Quotes from book
Cato

Cato
Joseph Addison Original title Caton, tragédie par M. Addison ; traduite de l'anglois par Mr Abel Boyer (French, 1713)
Joseph Addison photo

“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)

Joseph Addison photo

“Nature does nothing without purpose or uselessly.”

Joseph Addison book Cato

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

Joseph Addison photo

“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)

Joseph Addison photo

“Talk not of love: thou never knew'st its force.”

Joseph Addison book Cato

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

Joseph Addison photo

“Tis pride, rank pride, and haughtiness of soul:
I think the Romans call it Stoicism.”

Joseph Addison book Cato

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

Joseph Addison photo

“Oh! think what anxious moments pass between
The birth of plots, and their last fatal periods,
Oh! 'tis a dreadful interval of time,
Filled up with horror all, and big with death!”

Joseph Addison book Cato

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

Joseph Addison photo

“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)

Joseph Addison photo

“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)

Joseph Addison photo

“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)

Joseph Addison photo

“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)

Joseph Addison photo

“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)

Joseph Addison photo

“Beauty soon grows familiar to the lover,
Fades in his eye, and palls upon the sense.”

Joseph Addison book Cato

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

Joseph Addison photo

“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)

Joseph Addison photo

“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.

Joseph Addison photo

“If the following day he chance to find
A new repast, or an untasted spring,
Blesses his stars, and thinks it luxury.”

Joseph Addison book Cato

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

Joseph Addison photo

“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)

Joseph Addison photo

“Content thyself to be obscurely good.
When vice prevails, and impious men bear sway,
The post of honor is a private station.”

Joseph Addison book Cato

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

Joseph Addison photo

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

Joseph Addison book Cato

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

Joseph Addison photo

“Why wilt thou add to all the griefs I suffer
Imaginary ills, and fancy'd tortures?”

Joseph Addison book Cato

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

Joseph Addison photo

“I'm weary of conjectures,—this must end 'em.
Thus am I doubly armed: my death and life,
My bane and antidote, are both before me:
This in a moment brings me to an end;
But this informs me I shall never die.
The soul, secured in her existence, smiles
At the drawn dagger, and defies its point.
The stars shall fade away, the sun himself
Grow dim with age, and Nature sink in years;
But thou shalt flourish in immortal youth,
Unhurt amidst the war of elements,
The wrecks of matter, and the crush of worlds.”

Joseph Addison book Cato

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