Top 400 Joseph Addison Quotes (2024 Update)
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251. “Some virtues are only seen in affliction and others only in prosperity.”

— Joseph Addison

252. “In the loss of an object we do not proportion our grief to the real value it bears, but to the value our fancies set upon it.”

— Joseph Addison

253. “A woman seldom asks advice before she has bought her wedding clothes.”

— Joseph Addison

254. “Title and ancestry render a good man more illustrious, but an ill one more contemptible.”

— Joseph Addison

255. “Every man in the time of courtship and in the first entrance of marriage, puts on a behavior like my correspondent’s holiday suit.”

— Joseph Addison

256. “Nations with nations mix’d confus’dly die, and lost in one promiscuous carnage lie.”

— Joseph Addison

257. “The peacock in all his pride does not display half the colors that appear in the garments of a British lady when she is dressed.”

— Joseph Addison

258. “Instability of temper ought to be checked when it disposes men to wander from one scheme to another: since such a fickleness cannot but be attended with fatal consequences.”

— Joseph Addison

259. “The English delight in Silence more than any other European Nation, if the Remarks which are made on us by Foreigners are true.”

— Joseph Addison

260. “My heart leaps at the trumpet’s voice.”

— Joseph Addison

261. “A money-lender – he serves you in the present tense; he lends you in the conditional mood; keeps you in the conjunctive; and ruins you in the future.”

— Joseph Addison

262. “Plutarch says very finely that a man should not allow himself to hate even his enemies.”

— Joseph Addison

263. “Nothing makes men sharper than want.”

— Joseph Addison

264. “It is usual for a Man who loves Country Sports to preserve the Game in his own Grounds, and divert himself upon those that belongto his Neighbour.”

— Joseph Addison

265. “The greatest parts, without discretion as observed by an elegant writer, may be fatal to their owner; as Polyphemus, deprived of his eyes, was only the more exposed on account of his enormous strength and stature.”

— Joseph Addison

266. “Jesters do often prove prophets.”

— Joseph Addison

267. “Novelty serves us for a kind of refreshment, and takes off from that satiety we are apt to complain of in our usual and ordinary entertainments.”

— Joseph Addison

268. “Content thyself to be obscurely good.”

— Joseph Addison

269. “He only is a great man who can neglect the applause of the multitude and enjoy himself independent of its favor.”

— Joseph Addison

270. “Riches expose a man to pride and luxury, and a foolish elation of heart.”

— Joseph Addison

271. “Though we seem grieved at the shortness of life in general, we are wishing every period of it at an end. The minor longs to be at age, then to be a man of business, then to make up an estate, then to arrive at honors, then to retire.”

— Joseph Addison

272. “One would fancy that the zealots in atheism would be exempt from the single fault which seems to grow out of the imprudent fervor of religion. But so it is, that irreligion is propagated with as much fierceness and contention, wrath and indignation, as if the safety of mankind depended upon it.”

— Joseph Addison

273. “When I read the rules of criticism, I immediately inquire after the works of the author who has written them, and by that means discover what it is he likes in a composition.”

— Joseph Addison

274. “In rising sighs and falling tears.”

— Joseph Addison

275. “Every passion gives a particular cast to the countenance, and is apt to discover itself in some feature or other. I have seen an eye curse for half an hour together, and an eyebrow call a man a scoundrel.”

— Joseph Addison

276. “Whether zeal or moderation be the point we aim at, let us keep the fire out of the one, and the frost out of the other.”

— Joseph Addison

277. “Religion contracts the circle of our pleasures, but leaves it wide enough for her votaries to expatiate in.”

— Joseph Addison

278. “I believe that everyone, some time or other, dreams that he is reading papers, books, or letters; in which case the invention prompts so readily that the mind is imposed upon, and mistakes its own suggestions for the composition of another.”

— Joseph Addison

279. “Others proclaim the infirmities of a great man with satisfaction and complacence, if they discover none of the like in themselves.”

— Joseph Addison

280. “The Obedience of Children to their Parents is the Basis of all Government, and set forth as the measure of that Obedience which weowe to those whom Providence hath placed over us.”

— Joseph Addison

281. “Simonides, a poet famous in his generation, is, I think, author of the oldest satire that is now extant, and, as some say, of the first that was ever written.”

— Joseph Addison

282. “E’en the rough rocks with tender myrtle bloom, and trodden weeds send out a rich perfume.”

— Joseph Addison

283. “A man with great talents, but void of discretion, is like Polyphemus in the fable, strong and blind, endued with an irresistible force, which for want of sight is of no use to him.”

— Joseph Addison

284. “Women were formed to temper Mankind, and sooth them into Tenderness and Compassion; not to set an Edge upon their Minds, and blowup in them those Passions which are too apt to rise of their own Accord.”

— Joseph Addison

285. “We find that Good and Evil happen alike to all Men on this Side of the Grave; and as the principle Design of Tragedy is to raise Commiseration and Terror in the Minds of the Audience, we shall defeat this great End, if we always make Virtue and Innocence happy and successful.”

— Joseph Addison

286. “Is it not wonderful, that the love of the parent should be so violent while it lasts and that it should last no longer than is necessary for the preservation of the young?”

— Joseph Addison

287. “Riches are apt to betray a man into arrogance.”

— Joseph Addison

288. “Even the greatest actions of a celebrated person labor under this disadvantage, that however surprising and extraordinary they may be, they are no more than what are expected from him.”

— Joseph Addison

289. “It is the duty of all who make philosophy the entertainment of their lives, to turn their thoughts to practical schemes for the good of society, and not pass away their time in fruitless searches, which tend rather to the ostentation of knowledge than the service of life.”

— Joseph Addison

290. “The great number of the Jews furnishes us with a sufficient cloud of witnesses that attest the truth of the Bible.”

— Joseph Addison

291. “From social intercourse are derived some of the highest enjoyments of life; where there is a free interchange of sentiments the mind acquires new ideas, and by frequent exercise of its powers, the understanding gains fresh vigor.”

— Joseph Addison

292. “Must one rash word, the infirmity of age, throw down the merit of my better years?”

— Joseph Addison

293. “It must be a prospect pleasing to God Himself to see His creation forever beautifying in His eyes, and drawing nearer Him by greater degrees of resemblance.”

— Joseph Addison

294. “Men naturally warm and heady are transported with the greatest flush of good-nature.”

— Joseph Addison

295. “Among the writers of antiquity there are none who instruct us more openly in the manners of their respective times in which they lived than those who have employed themselves in satire, under whatever dress it may appear.”

— Joseph Addison

296. “A solid and substantial greatness of soul looks down with neglect on the censures and applauses of the multitude.”

— Joseph Addison

297. “There is nothing in which men more deceive themselves than in what they call zeal.”

— Joseph Addison

298. “The chief ingredients in the composition of those qualities that gain esteem and praise, are good nature, truth, good sense, and good breeding.”

— Joseph Addison

299. “To this end, nothing is to be more carefully consulted than plainness. In a lady’s attire this is the single excellence; for to be what some people call fine, is the same vice, in that case, as to be florid is in writing or speaking.”

— Joseph Addison

300. “A few persons of an odious and despised country could not have filled the world with believers, had they not shown undoubted credentials from the divine person who sent them on such a message.”

— Joseph Addison