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Joseph Addison

Joseph Addison Quotes

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Famous Joseph Addison Quotes

“Were a man's sorrows and disquietudes summed up at the end of his life, it would generally be found that he had suffered more from the apprehension of such evils as never happened to him than from those evils which had really befallen him.”

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Book:Works, including the whole contents of Bp. Hurd's edition: withletters and other pieces not found in any previous collection; and Macaulay's essay on his life and works
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“Plutarch says very finely that a man should not allow himself to hate even his enemies.”

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Book:The Spectator, with Illustrative Notes: To which are Prefixed, the Lives of Authors : Comprehending, Addison, Steele, Parnell, Hughes, Buegel, Eusden, Tickell, and Pope : with Critical Remarks about Their Writings
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“A man who has any relish for fine writing either discovers new beauties or receives stronger impressions from the masterly strokes of a great author every time he peruses him; besides that he naturally wears himself into the same manner of speaking and thinking.”

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Book:The British Essayists: Containing the Spectator, with Notes and General Index, and the Tatler and Guardian, with Notes and General Index
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“The religious man fears, the man of honor scorns, to do an ill action.”

MenActionReligiousHe ManHonorIllScorn
Book:The Specator, no. 507-600. The Guardian. The lover. The present state of the war, and the necessity of an augmentation, considered. The Whig-examiner. The Free-holder. Of the Christian religion
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“There is a kind of grandeur and respect which the meanest and most insignificant part of mankind endeavor to procure in the little circle of their friends and acquaintance. The poorest mechanic, nay, the man who lives upon common alms, gets him his set of admirers, and delights in that superiority which he enjoys over those who are in some respects beneath him. This ambition, which is natural to the soul of man, might, methinks, receive a very happy turn; and, if it were rightly directed, contribute as much to a person's advantage, as it generally does to his uneasiness and disquiet.”

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Book:The spectator
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“A contented mind is the greatest blessing a man can enjoy in this world; and if in the present life his happiness arises from the subduing of his desires, it will arise in the next from the gratification of them.”

IfsMenWorldMindDesireNextEnjoyThis WorldBlessingAriseContentmentGratificationPresent LifeGreatest Blessings
Book:The Works of the Right Honourable Joseph Addison: The Spectator. The Guardian. The Lover. The present state of the war, and the necessity of augmentation, considered. The late trial and conviction of Count Tariff. The Whig-examiner. The Freeholder
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“To look upon the soul as going on from strength to strength, to consider that she is to shine forever with new accessions of glory, and brighten to all eternity; that she will be still adding virtue to virtue, and knowledge to knowledge,--carries in it something wonderfully agreeable to that ambition which is natural to the mind of man.”

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Book:The Spectator: With a Biographical and Critical Preface, and Explanatory Notes ...
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“It has been said in praise of some men, that they could take whole hours together upon anything; but it must be owned to the honor of the other sex that there are many among them who can talk whole hours together upon nothing. I have known a woman branch out into a long extempore dissertation on the edging of a petticoat, and chide her servant for breaking a china cup, in all the figures of rhetoric.”

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Author:Joseph Addison
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“The hours of a wise man are lengthened by his ideas, as those of a fool are by his passions. The time of the one is long, because he does not know what to do with it; so is that of the other, because he distinguishes every moment of it with useful or amusing thoughts--or, in other words, because the one is always wishing it away, and the other always enjoying it.”

KnowsMenLongDoeIdeasMomentsTimePassionWishEnjoyHoursWiseFoolAmusing
Book:The works of Joseph Addison: including the whole contents of Bp. Hurd's edition, with letters and other pieces not found in any previous collection; and Macaulay's essay on his life and works
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“Honor's a fine imaginary notion, that draws in raw and unexperienced men to real mischiefs.”

