Joseph Addison: Virtue

Joseph Addison was politician, writer and playwright. Explore interesting quotes on virtue.
Joseph Addison: 452   quotes 40   likes

“Thy father's merit sets thee up to view,
And shows thee in the fairest point of light,
To make thy virtues, or thy faults, conspicuous.”

Joseph Addison book Cato

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

Light

“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.”

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 , Peace , Soul , Courage

“Education…is a companion which no misfortunes can depress, no clime destroy, no enemy alienate, no despotism enslave: at home a friend, abroad an introduction, in solitude a solace, in society an ornament: it chastens vice, it guides virtue, it gives at once a grace and government to genius. Without it, what is man? A splendid slave, a reasoning savage.”

Joseph Addison

Though sometimes attributed to Addison, this actually comes from a speech delivered by the Irish lawyer Charles Phillips in 1817, in the case of O'Mullan v. M'Korkill, published in Irish Eloquence: The Speeches of the Celebrated Irish Orators (1834) pp. 91-92.
Misattributed

Education , Home , Solitude

“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

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

Joseph Addison

No. 99.
The Guardian (1713)

Justice

“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

“The friendships of the world are oft
Confederacies in vice, or leagues of pleasure;
Ours has severest virtue for its basis,
And such a friendship ends not but with life.”

Joseph Addison book Cato

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

Life , Friendship , Pleasure , World

“If there's a power above us,
(And that there is all nature cries aloud
Through all her works) he must delight in virtue.”

Joseph Addison book Cato

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

Nature

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

Joseph Addison

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

“Gifts and alms are the expressions, not the essence, of this virtue.”

Joseph Addison

No. 166.
The Guardian (1713)

“When love once pleas admission to our hearts,
(In spite of all the virtue we can boast),
The woman that deliberates is lost.”

Joseph Addison book Cato

Cato, A Tragedy (1713)
Variant: "When love once pleads admission to our hearts..."

Act IV, scene i. The last line has often been misreported as "He who hesitates is lost", a sentiment inspired by it but not penned by Addison. See Paul F. Boller, Jr., and John George, They Never Said It: A Book of Fake Quotes, Misquotes, & Misleading Attributions (1989), p. 3.

Love , Heart

“Charity is a virtue of the heart, and not of the hands.”

Joseph Addison

No. 166.
The Guardian (1713)

Heart

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

Joseph Addison

No. 111.
The Guardian (1713)

Knowledge

“Curse on his virtues! they've undone his country.”

Joseph Addison book Cato

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

Country

“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.”

Joseph Addison

No. 243 (8 December 1711).
The Spectator (1711–1714)

Men , Stupidity

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

Joseph Addison

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

Affliction

“There are many more shining qualities in the mind of man, but there is none so useful as discretion; it is this, indeed, which gives a value to all the rest, which sets them at work in their proper times and places, and turns them to the advantage of the person who is possessed of them. Without it, learning is pedantry, and wit impertinence; virtue itself looks like weakness; the best parts only qualify a man to be more sprightly in errors, and active to his own prejudice.”

Joseph Addison

No. 225
The Tatler (1711–1714)

Time , Personality , Learning , Error

“Reading is to the mind, what exercise is to the body. As by the one, health is preserved, strengthened, and invigorated: by the other, virtue (which is the health of the mind) is kept alive, cherished, and confirmed.”

Joseph Addison

No. 147
The Tatler (1711–1714)

Reading , Health , Exercises

“How beautiful is death, when earn'd by virtue!
Who would not be that youth? What pity is it
That we can die but once to serve our country!”

Joseph Addison book Cato

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

Beauty , Death , Youth , Country