cheerfulness.
  • The Spectator (July 12, 1711)

• Gifts and alms are the expressions, not the essence, of this virtue.
  • 'The Guardian" no.166

• Great souls by instinct to each other turn, Demand alliance, and in friendship burn.
  • The Campaign (l. 102)

• Health and cheerfulness mutually beget each other.
  • The Spectator issue no. 387

• I value my garden more for being full of blackbirds than of cherries, and very frankly give them fruit for their songs.
  • 'The Spectator'

• I would . . . earnestly advise them for their good to order this paper to be punctually served up, and to be looked upon as a part of the tea equipage.
  • The Spectator issue no.10

• It is indeed very possible, that the Persons we laugh at may in the main of their Characters be much wiser Men than our selves; but if they would have us laugh at them, they must fall short of us in those Respects which stir up this Passion.
  • The Spectator issue no. 47 (1711).

• Justice discards party, friendship, kindred, and is therefore always represented as blind.
  • 'The Guardian" no. 99

• Knowledge is, indeed, that which, next to virtue, truly and essentially raises one man above another.
  • 'The Guardian" no. 111, Letter of Alexander to Aristotle

• Let echo, too, perform her part, Prolonging every note with art; And in a low expiring strain, Play all the comfort o'er again.
  • Ode for St. Cecelia's Day

• Man is distinguished from all other creatures by the faculty of laughter.
  • The Spectator (September 26, 1712)

• Method is not less requisite in ordinary conversation than in writing, provided a man would talk to make himself understood.
  • The Spectator issue no. 476

• Modesty is not only an ornament, but also a guard to virtue.

• Much might be said on both sides.
  • The Spectator issue no.122

• Music religious heat inspires, It wakes the soul, and lifts it high, And wings it with sublime desires, And fits it to bespeak the Deity.
  • A Song for St. Cecilia's Day (st. 4)

• On you, my lord, with anxious fear I wait, And from your judgment must expect my fate.
  • A Poem to His Majesty (l. 21)

• Rais'd of themselves, their genuine charms they boast, And those who paint them truest praise them most.
  • The Campaign (last lines)

• Reading is to the mind, what exercise is to the body. As by the one, health is preserved, strengthened, and invigorated: by the other, virtue (which is the health of the mind) is kept alive, cherished, and confirmed.
  • The Tatler" no. 147

• See in what peace a Christian can die. (Last words)

• Silence never shows itself to so great an advantage, as when it is made the reply to calumny and defamation, provided that we give no just occasion for them.
  • The Tatler" no. 133

• So when an angel by divine command With rising tempests shakes a guilty land, Such as of late o'er pale Britannia past, Calm and serene he drives the furious blast; And, pleas'd th' Almighty's orders to perform, Rides in the whirlwind, and directs the storm.
  • The Campaign. Line 291. A similar use of words occurs in Alexander Pope's “Dunciad,”Book iii. line 264

• Soon as the evening shades prevail, The moon takes up the wondrous tale, And nightly to the listening earth Repeats the story of her birth.
  • "Ode" The Spectator issue no. 465

• The circumstance which gives authors an advantage above all these great masters, is this, that they can multiply their originals; or rather, can make copies of their works, to what number they please, which shall be as valuable as the originals themselves.
  • The Spectator issue no.166

• The great art in writing advertisements is the finding out a proper method to catch the reader's eye; without which a good thing may pass over unobserved, or be lost among commissions of bankrupt.
  • The Tatler" no. 224

• The sense of honour is of so fine and delicate a nature, that it is only to be met with in minds which are naturally noble, or in such as have been cultivated by good examples, or a refined education.
  • 'The Guardian" no.161

• There in no virtue so truly great and godlike as justice.
  • 'The Guardian" no. 99

• There is no greater sign of a general decay of virtue in a nation, than a want of zeal in its inhabitants for the good of their country.
  • Freeholder (no. 5)

• There is nothing more requisite in business than dispatch.
  • The Drummer (Act V, sc. 1)

• True happiness is of a retired nature, and an enemy to pomp and noise; it arises, in the first place, from the enjoyment of one's self, and in the next from the friendship and conversation of a few select companions.
  • The Spectator (March 17, 1711)

• We are growing serious, and, let me tell you, that's the very next step to being dull.
  • The Drummer (Act IV, sc. 6)

• Were not this desire of fame very strong, the difficulty of obtaining it, and the danger of losing it when obtained, would be sufficient to deter a man from so vain a pursuit.
  • The Spectator issue no. 255

• What sculpture is to a block of marble, education is to the soul.
  • The Spectator issue no. 215