MenRealFineHonorDrawsNotionImaginaryMischief
Book:Preface. Poems on several occasions. Rosamond. An essay on Virgil's Georgics. Cato. The drummer, or, The haunted house. Poemata. Dialogues upon the usefulness of ancient medals
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“We find that Good and Evil happen alike to all Men on this Side of the Grave; and as the principle Design of Tragedy is to raise Commiseration and Terror in the Minds of the Audience, we shall defeat this great End, if we always make Virtue and Innocence happy and successful.”

IfsMenMindEndsHappensEvilSidesPrinciplesAudienceVirtueSuccessfulDesignCriticismTragedyTheaterRaisesDefeatTerrorGravesInnocenceGood And Evil
Book:Delphi Complete Works of Joseph Addison (Illustrated)
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“It is easier for an artful Man, who is not in Love, to persuade his Mistress he has a Passion for her, and to succeed in his Pursuits, than for one who loves with the greatest Violence. True Love hath ten thousand Griefs, Impatiencies and Resentments, that render a Man unamiable in the Eyes of the Person whose Affection he sollicits.”

MenLovePersonsEyePassionGriefViolenceEasierThousandSucceedTenAffectionPursuitResentmentMistressCourtship
Book:The spectator
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“One would wonder to hear skeptical men disputing for the reason of animals, and telling us it is only our pride and prejudices that will not allow them the use of that faculty. Reason shows itself in all occurrences of life; whereas the brute makes no discovery of such a talent, but in what immediately regards his own preservation, or the continuance of his species. 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. Take a brute out of his instinct, and you find him wholly deprived of understanding.”

MenReasonUseShowsLyingUnderstandingAnimalWonderGenerationsTalentSonPrideDiscoveryPrejudiceRegardInstinctSpeciesFacultyHumankindWiserPreservationCompassDeprivedConfinedSkepticalBrutesContinuance
Book:The spectator
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“I always rejoice when I see a tribunal filled with a man of an upright and inflexible temper, who in the execution of his country's laws can overcome all private fear, resentment, solicitation, and even pity it self. Whatever passion enters into a sentence or decision, so far will there be in it a tincture of injustice. In short, justice discards party, friendship, kindred, and is therefore always represented as blind, that we may suppose her thoughts are wholly intent on the equity of a cause, without being diverted or prejudiced by objects foreign to it.”

MenMaySelfCountryLawPassionCausesJusticeDecisionPartyObjectsOvercomingBlindFilledInjusticeSentencesPityTemperRejoiceResentmentExecutionEquityKindredTribunalsSolicitation
Book:The Works of the Right Honourable Joseph Addison: The Spectator [no. 487-600] The Guardian. The Lover. The present state of the war. The trial and conviction of Count Tariff. The Whig-examiner. The Freeholder [no. 1-30
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“Content has a kindly influence on the soul of man, in respect of every being to whom he stands related. It extinguishes all murmuring, repining, and ingratitude toward that Being who has allotted us our part to act in the world. It destroys all inordinate ambition; gives sweetness to the conversation, and serenity to all the thoughts; and if it does not bring riches, it does the same thing by banishing the desire of them.”

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Author:Joseph Addison
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“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.”

IfsMenEnoughCharacterPainHumanityEvilLiteratureCommonGriefVirtueConditionsSubjectsHonestyIntegritySorrowTreatmentCalamityAggravationPain And SorrowAggravating
Book:The Spectator, no. 1-314
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“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!”

MenCountryLiteratureHeavenGreatnessIntegrityRedStoresChosenRuinsCursePatrioticThunderWrathBlastTreasonUncommonRed Lips
Book:The preface. Poems on several occasions. Rosamond. An opera. Notes on some of the foregoing stories in Ovid's Metamorphoses. An essay of Virgil's Georgics. Cato. A tragedy. Poemata. Dialogues upon the usefulness of ancient medals, especially in relation to the Latin and Greek poets. Three setts of medals illustrated by the ancient poets, in the foregoing dialogues
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