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.
JOSEPH ADDISONI 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.
More Joseph Addison Quotes
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Certain is it that there is no kind of affection so purely angelic as of a father to a daughter. In love to our wives there is desire; to our sons, ambition, but to our daughters there is something which there are no words to express.
JOSEPH ADDISON -
Charity is a virtue of the heart, and not of the hands.
JOSEPH ADDISON -
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 -
Love, anger, pride and avarice all visibly move in those little orbs.
JOSEPH ADDISON -
Animals, in their generation, are wiser than the sons of men; but their wisdom is confined to a few particulars, and lies in a very narrow compass.
JOSEPH ADDISON -
The utmost extent of man’s knowledge, is to know that he knows nothing.
JOSEPH ADDISON -
Wit is the fetching of congruity out of incongruity.
JOSEPH ADDISON -
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 -
No oppression is so heavy or lasting as that which is inflicted by the perversion and exorbitance of legal authority.
JOSEPH ADDISON -
If men of eminence are exposed to censure on one hand, they are as much liable to flattery on the other. If they receive reproaches which are not due to them, they likewise receive praises which they do not deserve.
JOSEPH ADDISON -
Hung it on each side with curious organs of sense, given it airs and graces that cannot be described, and surrounded it with such a flowing shade of hair as sets all its beauties in the most agreeable light.
JOSEPH ADDISON -
We are growing serious, and, let me tell you, that’s the very next step to being dull.
JOSEPH ADDISON -
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 -
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 -
A day, an hour, of virtuous liberty Is worth a whole eternity in bondage.
JOSEPH ADDISON