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.
About Joseph Addison
Joseph Addisonwas an English essayist, poet, playwright, and politician. He was the eldest son of Lancelot Addison.
More quotes from Joseph Addison
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.
English essayist, poet, playwright and politician (1672-1719)
Friendships, in general, are suddenly contracted; and therefore it is no wonder they are easily dissolved.
English essayist, poet, playwright and politician (1672-1719)
A woman seldom asks advice before she has bought her wedding clothes.
English essayist, poet, playwright and politician (1672-1719)
The greatest sweetener of human life is Friendship. To raise this to the highest pitch of enjoyment, is a secret which but few discover.
English essayist, poet, playwright and politician (1672-1719)
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.
English essayist, poet, playwright and politician (1672-1719)
There is not a more unhappy being than a superannuated idol.
English essayist, poet, playwright and politician (1672-1719)
What sculpture is to a block of marble, education is to the soul.
English essayist, poet, playwright and politician (1672-1719)
To a man of pleasure every moment appears to be lost, which partakes not of the vivacity of amusement.
English essayist, poet, playwright and politician (1672-1719)
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.
English essayist, poet, playwright and politician (1672-1719)
Admiration is a very short-lived passion, that immediately decays upon growing familiar with its object.
English essayist, poet, playwright and politician (1672-1719)
When men are easy in their circumstances, they are naturally enemies to innovations.
English essayist, poet, playwright and politician (1672-1719)
Mere bashfulness without merit is awkwardness.
English essayist, poet, playwright and politician (1672-1719)
Music, the greatest good that mortals know and all of heaven we have hear below.
English essayist, poet, playwright and politician (1672-1719)
There is not so variable a thing in nature as a lady’s head-dress.
English essayist, poet, playwright and politician (1672-1719)
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.
English essayist, poet, playwright and politician (1672-1719)
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.
English essayist, poet, playwright and politician (1672-1719)
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.
English essayist, poet, playwright and politician (1672-1719)
A man must be both stupid and uncharitable who believes there is no virtue or truth but on his own side.
English essayist, poet, playwright and politician (1672-1719)
To be an atheist requires an indefinitely greater measure of faith than to recieve all the great truths which atheism would deny.
English essayist, poet, playwright and politician (1672-1719)
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.
English essayist, poet, playwright and politician (1672-1719)
Three grand essentials to happiness in this life are something to do, something to love, and something to hope for.
English essayist, poet, playwright and politician (1672-1719)
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.
English essayist, poet, playwright and politician (1672-1719)
With regard to donations always expect the most from prudent people, who keep their own accounts.
English essayist, poet, playwright and politician (1672-1719)
What pity is it That we can die, but once to serve our country.
English essayist, poet, playwright and politician (1672-1719)
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.
English essayist, poet, playwright and politician (1672-1719)
Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body.
English essayist, poet, playwright and politician (1672-1719)
There is nothing more requisite in business than despatch.
English essayist, poet, playwright and politician (1672-1719)
A contented mind is the greatest blessing a man can enjoy in this world.
English essayist, poet, playwright and politician (1672-1719)
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.
English essayist, poet, playwright and politician (1672-1719)
Nothing is more gratifying to the mind of man than power or dominion.
English essayist, poet, playwright and politician (1672-1719)
There is nothing that makes its way more directly into the soul than beauty.
English essayist, poet, playwright and politician (1672-1719)
A just and reasonable modesty does not only recommend eloquence, but sets off every great talent which a man can be possessed of.
English essayist, poet, playwright and politician (1672-1719)
The chief ingredients in the composition of those qualities that gain esteem and praise, are good nature, truth, good sense, and good breeding.
English essayist, poet, playwright and politician (1672-1719)
The unjustifiable severity of a parent is loaded with this aggravation, that those whom he injures are always in his sight.
English essayist, poet, playwright and politician (1672-1719)
Reading is a basic tool in the living of a good life.
English essayist, poet, playwright and politician (1672-1719)
Their is no defense against criticism except obscurity.
English essayist, poet, playwright and politician (1672-1719)
A man should always consider how much he has more than he wants.
English essayist, poet, playwright and politician (1672-1719)
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.
English essayist, poet, playwright and politician (1672-1719)
The utmost extent of man’s knowledge, is to know that he knows nothing.
English essayist, poet, playwright and politician (1672-1719)
If you wish to succeed in life, make perseverance your bosom friend, experience your wise counselor, caution your elder brother, and hope your guardian genius.
