Joseph Addison: Trending quotes

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Joseph Addison: 452 quotes40 likes

“When love's well-timed 'tis not a fault of love;
The strong, the brave, the virtuous, and the wise,
Sink in the soft captivity together.”

Joseph Addison book Cato

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

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

Joseph Addison

No. 249 (15 December 1711).
The Spectator (1711–1714)

“The grand essentials to happiness in this life are something to do, something to love and something to hope for.”

Joseph Addison

Widely quoted as an Addison maxim this is actually by the American clergyman George Washington Burnap (1802-1859), published in Burnap's The Sphere and Duties of Woman : A Course of Lectures (1848), Lecture IV.
Misattributed

“The dawn is overcast, the morning lowers,
And heavily in clouds brings on the day,
The great, the important day,
Big with the fate Of Cato, and of Rome.”

Joseph Addison book Cato

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

“Tis not in mortals to command success,
But we'll do more, Sempronius; we'll deserve it.”

Joseph Addison book Cato

Act I, scene ii.
Cato, A Tragedy (1713)

“The union of the Word and the Mind produces that mystery which is called Life… Learn deeply of the Mind and its mystery, for therein lies the secret of immortality.”

Joseph Addison

&quot; The Life and Teachings of Thoth Hermes Trismegistus http://magdelene.net/Thoth%20Hermes%20Trismegistus.htm&quot;, in The Secret Teachings of All Ages (1928) by the Canadian occultist Manly Hall; a few quotation websites credit this to Addison. <br class="br">Misattributed

“A thousand trills and quivering sounds
In airy circles o'er us fly,
Till, wafted by a gentle breeze,
They faint and languish by degrees,
And at a distance die.”

Joseph Addison

Ode on St. Cecilia's Day (1699), st. 6.

“The man who will live above his present circumstances is in great danger of living in a little time much beneath them; or as the Italian proverb runs, "The man who lives by hope, will die by hunger."”

Joseph Addison

No. 191 (9 October 1711).
The Spectator (1711–1714)

“I will indulge my sorrows, and give way
To all the pangs and fury of despair.”

Joseph Addison book Cato

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

“Were not this desire of fame very strong, the difficulty of obtaining it, and the danger of losing it when obtained, would be sufficient to deter a man from so vain a pursuit.”

Joseph Addison

No. 255 (22 December 1711).
The Spectator (1711–1714)

“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.”

Joseph Addison

No. 256 (24 December 1711)
Often only the first half of this statement is quoted
The Spectator (1711–1714)

“From hence, let fierce contending nations know,
What dire effects from civil discord flow.”

Joseph Addison book Cato

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

“Ambition raises a secret tumult in the soul, it inflames the mind, and puts it into a violent hurry of thought.”

Joseph Addison

No. 256 (24 December 1711)
The Spectator (1711–1714)

“It is indeed very possible, that the Persons we laugh at may in the main of their Characters be much wiser Men than our selves; but if they would have us laugh at them, they must fall short of us in those Respects which stir up this Passion.”

Joseph Addison

No. 47 (24 April 1711).
The Spectator (1711–1714)

“Round-heads and Wooden-shoes are standing jokes.”

Joseph Addison

prologue, l. 8.
The Drummer (1716)

“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.”

Joseph Addison

No. 412 (23 June 1712).
The Spectator (1711–1714)

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

Joseph Addison

No. 231 (24 November 1711).
The Spectator (1711–1714)

“A cloudy day or a little sunshine have as great an influence on many constitutions as the most real blessings or misfortunes.”

Joseph Addison

No. 162 (5 September 1711).
The Spectator (1711–1714)

“The fraternity of the henpecked.”

Joseph Addison

No. 482 (12 September 1712).
The Spectator (1711–1714)

“Much might be said on both sides.”

Joseph Addison

No. 122 (20 July 1711).
The Spectator (1711–1714)
Variant: Much may be said on both sides.