Joseph Addison Quotes (226 quotes, page 2)

“No oppression is so heavy or lasting as that which is inflicted by the perversion and exorbitance of legal authority.”

Joseph Addison

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

“Our disputants put me in mind of the skuttle fish, that when he is unable to extricate himself, blackens all the water about him, till he becomes invisible.”

Joseph Addison

No. 476 (5 September 1712).
The Spectator (1711–1714)

Fish , Water

“With regard to donations always expect the most from prudent people, who keep their own accounts.”

Joseph Addison

This is attributed to Addison in The Columbia Dictionary of Quotations (1993) with a citation of "Economy and Benevolence" in Interesting Anecdotes, Memoirs, Allegories, Essays, and Poetical Fragments (1794) but that was a publication of a contemporary "Mr. Addison" in several volumes, and not the poet. Vol. III of that publication (in 1796), on page 205, does contain these lines, but as part of an anonymous ancecdote.
Misattributed

People

“There is nothing more requisite in business than dispatch.”

Joseph Addison

Act V, sc. 1.
The Drummer (1716)

Business

“Authors have established it as a kind of rule, that a man ought to be dull sometimes; as the most severe reader makes allowances for many rests and nodding places in a voluminous writer.”

Joseph Addison

No. 124 (23 July 1711).
The Spectator (1711–1714)

“On you, my lord, with anxious fear I wait,
And from your judgment must expect my fate.”

Joseph Addison

A Poem to His Majesty (1695), l. 21.

Fate , Fear , Waiting

“When hosts of foes with foes engage,
And round th' anointed hero rage,
The cleaving fauchion I misguide,
And turn the feather'd shaft aside.”

Joseph Addison

Second Angel, in Rosamond (c. 1707), Act III, sc. i.

Rage

“I shall endeavor to enliven morality with wit, and to temper wit with morality.”

Joseph Addison

No. 10 (11 March 1711).
The Spectator (1711–1714)

“O ye powers that search
The heart of man, and weigh his inmost thoughts,
If I have done amiss, impute it not!
The best may err, but you are good.”

Joseph Addison book Cato

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

Search , Heart

“Method is not less requisite in ordinary conversation than in writing, provided a man would talk to make himself understood.”

Joseph Addison

No. 476 (5 September 1712).
The Spectator (1711–1714)

“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.”

Joseph Addison

No. 169 (13 September 1711).
The Spectator (1711–1714)

Life , Pain , Nature , Evil

“Jesters do often prove prophets.”

Joseph Addison

Not found in Addison's works, and "Jesters do oft prove prophets" is actually William Shakespeare, in King Lear, Act V, sc. iii.
Misattributed

“Exercise ferments the humors, casts them into their proper channels, throws off redundancies, and helps nature in those secret distributions, without which the body cannot subsist in its vigor, nor the soul act with cheerfulness.”

Joseph Addison

No. 115 (12 July 1711).
The Spectator (1711–1714)

Secret , Exercises , Soul , Nature

“Justice discards party, friendship, kindred, and is therefore always represented as blind.”

Joseph Addison

No. 99.
The Guardian (1713)

Friendship , Justice

“There is no greater sign of a general decay of virtue in a nation, than a want of zeal in its inhabitants for the good of their country.”

Joseph Addison

The Freeholder, no. 5.

Country

“What means this heaviness that hangs upon me?
This lethargy that creeps through all my senses?
Nature, oppress'd and harrass'd out with care,
Sinks down to rest.”

Joseph Addison book Cato

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

Nature , Sense

“Rais'd of themselves, their genuine charms they boast,
And those who paint them truest praise them most.”

Joseph Addison The Campaign

last lines.
The Campaign (1704)

Painting

“When men are easy in their circumstances, they are naturally enemies to innovations.”

Joseph Addison

The Freeholder, no. 42.

Men , Nature

“I would… earnestly advise them for their good to order this paper to be punctually served up, and to be looked upon as a part of the tea equipage.”

