The only way therefore to try a Piece of Wit, is to translate it into a different Language: If it bears the Test you may pronounceit true; but if it vanishes in the Experiment you may conclude it to have been a Punn.
JOSEPH ADDISONMan is subject to innumerable pains and sorrows by the very condition of humanity, and yet, as if nature had not sown evils enough in life, we are continually adding grief to grief and aggravating the common calamity by our cruel treatment of one another.
More Joseph Addison Quotes
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True happiness arises, in the first place, from the enjoyment of one’s self, and in the next, from the friendship and conversation of a few select companions.
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There is something very sublime, though very fanciful, in Plato’s description of the Supreme Being,–that truth is His body and light His shadow.
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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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It is not the business of virtue to extirpate the affections of the mind, but to regulate them.
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Jealousy is that pain which a man feels from the apprehension that he is not equally beloved by the person whom he entirely loves.
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Pedantry in learning is like hypocrisy inn religion–a form of knowledge without the power of it.
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All well-regulated families set apart an hour every morning for tea and bread and butter
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I 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.
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The hours of a wise man are lengthened by his ideas.
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Wit is the fetching of congruity out of incongruity.
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Were I to prescribe a rule for drinking, it should be formed upon a saying quoted by Sir William Temple: the first glass for myself, the second for my friends, the third for good humor, and the fourth for mine enemies.
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The great difference is, that the first knows how to pick and cull his thoughts for conversation, by suppressing some, and communicating others; whereas the other lets them all indifferently fly out in words.
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There is not a more unhappy being than a superannuated idol.
JOSEPH ADDISON -
It is only imperfection that complains of what is imperfect. The more perfect we are the more gentle and quiet we become towards the defects of others.
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Nature does nothing without purpose or uselessly.
JOSEPH ADDISON