Joseph Addison: Man

Joseph Addison was politician, writer and playwright. Explore interesting quotes on man.

Joseph Addison: 452 quotes40 likes

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

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

“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.”

No. 225.
The Tatler (1711–1714)

“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)

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

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

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

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

“Courage that grows from constitution very often forsakes a man when he has occasion for it, and when it is only a kind of instinct in the Soul breaks out on all occasions without judgment or discretion. That courage which proceeds from the sense of our duty, and from the fear of offending Him that made us, acts always in a uniform manner, and according to the dictates of right reason.”

No. 117.
The Guardian (1713)

“Men may change their climate, but they cannot change their nature. A man that goes out a fool cannot ride or sail himself into common sense.”

No. 93.
The Tatler (1711–1714)

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

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

“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."”

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

“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.”

No. 255 (22 December 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.”

No. 224.
The Tatler (1711–1714)

“If we may believe our logicians, man is distinguished from all other creatures by the faculty of laughter.”

No. 494 (26 September 1712).
The Spectator (1711–1714)

“It must be so — Plato, thou reasonest well!
Else whence this pleasing hope, this fond desire,
This longing after immortality?
Or whence this secret dread, and inward horror,
O falling into nought? Why shrinks the soul
Back on herself, and startles at destruction?
'Tis the divinity that stirs within us;
'Tis heaven itself, that points out an hereafter,
And intimates eternity to man.”

Joseph Addison book Cato

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

“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)

“Knowledge is, indeed, that which, next to virtue, truly and essentially raises one man above another.”

No. 111.
The Guardian (1713)

“A man must be excessively stupid, as well as uncharitable, who believes that there is no virtue but on his own side, and that there are not men as honest as himself who may differ from him in political principles.”

No. 243 (8 December 1711).
The Spectator (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.”

No. 99.
The Guardian (1713)

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

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

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

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

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

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