Top 400 Joseph Addison Quotes (2026 Update)
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51. “What an absurd thing it is to pass over all the valuable parts of a man, and fix our attention on his infirmities.”

— Joseph Addison

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

— Joseph Addison

53. “A contented mind is the greatest blessing a man can enjoy in this world.”

— Joseph Addison

54. “Quick sensitivity is inseperable from a ready understanding.”

— Joseph Addison

55. “A vast space naturally raises in my thoughts the idea of an Almighty Being.”

— Joseph Addison

56. “There is nothing which strengthens faith more than the observance of morality.”

— Joseph Addison

57. “Troops of heroes undistinguished die.”

— Joseph Addison

58. “Thus I live in the world rather as a Spectator of mankind, than as one of the species, by which means I have made myself a speculative statesman, soldier, merchant, and artisan, without ever meddling with any practical part of life.”

— Joseph Addison

59. “I consider an human soul without education like marble in the quarry, which shows 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

60. “A contented mind is the greatest blessing a man can enjoy in this world; and if in the present life his happiness arises from the subduing of his desires, it will arise in the next from the gratification of them.”

— Joseph Addison

61. “I have always preferred cheerfulness to mirth. The latter I consider as an act, the former as a habit of mind. Mirth is short and transient, cheerfulness fixed and permanent.”

— Joseph Addison

62. “I have often thought, says Sir Roger, it happens very well that Christmas should fall out in the middle of Winter.”

— Joseph Addison

63. “A friend exaggerates a man’s virtues; an enemy inflames his crimes.”

— Joseph Addison

64. “Good nature will always supply the absence of beauty; but beauty cannot supply the absence of good nature.”

— Joseph Addison

65. “What I spent I lost; what I possessed is left to others; what I gave away remains with me.”

— Joseph Addison

66. “Good-breeding shows itself most where to an ordinary eye it appears the least.”

— Joseph Addison

67. “An honest man, that is not quite sober, has nothing to fear.”

— Joseph Addison

68. “When a man becomes familiar with his goddess, she quickly sinks into a woman.”

— Joseph Addison

69. “A perfect tragedy is the noblest production of human nature.”

— Joseph Addison

70. “Silence is sometimes more significant and sublime than the most noble and most expressive eloquence, and is on many occasions the indication of a great mind.”

— Joseph Addison

71. “Nature in her whole drama never drew such a part; she has sometimes made a fool, but a coxcomb is always of a man’s own making...”

— Joseph Addison

72. “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

73. “In private conversation between intimate friends, the wisest men very often talk like the weakest : for indeed the talking with a friend is nothing else but thinking aloud.”

— Joseph Addison

74. “Thus I live in the world rather as a spectator of mankind than as one of the species.”

— Joseph Addison

75. “The sense of honour is of so fine and delicate a nature, that it is only to be met with in minds which are naturally noble, or in such as have been cultivated by good examples, or a refined education.”

— Joseph Addison

76. “Marriage enlarges the scene of our happiness and miseries. A marriage of love is pleasant; a marriage of interest, easy; and a marriage where both meet, happy. A happy marriage has in it all the pleasures of friendship, all the enjoyments of sense and reason, and, indeed, all the sweets of life.”

— Joseph Addison

77. “I value my garden more for being full of blackbirds than of cherries, and very frankly give them fruit for their songs.”

— Joseph Addison

78. “As vivacity is the gift of woman, gravity is that of men.”

— Joseph Addison

79. “Waning moons their settled periods keep, to swell the billows and ferment the deep.”

— Joseph Addison

80. “The woman that deliberates is lost.”

— Joseph Addison

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

— Joseph Addison

82. “Content thyself to be obscurely good. When vice prevails, and impious men bear sway, the post of honoris a private station.”

— Joseph Addison

83. “Music religious heat inspires, It wakes the soul, and lifts it high, And wings it with sublime desires, And fits it to bespeak the Deity.”

— Joseph Addison

84. “Round-heads and Wooden-shoes are standing jokes.”

— Joseph Addison

85. “Charity is the perfection and ornament of religion.”

— Joseph Addison

86. “Sweet are the slumbers of the virtuous man.”

— Joseph Addison

87. “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

88. “My voice is still for war. Gods! can a Roman senate long debate Which of the two to choose, slavery or death?”

— Joseph Addison

89. “The most skillful flattery is to let a person talk on, and be a listener.”

— Joseph Addison

90. “A man that has a taste of music, painting, or architecture, is like one that has another sense, when compared with such as have no relish of those arts.”

— Joseph Addison

91. “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

92. “Music can noble hints impart, Engender fury, kindle love, With unsuspected eloquence can move, And manage all the man with secret art.”

— Joseph Addison

93. “Soon as the evening shades prevail, The moon takes up the wondrous tale, And nightly to the listening earth Repeats the story of her birth.”

— Joseph Addison

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94. “Nothing is more amiable than true modesty, and nothing more contemptible than the false. The one guards virtue, the other betrays it.”

— Joseph Addison

95. “From hence, let fierce contending nations know, what dire effects from civil discord flow.”

— Joseph Addison

96. “True benevolence or compassion, extends itself through the whole of existence and sympathizes with the distress of every creature capable of sensation.”

— Joseph Addison

97. “There is no society or conversation to be kept up in the world without good-nature, or something which must bear its appearance and supply its place. For this reason mankind have been forced to invent a kind of artificial humanity, which is what we express by the word Good-Breeding.”

— Joseph Addison

98. “The pride of woman, natural to her, never sleeps until modesty is gone.”

— Joseph Addison

99. “How beautiful is death, when earn’d by virtue!”

— Joseph Addison

100. “A cheerful temper, joined with innocence will make beauty attractive, knowledge delightful, and wit good-natured.”

— Joseph Addison