• When I consider the Question, Whether there are such Persons in the World as those we call Witches? my Mind is divided between the two opposite Opinions; or rather (to speak my Thoughts freely) I believe in general that there is, and has been such a thing as Witchcraft; but at the same time can give no Credit to any Particular Instance of it.
  • The Spectator issue no. 117 (1711)

• When I read the rules of criticism, I immediately inquire after the works of the author who has written them, and by that means discover what it is he likes in a composition.
  • 'The Guardian" no. 115

• When you are at Rome, live as Romans live.
  • Sir Roger on the Bench

Cato (1713)

• Is there not some chosen curse, Some hidden thunder in the stores of heaven, Red with uncommon wrath, to blast the man Who owes his greatness to his country's ruin? (Act I, sc. 1)

• The dawn is overcast, the morning lowers, And heavily in clouds brings on the day, The great, the important day, big with the fate Of Cato, and of Rome. (Act I, sc. 1)

• 'Tis not in mortals to command success, But we'll do more, Sempronius,— We'll deserve it. (Act I, sc. 2)

• Thy father's merit sets thee up to view, And shows thee in the fairest point of light, To make thy virtues, or thy faults, conspicuous. (Act I, sc. 2)

• Oh! think what anxious moments pass between The birth of plots, and their last fatal periods, Oh! 'tis a dreadful interval of time, Filled up with horror all, and big with death! (Act I, sc. 3)

• Beauty soon grows familiar to the lover, Fades in his eye, and palls upon the sense. (Act I, sc. 4)

• Better to die ten thousand deaths, Than wound my honour. (Act I, sc. 4)

• If the following day he chance to find A new repast, or an untasted spring,
  Blesses his stars, and thinks it luxury. (Act I, sc. 4)

• 'Tis pride, rank pride, and haughtiness of soul: I think the Romans call it Stoicism. (Act I, sc. 4)

• A day, an hour, of virtuous liberty Is worth a whole eternity in bondage. (Act II, sc. 1)

• Great Pompey's shade complains that we are slow, And Scipio's ghost walks unavenged amongst us! (Act II, sc. 1)

• Young men soon give and soon forget affronts; Old age is slow in both. (Act II, sc. 5)

• The friendships of the world are oft Confederacies in vice, or leagues of pleasure; Ours has severest virtue for its basis, And such a friendship ends not but with life. (Act III, sc. 1)

• When love's well-timed 'tis not a fault of love; The strong, the brave, the virtuous, and the wise, Sink in the soft captivity together. (Act III, sc. 1)

• Loveliest of women! heaven is in thy soul, Beauty and virtue shine forever round thee, Bright'ning each other! thou art all divine! (Act III, sc. 2)

• Talk not of love: thou never knew'st its force. (Act III, sc. 2)

• To my confusion, and eternal grief,
  I must approve the sentence that destroys me. (Act III, sc. 2)

• See they suffer death, But in their deaths remember they are men, Strain not the laws to make their tortures grievous. (Act III, sc. 5)

• My voice is still for war. Gods! Can a Roman senate long debate which of the two to choose, slavery or death! No, let us rise at once, gird on our swords, and, at the head of our remaining troops, attack the foe, break through the thick array of his throng'd legions, and charge home upon him. Perhaps some arm, more lucky than the rest, May reach his heart, and free the world from bondage. (Act 4 sc.1)

• Why wilt thou add to all the griefs I suffer Imaginary ills, and fancy'd tortures? (Act IV, sc. 1)

• When love once pleas admission to our hearts, (In spite of all the virtue we can boast), The woman that deliberates is lost. (Act IV, sc. 1) Variant: "When love once pleads admission to our hearts..."

• I will indulge my sorrows, and give way To all the pangs and fury of despair. (Act IV, sc. 3)

• Content thyself to be obscurely good. When vice prevails and impious men bear away, The post of honor is a private station. (Act IV, sc. 4)

• Curse on his virtues! they've undone his country. (Act IV, sc. 4)

• How beautiful is death, when earn'd by virtue!
  Who would not be that youth? What pity is it
  That we can die but once to serve our country! (Act 4, sc. 4,

• In doing what we ought we deserve no praise, because it is our duty. (Act IV, sc. 4)

• O ye powers that search The heart of man, and weigh his inmost thoughts, If I have done amiss, impute it not! The best may err, but you are good. (Act V, sc. 4)

• Thanks to the gods! my boy has done his duty. (Act IV, sc. 4)

• The honors of this world, what are they but puff, and emptiness, and peril of falling? (Act IV, sc. 4)

• Who would not be that youth? What pity is it That we can die but once to save our country! (Act IV, sc. 4)

• The stars shall fade away, the sun himself Grow dim with age, and nature sink in years, But thou shalt flourish in immortal youth, Unhurt amidst the wars of elements, The wrecks of matter, and the crush of worlds. (Act V, sc. 1)

