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Quote by Joseph Addison

“Dependence is a perpetual call upon humanity, and a greater incitement to tenderness and pity than any other motive whatever.”

Author

Joseph Addison

Joseph Addison, born on May 1, 1672, and died on June 17, 1719, was an influential English essayist, dramatist, and poet. He is known for his elegant prose style and his co-authorship of the magazine 'The Spectator' with Richard Steele. more

“A statue lies hid in a block of marble, and the art of the statuary only clears away the superfluous matter and removes the rubbish. The figure is in the stone; the sculptor only finds it. What sculpture is to a block of marble, education is to a human soul. The philosopher, the saint, or the hero,--the wise, the good, or the great man,--very often lies hid and concealed in a plebeian, which a proper education might have disinterred, and have brought to light.”

Source: The works of ... Joseph Addison, with notes by R. Hurd

“There is not a more melancholy object than a man who has his head turned with religious enthusiasm.”

Men Religious Objects Enthusiasm Melancholy

Book:The Spectator, in Miniature: Being the Principal Religious, Moral, Humourous, Satirical and Critical Essays, in that Publication Compressed Into Two Volumes

Source: The Spectator, in Miniature: Being the Principal Religious, Moral, Humourous, Satirical and Critical Essays, in that Publication Compressed Into Two Volumes

“Upon laying a weight in one of the scales, inscribed eternity, though I threw in that of time, prosperity, affliction, wealth, and poverty, which seemed very ponderous, they were not able to stir the opposite balance.”

Able Wealth Poverty Balance Opposites Weight Eternity Prosperity Scales Affliction Wealth And Poverty

Author:Joseph Addison

“A man improves more by reading the story of a person eminent for prudence and virtue, than by the finest rules and precepts of morality.”

Men Persons Stories Reading Virtue Example Morality Finest Prudence

Book:The Spectator: with notes and illustrations. In six volumes

Source: The Spectator: with notes and illustrations. In six volumes

“Fables take off from the severity of instruction, and enforce it at the same time that they conceal it.”

Instruction Fables Severity

Book:The Works of the Right Honourable Joseph Addison: The Tatler and Spectator [no. 1-160

Source: The Works of the Right Honourable Joseph Addison: The Tatler and Spectator [no. 1-160

“Nature has laid out all her art in beautifying the face; she has touched it with vermilion, planted in it a double row of ivory, made it the seat of smiles and blushes, lighted it up and enlivened it with the brightness of the eyes, hung it on each side with curious organs of sense, given it airs and graces that cannot be described, and surrounded it with such a flowing shade of hair as sets all its beauties in the most agreeable light.”