If we hope for what we are not likely to possess, we act and think in vain, and make life a greater dream and shadow than it really is.
JOSEPH ADDISONNothing that isn’t a real crime makes a man appear so contemptible and little in the eyes of the world as inconsistency.
More Joseph Addison Quotes
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There is no virtue so truly great and godlike as justice.
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There are infinite reveries, numberless extravagances, and a perpetual train of vanities which pass through both.
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No oppression is so heavy or lasting as that which is inflicted by the perversion and exorbitance of legal authority.
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How is it possible for those who are men of honor in their persons, thus to become notorious liars in their party
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There are many more shining qualities in the mind of man, but there is none so useful as discretion.
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A wealthy doctor who can help a poor man, and will not without a fee, has less sense of humanity than a poor ruffian, who kills a rich man to supply his necessities.
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If you wish to succeed in life, make perseverance your bosom friend, experience your wise counselor, caution your elder brother, and hope your guardian genius.
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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.
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Honor’s a fine imaginary notion, that draws in raw and unexperienced men to real mischiefs.
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There is not a more pleasing exercise of the mind than gratitude. It is accompanied with such an inward satisfaction that the duty is sufficiently rewarded by the performance
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This not in mortals to command success, but we’ll do more, Sempronius, we’ll deserve it.
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There is nothing more requisite in business than despatch.
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Wit is the fetching of congruity out of incongruity.
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If you wish success in life, make perseverance your bosom friend.
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The transition from cause to effect, from event to event, is often carried on by secret steps, which our foresight cannot divine, and our sagacity is unable to trace.
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The greatest sweetener of human life is friendship.
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It is ridiculous for any man to criticize on the works of another, who has not distinguished himself by his own performances.
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Nature is full of wonders; every atom is a standing miracle, and endowed with such qualities, as could not be impressed on it by a power and wisdom less than infinite.
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They were a people so primitive they did not know how to get money, except by working for it.
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Antidotes are what you take to prevent dotes.
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Misery and ignorance are always the cause of great evils. Misery is easily excited to anger, and ignorance soon yields to perfidious counsels.
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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.
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We are growing serious, and, let me tell you, that’s the very next step to being dull.
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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.
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Temperance gives nature her full play, and enables her to exert herself in all her force and vigor.
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He who would pass his declining years with honor and comfort, should, when young, consider that he may one day become old, and remember when he is old, that he has once been young.
JOSEPH ADDISON