• If there's a power above us, (and that there is all nature cries aloud Through all her works) he must delight in virtue. (Act V, sc. 1)

• It must be so— Plato, thou reasonest well!— Else whence this pleasing hope, this fond desire, This longing after immortality? Or whence this secret dread, and inward horror, O falling into nought? Why shrinks the soul Back on herself, and startles at destruction? 'Tis the divinity that stirs within us; 'Tis heaven itself, that points out an hereafter, And intimates eternity to man. (Act V, sc. 1)

• Eternity! thou pleasing dreadful thought! Through what variety of untried being, Through what new scenes and changes must we pass! (Act V, sc. 1)

• My death and life, My bane and antidote, are both before me. (Act V, sc. 1)

• Nature does nothing without purpose or uselessly. (Act V, sc. 1)

• The ideal man bears the accidents of life with dignity and grace, the best of circumstances. (Act V, sc. 1)

• The soul, secured in her existence, smiles At the drawn dagger, and defies its point. (Act V, sc. 1)

• What means this heaviness that hangs upon me? This lethargy that creeps through all my senses? Nature, oppress'd and harrass'd out with care, Sinks down to rest. (Act V, sc. 1)

• Sweet are the slumbers of the virtuous man! (Act V, sc. 4)

• From hence, let fierce contending nations know, What dire effects from civil discord flow. (Act V, sc. 4)

Attributed

• A cloudy day or a little sunshine have as great an influence on many constitutions as the most recent blessings or misfortunes.

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

• A good conscience is to the soul what health is to the body; it preserves constant ease and serenity within us; and more than countervails all the calamities and afflictions which can befall us from without.

• A just and reasonable modesty does not only recommend eloquence, but sets off every great talent which a man can be possessed of.

• A man must be both stupid and uncharitable who believes there is no virtue or truth but on his own side.

• A man should always consider how much he has more than he wants...

• A misery is not to be measure from the nature of the evil, but from the temper of the sufferer.

• A thousand trills and quivering sounds In airy circles o'er us fly, Till, wafted by a gentle breeze, They faint and languish by degrees, And at a distance die.

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

• Admiration is a very short-lived passion that immediately decays upon growing familiar with its object, unless it be still fed with fresh discoveries, and kept alive by a new perpetual succession of miracles rising up to its view. (often only the first lines of this statement are quoted)

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

• Animals, in their generation, are wiser than the sons of men; but their wisdom is confined to a few particulars, and lies in a very narrow compass.

• Arguments out of a pretty mouth are unanswerable.

• Cheerfulness is the best promoter of health and is as friendly to the mind as to the body.

• 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.

• Education is a companion which no misfortune can depress, no crime can destroy, no enemy can alienate,no despotism can enslave. At home, a friend, abroad, an introduction, in solitude a solace and in society an ornament.It chastens vice, it guides virtue, it gives at once grace and government to genius. Without it, what is man? A splendid slave, a reasoning savage.

• Everything that is new or uncommon raises a pleasure in the imagination, because it fills the soul with an agreeable surprise, gratifies its curiosity, and gives it an idea of which it was not before possessed.

• For whereso'er I turn my ravished eyes, Gay gilded scenes and shining prospects rise; Poetic fields encompass me around, And still I seem to tread on classic ground.

• He who would pass his declining years with honor and comfort, should, when young, consider that he may one day become old, and remember when he is old, that he has once been young.

• I consider an human soul without education like marble in the quarry, which shows none of its inherent beauties till the skill of the polisher fetches out the colours, makes the surface shine, and discovers every ornamental cloud, spot and vein that runs through the body of it.
  • Variant or related comment: What sculpture is to a block of marble, education is to the soul.

• I have but nine-pence in ready money, but I can draw for a thousand pounds.

• I have often thought, says Sir Roger, it happens very well that Christmas should fall out in the middle of Winter.

• I have somewhere met with the epitaph on a charitable man which has pleased me very much. I cannot recollect the words, but here is the sense of it: What I spent I lost; what I possessed is left to others; what I gave away remains with me.

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

• If men would consider not so much where they differ, as wherein they agree, there would be far less of uncharitableness and angry feeling in the world.

• 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.

• If you wish success in life, make perseverance your bosom friend, experience your wise counselor, caution your elder brother and hope your guardian genius.

• Irregularity and want of method are only supportable in men of great learning or genius, who are often too full to be exact, and therefore they choose to throw down their pearls in heaps before the reader, rather than be at the pains of stringing them.

• 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.

• 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.

• It is the privilege of posterity to set matters right between those antagonists who, by their rivalry for greatness, divided a whole age.

• Jesters do often prove prophets.

• 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.