Joseph Addison

No. 10 (11 March 1711).
The Spectator (1711–1714)

Parting , Tea

“A man should always consider how much he has more than he wants.”

Joseph Addison

No. 574 (30 July 1714).
The Spectator (1711–1714)

“Blessings may appear under the shape of pains, losses and disappointments; but let him have patience, and he will see them in their proper figures.”

Joseph Addison

No. 117.
The Guardian (1713)

Pain , Disappointment , Appearance , Loss

“If we hope for what we are not likely to possess, we act and think in vain, and make life a greater dream and shadow than it really is.”

Joseph Addison

No. 535 (13 November 1712).
The Spectator (1711–1714)

Life , Dreams , Hope , Thinking

“To a man of pleasure every moment appears to be lost, which partakes not of the vivacity of amusement.”

Joseph Addison

Very often attributed to Addison, this is apparently a paraphrase of a statement by Hugh Blair, published in Blair's Sermons (1815), Vol. 1, p. 219, where he mentions "men of pleasure and the men of business", and that "To the former every moment appears to be lost, which partakes not of the vivacity of amusement".
Misattributed

Pleasure , Appearance

“Were I to prescribe a rule for drinking, it should be formed upon a saying quoted by Sir William Temple: the first glass for myself, the second for my friends, the third for good humor, and the fourth for mine enemies.”

Joseph Addison

No. 195 (13 October 1711).
The Spectator (1711–1714)

Quotes , Drink

“Better to die ten thousand deaths,
Than wound my honour.”

Joseph Addison book Cato

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

Death

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

Joseph Addison

No. 146.
The Tatler (1711–1714)

Nature , Suffering , Evil

“Tradition is an important help to history, but its statements should be carefully scrutinized before we rely on them.”

Joseph Addison

Attributed to "Addison" in A Dictionary of Thoughts : Being a Cyclopedia of Laconic Quotations from the Best Authors of the World, both Ancient and Modern (1908) edited by Tryon Edwards, p. 580, but this might be the later "Mr. Addison" who was credited with publishing Interesting Anecdotes, Memoirs, Allegories, Essays, and Poetical Fragments (1794).
Disputed

History , Help

“See in what peace a Christian can die!”

Joseph Addison

Last words, to his stepson (1719), as quoted in Conjectures on Original Composition (1759) by Edward Young
Variants:
I have sent for you that you may see in what peace a Christian may die.
As quoted in The R. I. Schoolmaster, Vol. V (1859), edited by William A. Mowry and Henry Clark, p. 71
I have sent for you that you may see how a Christian may die.
As quoted in Famous Sayings and their Authors (1906) by Edward Latham

Peace

“We are growing serious, and,
Let me tell you, that's the very next step to being dull.”

Joseph Addison

Act IV, sc. vi.
The Drummer (1716)

“I Have often thought if the minds of men were laid open, we should see but little difference between that of the wise man and that of the fool. There are infinite reveries, numberless extravagances, and a perpetual train of vanities which pass through both. The great difference is, that the first knows how to pick and cull his thoughts for conversation, by suppressing some, and communicating others; whereas the other lets them all indifferently fly out in words.”

Joseph Addison

No. 225.
The Tatler (1711–1714)

Men , Fools , Communication , Flying

“A little nonsense now and then
Is relished by the wisest men.”

Joseph Addison

This appears to be an anonymous proverb of unknown authorship, only occasionally attributed to Addison.
Misattributed

Men

“In all thy humours, whether grave or mellow,
Thou 'rt such a touchy, testy, pleasant fellow,
Hast so much wit and mirth and spleen about thee,
There is no living with thee, nor without thee.”

Joseph Addison

Spectator, No. 68.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)

“The ideal man bears the accidents of life
With dignity and grace, the best of circumstances.”

Joseph Addison book Cato

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

Courageous , Life

“Mere bashfulness without merit is awkward; and merit without modesty, insolent. But modest merit has a double claim to acceptance, and generally meets with as many patrons as beholders.”

