Joseph Addison: Greatness

“Great souls by instinct to each other turn,
Demand alliance, and in friendship burn”

Joseph Addison The Campaign

Source: The Campaign (1704), Line 101.
Context: Great souls by instinct to each other turn,
Demand alliance, and in friendship burn;
A sudden friendship, while with stretched-out rays
They meet each other, mingling blaze with blaze.
Polished in courts, and hardened in the field,
Renowned for conquest, and in council skilled,
Their courage dwells not in a troubled flood
Of mounting spirits, and fermenting blood:
Lodged in the soul, with virtue overruled,
Inflamed by reason, and by reason cooled,
In hours of peace content to be unknown.
And only in the field of battle shown:
To souls like these, in mutual friendship joined,
Heaven dares intrust the cause of humankind.

Friendship , Soul

“Books are the legacies that a great genius leaves to mankind”

Joseph Addison

No. 166 (10 September 1711).
The Spectator (1711–1714)
Context: Books are the legacies that a great genius leaves to mankind, which are delivered down from generation to generation, as presents to the posterity of those who are yet unborn.

Books

“Though a man has all other perfections, and wants discretion, he will be of no great consequence in the world”

Joseph Addison

No. 225.
The Tatler (1711–1714)
Context: Though a man has all other perfections, and wants discretion, he will be of no great consequence in the world; but if he has this single talent in perfection, and but a common share of others, he may do what he pleases in his station of life.

World , Perfection

“The spacious firmament on high,
With all the blue ethereal sky,
And spangled heavens, a shining frame,
Their great Original proclaim.”

Joseph Addison

No. 465, Ode (23 August 1712).
Also in The Polite Arts (1749), Chap. XXI. "Of Lyrick Poetry."
The Spectator (1711–1714)

“Unbounded courage and compassion join'd,
Tempering each other in the victor's mind,
Alternately proclaim him good and great,
And make the hero and the man complete.”

Joseph Addison The Campaign

Source: The Campaign (1704), Line 219.

Courage

“The great art in writing advertisements is the finding out a proper method to catch the reader's eye; without which a good thing may pass over unobserved, or be lost among commissions of bankrupt.”

Joseph Addison

No. 224.
The Tatler (1711–1714)

Art

“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

“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)

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

Joseph Addison

No. 99.
The Guardian (1713)

Justice

“Great Pompey's shade complains that we are slow,
And Scipio's ghost walks unavenged amongst us!”

Joseph Addison book Cato

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

“The circumstance which gives authors an advantage above all these great masters, is this, that they can multiply their originals; or rather, can make copies of their works, to what number they please, which shall be as valuable as the originals themselves.”

Joseph Addison

No. 166 (10 September 1711).
The Spectator (1711–1714)

“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)

Fate

“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)

Hunger , Hope , Time

“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)

“Advertisements are of great use to the vulgar. First of all, as they are instruments of ambition. A man that is by no means big enough for the Gazette, may easily creep into the advertisements; by which means we often see an apothecary in the same paper of news with a plenipotentiary, or a running footman with an ambassador.”

Joseph Addison

No. 224.
The Tatler (1711–1714)

“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?”

Joseph Addison book Cato

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

Country

“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)

Silence

“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).
Often misquoted as "To be an atheist requires an infinitely greater measure of faith than to receive all the great truths which atheism would deny."
The Spectator (1711–1714)

People , World , Faith