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.
JOSEPH ADDISONTo 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.
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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The friendships of the world are oft confederacies in vice, or leagues of pleasures.
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The greatest sweetener of human life is Friendship. To raise this to the highest pitch of enjoyment, is a secret which but few discover.
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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.
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A person may be qualified to do greater good to mankind and become more beneficial to the world, by morality without faith than by faith without morality.
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Love is a second life; it grows into the soul, warms every vein, and beats in every pulse.
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A contented mind is the greatest blessing a man can enjoy in this world.
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I value my garden more for being full of blackbirds than of cherries, and very frankly give them fruit for their songs.
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There are infinite reveries, numberless extravagances, and a perpetual train of vanities which pass through both.
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Three grand essentials to happiness in this life are something to do, something to love, and something to hope for.
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Nothing that isn’t a real crime makes a man appear so contemptible and little in the eyes of the world as inconsistency.
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What sunshine is to flowers, smiles are to humanity. These are but trifles, to be sure; but scattered along life’s pathway, the good they do is inconceivable.
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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.
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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.
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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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Nothing is more gratifying to the mind of man than power or dominion.
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A man who has any relish for fine writing either discovers new beauties or receives stronger impressions from the masterly strokes of a great author every time he peruses him; besides that he naturally wears himself into the same manner of speaking and thinking.
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There is nothing which strengthens faith more than the observance of morality.
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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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That aids and strengthens virtue where it meets her And imitates her actions where she is not: It is not to be sported with.
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Content thyself to be obscurely good.
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What sculpture is to a block of marble, education is to the human soul.
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There is not any present moment that is unconnected with some future one. The life of every man is a continued chain of incidents, each link of which hangs upon the former.
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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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Among all kinds of Writing, there is none in which Authors are more apt to miscarry than in Works of Humour, as there is none in which they are more ambitious to excel.
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Rides in the whirlwind and directs the storm.
JOSEPH ADDISON