Joseph Addison > Quotes

“Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body.”
― Joseph Addison

“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.”
― Joseph Addison

“Certain is it that there is no kind of affection so purely angelic as of a father to a daughter. In love to our wives there is desire; to our sons, ambition, but to our daughters there is something which there are no words to express.”
― Joseph Addison

“A contented mind is the greatest blessing a man can enjoy in this world.”
― Joseph Addison

“Jealousy is that pain which a man feels from the apprehension that he is not equally beloved by the person whom he entirely loves.”
― Joseph Addison

“When I look upon the tombs of the great, every emotion of envy dies in me; when I read the epitaphs of the beautiful, every inordinate desire goes out; when I meet with the grief of parents upon a tombstone, my heart melts with compassion; when I see the tombs of the parents themselves, I consider the vanity of grieving for those whom we must quickly follow; when I see kings lying by those who deposed them, when I consider rival wits placed side by side, or the men that divided the world with their contests and disputes, I reflect with sorrow and astonishment on the little competitions, factions, and debates of mankind. When I read the several dates of the tombs, of some that died yesterday, and some six hundred years ago, I consider that great Day when we shall all of us be contemporaries, and make our appearance together”
― Joseph Addison

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

“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”
― Joseph Addison

“If you wish success in life, make perseverance your bosom friend, experience your wise counselor, caution your elder brother and hope your guardian genius.”
― Joseph Addison

“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.”
― Joseph Addison

“What sculpture is to a block of marble, education is to a human soul.”
― Joseph Addison

“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.”
― Joseph Addison

“Reading is a basic tool in the living of a good life.”
― Joseph Addison

“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 proper figures.”
― Joseph Addison

“A man must be both stupid and uncharitable who believes there is no virtue or truth but on his own side.”
― Joseph Addison

“True happiness is of a retired nature, and an enemy to pomp and noise; it arises, in the first place, in the enjoyment of one's self, and, in the next, from the friendship and conversation of a few select companions.”
― Joseph Addison

“A misery is not to be measured from the nature of the evil, but from the temper of the sufferer.”
― Joseph Addison

“A man’s first care should be to avoid the reproaches of his own heart.”
― Joseph Addison

“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.”
― Joseph Addison

“In doing what we ought we deserve no praise, because it is our duty.”
― Joseph Addison

“Cheerfulness keeps up a kind of daylight in the mind, and fills it with a steady and perpetual serenity.”
― Joseph Addison

“Sunday clears away the rust of the whole week.”
― Joseph Addison

“If you wish success in life, make perseverance you bosom friend, experience your wise councellor, caution your elder brother, and hope your guardian genius.”
― Joseph Addison, The Spectator

“Cheerfulness keeps up a kind of daylight in the mind.”
― Joseph Addison

“I will indulge my sorrows, and give way to all the pangs and fury of despair.”
― Joseph Addison

“Quick sensitivity is inseperable from a ready understanding.”
― Joseph Addison

“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.”
― Joseph Addison

“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.”
― Joseph Addison

“An empty desk is a sign of a cluttered desk drawer.”
― Joseph Addison

“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.”
― Joseph Addison