Joseph Addison

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

“To my confusion, and eternal grief,
I must approve the sentence that destroys me.”

Joseph Addison book Cato

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

“Love is not to be reason'd down, or lost
In high ambition, and a thirst of greatness;
'Tis second life, it grows into the soul,
Warms every vein, and beats in every pulse.”

Joseph Addison book Cato

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

Love , Life , Soul

“Sir Roger made several reflections on the greatness of the British Nation; as, that one Englishman could beat three Frenchmen; that we could never be in danger of Popery so long as we took care of our fleet; that the Thames was the noblest river in Europe…with many other honest prejudices which naturally cleave to the heart of a true Englishman.”

Joseph Addison

No. 383 (20 May 1712).
The Spectator (1711–1714)

Nature , Heart

“A just and reasonable modesty does not only recommend eloquence, but sets off every great talent which a man can be possessed of.”

Joseph Addison

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

“Mirth is like a flash of lightning, that breaks through a gloom of clouds, and glitters for a moment; cheerfulness keeps up a kind of daylight in the mind, and fills it with a steady and perpetual serenity.”

Joseph Addison

No. 381 (17 May 1712).
The Spectator (1711–1714)

“Death only closes a Man's Reputation, and determines it as good or bad.”

Joseph Addison

No. 349 (10 April 1712)
Famously seen on the brothel wall in the film Easy Rider.
The Spectator (1711–1714)

Death

“For wheresoe'er I turn my ravished eyes,
Gay gilded scenes and shining prospects rise,
Poetic fields encompass me around,
And still I seem to tread on classic ground.”

Joseph Addison

A Letter from Italy, to the Right Honourable Charles, Lord Halifax. 1701.

“I consider an human soul without education like marble in the quarry, which shews none of its inherent beauties till the skill of the polisher fetches out the colours, makes the surface shine, and discovers every ornamental cloud, spot and vein that runs through the body of it.”

Joseph Addison

No. 215 (6 November 1711).
The Spectator (1711–1714)

Education , Beauty , Soul

“Our delight in any particular study, art, or science rises and improves in proportion to the application which we bestow upon it. Thus, what was at first an exercise becomes at length an entertainment.”

Joseph Addison

No. 447 (2 August 1712).
The Spectator (1711–1714)

Art , Exercises , Study , Science

“When you are at Rome, live as Romans live.”

Joseph Addison

St. Ambrose, Si fueris Romæ, Romano vivito more as translated in Latin Proverbs and Quotations (1869) by Alfred Henderson; very commonly paraphrased as "When in Rome do as the Romans do".
Misattributed

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

Joseph Addison

The earliest attributions of this remark to anyone are in 1941, to Mortimer Adler, in How To Read A Book (1940), although this actually a paraphrased shortening of a statement in his preface: Reading — as explained (and defended) in this book — is a basic tool in the living of a good life.
Misattributed

Life , Reading

“There is no virtue so truly great and godlike as justice.”

Joseph Addison

No. 99.
The Guardian (1713)

Justice

“Were you with these, my prince, you'd soon forget
The pale, unripened beauties of the north.”

Joseph Addison book Cato

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

Beauty , Forgetting

“Plenty of people wish to become devout, but no one wishes to be humble.”

Joseph Addison

A translation of one of La Rochefoucauld's maxims, published posthumously in 1693. In the original: "Force gens veulent être dévots, mais personne ne veut être humble.".
Misattributed

People

“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

François Fénelon, in Selections from the Writings of Fenelon: With an appendix, containing a Memoir of his Life (1829) as translated by A Lady (Eliza Lee Cabot Follen) http://books.google.com/books?id=qJ4rAAAAYAAJ, Letter 37, p. 189.
Misattributed

Perfection

“Loveliest of women! heaven is in thy soul,
Beauty and virtue shine forever round thee,
Bright'ning each other! thou art all divine!”

Joseph Addison book Cato

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

Women , Beauty , Art , Soul