• Man is subject to innumerable pains and sorrows by the very condition of humanity, and yet, as if nature had not sown evils enough in life, we are continually adding grief to grief and aggravating the common calamity by our cruel treatment of one another.

• 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.

• Mere bashfulness without merit is awkwardness.

• 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.

• Music, the greatest good that mortals know, And all of heaven we have below.

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

• Mysterious love, uncertain treasure, Hast thou more of pain or pleasure! . . . Endless torments dwell above thee: Yet who would live, and live without thee!

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

• O Dormer, how can I behold thy fate, And not the wonders of thy youth relate; How can I see the gay, the brave, the young, Fall in the cloud of war, and lie unsung! In joys of conquest he resigns his breath, And, filled with England's glory, smiles in death.

• Of all the diversions of life, there is none so proper to fill up its empty spaces as the reading of useful and entertaining authors.

• Our delight in any particular study, art, or science rises and improves in proportion to the application which we bestow upon it. Thus, what was at first an exercise becomes at length an entertainment.

• Our real blessings often appear to us in the shape of pains, losses and disappointments; but let us have patience and we soon shall see them in their proper figures.

• Plenty of people wish to become devout, but no one wishes to be humble.

• Pride goes before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall.

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

• Self discipline is that which, next to virtue, truly and essentially raises one man above another.

• Should the whole frame of nature round him break In ruin and confusion hurled, He, unconcerned, would hear the mighty crack, And stand secure amidst a falling world.

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

• Sunday clears away the rust of the whole week.

• That he delights in the misery of others no man will confess, and yet what other motive can make a father cruel?

• The beloved of the Almighty are: the rich who have the humility of the poor, and the poor who have the magnamity of the rich.

• The chief ingredients in the composition of those qualities that gain esteem and praise, are good nature, truth, good sense, and good breeding.

• The Fear of Death often proves Mortal, and sets People on Methods to save their Lives, which infallibly destroy them.

• The friendships of the world are oft confederacies in vice, or leagues of pleasures.

• The greatest sweetener of human life is Friendship. To raise this to the highest pitch of enjoyment, is a secret which but few discover.

• The man who will live above his present circumstances, is in great danger of soon living beneath them; or as the Italian proverb says, "The man that lives by hope, will die by 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.

• The spacious firmament on high, With all the blue ethereal sky, And spangled heavens, a shining frame, Their great Original proclaim. Forever singing, as they shine, The hand that made us is divine.

• The stars shall fade away, the sun himself Grow dim with age, and nature sink in years, But thou shalt flourish in immortal youth, Unhurt amidst the wars of elements, The wrecks of matter, and the crush of worlds.

• The unassuming youth seeking instruction with humility gains good fortune.

• The union of the Word and the Mind produces that mystery which is called Life... Learn deeply of the Mind and its mystery, for therein lies the secret of immortality.

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

• The utmost extent of man's knowledge, is to know that he knows nothing.

• Their is no defense against criticism except obscurity.

• There is not any present moment that is unconnected with some future one. The life of every man is a continued chain of incidents, each link of which hangs upon the former. The transition from cause to effect, from event to event, is often carried on by secret steps, which our foresight cannot divine, and our sagacity is unable to trace. Evil may at some future period bring forth good; and good may bring forth evil, both equally unexpected.

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

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

• They were a people so primitive they did not know how to get money, except by working for it.

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

• To a man of pleasure every moment appears to be lost, which partakes not of the vivacity of amusement.

• To be an atheist requires an indefinitely greater measure of faith than to recieve all the great truths which atheism would deny.

• To be exempt from the passions with which others are tormented, is the only pleasing solitude.

• To be perfectly just is an attribute of the divine nature; to be so to the utmost of our abilities, is the glory of man.

• To say that authority, whether secular or religious, supplies no ground for morality is not to deny the obvious fact that it supplies a sanction.

• Tradition is an important help to history, but its statements should be carefully scrutinized before we rely on them.

• True happiness arises, in the first place, from the enjoyment of one's self, and in the next, from the friendship and conversation of a few select companions.

• What an absurd thing it is to pass over all the valuable parts of a man, and fix our attention on his infirmities.

• What sunshine is to flowers, smiles are to humanity. These are but trifles, to be sure; but scattered along life's pathway, the good they do is inconceivable.

• When all thy mercies, O my God, My rising soul surveys, Transported with the view I'm lost, In wonder, love and praise.

• When men are easy in their circumstances, they are naturally enemies to innovations.

• With regard to donations always expect the most from prudent people, who keep their own accounts.

External links

• Joseph Addison page at San Antonio College
• Selected poetry at the University of Toronto
• Prose and poetry of Addison (Latin only)
• The play Cato online This play was one of George Washington's favorites.