English essayist, poet, playwright and politician (1672-1719)
The unassuming youth seeking instruction with humility gains good fortune.
English essayist, poet, playwright and politician (1672-1719)
The woman that deliberates is lost.
English essayist, poet, playwright and politician (1672-1719)
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.
English essayist, poet, playwright and politician (1672-1719)
Better to die ten thousand deaths than wound my honor.
English essayist, poet, playwright and politician (1672-1719)
The fear of death often proves mortal, and sets people on methods to save their Lives, which infallibly destroy them.
English essayist, poet, playwright and politician (1672-1719)
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.
English essayist, poet, playwright and politician (1672-1719)
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.
English essayist, poet, playwright and politician (1672-1719)
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.
English essayist, poet, playwright and politician (1672-1719)
We are always doing something for posterity, but I would fain see posterity do something for us.
English essayist, poet, playwright and politician (1672-1719)
Those Marriages generally abound most with Love and Constancy, that are preceded by a long Courtship.
English essayist, poet, playwright and politician (1672-1719)
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.”
English essayist, poet, playwright and politician (1672-1719)
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.
English essayist, poet, playwright and politician (1672-1719)
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!
English essayist, poet, playwright and politician (1672-1719)
Nothing is capable of being well set to music that is not nonsense.
English essayist, poet, playwright and politician (1672-1719)
One should take good care not to grow too wise for so great a pleasure of life as laughter.
English essayist, poet, playwright and politician (1672-1719)
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.
English essayist, poet, playwright and politician (1672-1719)
No oppression is so heavy or lasting as that which is inflicted by the perversion and exorbitance of legal authority.
English essayist, poet, playwright and politician (1672-1719)
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.
English essayist, poet, playwright and politician (1672-1719)
Mysterious love, uncertain treasure, hast thou more of pain or pleasure! Endless torments dwell about thee: Yet who would live, and live without thee!
English essayist, poet, playwright and politician (1672-1719)
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.
English essayist, poet, playwright and politician (1672-1719)
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.
English essayist, poet, playwright and politician (1672-1719)
Jesters do often prove prophets.
English essayist, poet, playwright and politician (1672-1719)
That he delights in the misery of others no man will confess, and yet what other motive can make a father cruel?
English essayist, poet, playwright and politician (1672-1719)
The post of honour is a private station.
English essayist, poet, playwright and politician (1672-1719)
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.
English essayist, poet, playwright and politician (1672-1719)
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.
English essayist, poet, playwright and politician (1672-1719)
Young men soon give, and soon forget, affronts; old age is slow in both.
English essayist, poet, playwright and politician (1672-1719)
Modesty is not only an ornament, but also a guard to virtue.
English essayist, poet, playwright and politician (1672-1719)
Sunday clears away the rust of the whole week.
English essayist, poet, playwright and politician (1672-1719)
Plenty of people wish to become devout, but no one wishes to be humble.
English essayist, poet, playwright and politician (1672-1719)
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.
English essayist, poet, playwright and politician (1672-1719)
Some virtues are only seen in affliction and others only in prosperity.
English essayist, poet, playwright and politician (1672-1719)
I value my garden more for being full of blackbirds than of cherries, and very frankly give them fruit for their songs.
English essayist, poet, playwright and politician (1672-1719)
Cheerfulness is the best promoter of health and is as friendly to the mind as to the body.
English essayist, poet, playwright and politician (1672-1719)
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.
English essayist, poet, playwright and politician (1672-1719)
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.
English essayist, poet, playwright and politician (1672-1719)
I will indulge my sorrows, and give way to all the pangs and fury of despair.
English essayist, poet, playwright and politician (1672-1719)
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.
English essayist, poet, playwright and politician (1672-1719)
Talking with a friend is nothing else but thinking aloud.
English essayist, poet, playwright and politician (1672-1719)
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.
English essayist, poet, playwright and politician (1672-1719)
Mutability of temper and inconsistency with ourselves is the greatest weakness of human nature.
English essayist, poet, playwright and politician (1672-1719)
An ostentatious man will rather relate a blunder or an absurdity he has committed, than be debarred from talking of his own dear person.
English essayist, poet, playwright and politician (1672-1719)
A cloudy day or a little sunshine have as great an influence on many constitutions as the most recent blessings or misfortunes.
English essayist, poet, playwright and politician (1672-1719)
There is nothing which we receive with so much reluctance as advice.
English essayist, poet, playwright and politician (1672-1719)