Our disputants put me in mind of the cuttlefish that, when he is unable to extricate himself, blackens the water about him till he becomes invisible.
JOSEPH ADDISONA man’s first care should be to avoid the reproaches of his own heart.
More Joseph Addison Quotes
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Man 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.
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 -
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 ADDISON -
Admiration is a very short lived passion that immediately decays upon growing familiar with its object, unless it still be fed with fresh discoveries, and kept alive by a new perpetual succession of miracles rising up to its view.
JOSEPH ADDISON -
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 -
All well-regulated families set apart an hour every morning for tea and bread and butter
JOSEPH ADDISON -
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.
JOSEPH ADDISON -
Courage is the thing. All goes if courage goes.
JOSEPH ADDISON -
The utmost extent of man’s knowledge, is to know that he knows nothing.
JOSEPH ADDISON -
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 -
There is no virtue so truly great and godlike as justice.
JOSEPH ADDISON -
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.
JOSEPH ADDISON -
Misery and ignorance are always the cause of great evils. Misery is easily excited to anger, and ignorance soon yields to perfidious counsels.
JOSEPH ADDISON -
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 ADDISON -
Man is distinguished from all other creatures by the faculty of laughter.
JOSEPH ADDISON






