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Joseph Addison

b: Milston, England, May 1, 1672

d: London, England., Jun 17, 1719

"Atticus"; "Clio"; "A Literary Machiavel"; "The English Atticus". English, Essayist. Wrote essays with Sir Richard Steele for the Tatler, 1709; Spectator, 1711-12.

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

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.

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.

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.

Content thyself to be obscurely good. When vice prevails, and impious men bear sway, the post of honor is a private station.

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.

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.

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.''

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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

See in what peace a Christian can die.

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

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 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 post of honour is a private station.

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

There is not a more pleasing exercise of the mind than gratitude. It is accompanied with such an inward satisfaction that the duty is sufficiently rewarded by the performance.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

What sculpture is to a block of marble, education is to the soul.

When somebody gives you a sexy look, you know they're trying. It's terrible! But when you smile, it's so much sexier!