Joseph Addison: Trending quotes

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Joseph Addison: 452 quotes40 likes

“O Dormer, how can I behold thy fate,
And not the wonders of thy youth relate;
How can I see the gay, the brave, the young,
Fall in the cloud of war, and lie unsung!
In joys of conquest he resigns his breath,
And, filled with England's glory, smiles in death.”

Joseph Addison The Campaign

Source: The Campaign (1704), Line 309.

“Nations with nations mix'd confus'dly die,
And lost in one promiscuous carnage lie.”

Joseph Addison The Campaign

Source: The Campaign (1704), Line 152.

“Silence never shows itself to so great an advantage, as when it is made the reply to calumny and defamation, provided that we give no just occasion for them.”

Joseph Addison

No. 133.
The Tatler (1711–1714)

“To be perfectly just is an attribute in the divine nature; to be so to the utmost of our abilities, is the glory of man.”

Joseph Addison

No. 99.
The Guardian (1713)

“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.”

Joseph Addison

Moncure Daniel Conway, in The Sacred Anthology (Oriental) : A Book of Ethnical Scriptures 5th edition (1877), p. 386; this statement appears beneath an Arabian proverb, and Upton Sinclair later attributed it to the Qur'an, in The Cry for Justice : An Anthology of the Literature of Social Protest (1915), p. 475.
Misattributed

“I would fain ask one of these bigotted Infidels, supposing all the great Points of Atheism … were laid together and formed into a kind of Creed, according to the Opinions of the most celebrated Atheists; I say, supposing such a Creed as this were formed, and imposed upon any one People in the World, whether it would not require an infinitely greater Measure of Faith, than any Set of Articles which they so violently oppose.”

Joseph Addison

No. 185 http://archive.twoaspirinsandacomedy.com/spectator/spectator.php?line=185 (2 October 1711). <br class="br">Often misquoted as &quot;To be an atheist requires an infinitely greater measure of faith than to receive all the great truths which atheism would deny.&quot; <br class="br">The Spectator (1711–1714)

“These widows, sir, are the most perverse creatures in the world.”

Joseph Addison

No. 335 (25 March 1712).
The Spectator (1711–1714)

“A woman seldom asks advice before she has bought her wedding clothes.”

Joseph Addison

No. 475 (4 September 1712).
The Spectator (1711–1714)

“I have often thought, says Sir Roger, it happens very well that Christmas should fall out in the Middle of the Winter”

Joseph Addison

No. 269 (8 January 1712).
The Spectator (1711–1714)

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

Joseph Addison

Samuel Johnson in The Rambler, no. 148 (17 August 1751).
Misattributed

“Some virtues are only seen in affliction and some in prosperity.”

Joseph Addison

No. 257 (25 December 1711).
The Spectator (1711–1714)

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

Joseph Addison

No. 98 (22 June 1711).
The Spectator (1711–1714)

“The utmost extent of man's knowledge, is to know that he knows nothing.”

Joseph Addison

These words, sometimes attributed to Addison, are not found in his works, but in The Spectator, no. 54, he translates the following words of Socrates, as quoted in Plato's Apology: "When I left him, I reasoned thus with myself: I am wiser than this man, for neither of us appears to know anything great and good; but he fancies he knows something, although he knows nothing; whereas I, as I do not know anything, so I do not fancy I do. In this trifling particular, then, I appear to be wiser than he, because I do not fancy I know what I do not know."
Misattributed

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

Joseph Addison

Samuel Johnson in The Rambler no. 148 (17 August 1751).
Misattributed

“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.”

Joseph Addison

Sir Alfred Jules Ayer, in his "The Meaning of Life", collected in The Meaning of Life, and Other Essays (1990).
Misattributed

“An ostentatious man will rather relate a blunder or an absurdity he has committed, than be debarred from talking of his own dear person.”

Joseph Addison

No. 562 (2 July 1714).
The Spectator (1711–1714)

“Why wilt thou add to all the griefs I suffer
Imaginary ills, and fancy'd tortures?”

Joseph Addison book Cato

Act IV, scene i.
Cato, A Tragedy (1713)

“There is not a more unhappy being than a superannuated idol.”

Joseph Addison

No. 73 (24 May 1711).
The Spectator (1711–1714)

“A true critic ought to dwell rather upon excellencies than imperfections, to discover the concealed beauties of a writer, and communicate to the world such things as are worth their observation.”

Joseph Addison

No. 291 (2 February 1712).
The Spectator (1711–1714)

“I'm weary of conjectures,—this must end 'em.
Thus am I doubly armed: my death and life,
My bane and antidote, are both before me:
This in a moment brings me to an end;
But this informs me I shall never die.
The soul, secured in her existence, smiles
At the drawn dagger, and defies its point.
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 war of elements,
The wrecks of matter, and the crush of worlds.”

Joseph Addison book Cato

Act V, scene i.
Cato, A Tragedy (1713)