A contented mind is the greatest blessing a man can enjoy in this world; and if in the present life his happiness arises from the subduing of his desires, it will arise in the next from the gratification of them.
JOSEPH ADDISONMisery and ignorance are always the cause of great evils. Misery is easily excited to anger, and ignorance soon yields to perfidious counsels.
More Joseph Addison Quotes
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One of the most important but one of the most difficult things for a powerful mind is to be its own master.
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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.
JOSEPH ADDISON -
Words, when well chosen, have so great a force in them, that a description often gives us more lively ideas than the sight of things themselves.
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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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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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When I read the epitaphs of the beautiful, every inordinate desire goes out; when I meet with the grief of parents upon a tombstone, my heart melts with compassion; when I see the tomb of the parents themselves,
JOSEPH ADDISON -
What an absurd thing it is to pass over all the valuable parts of a man, and fix our attention on his infirmities.
JOSEPH ADDISON -
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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There is nothing that makes its way more directly into the soul than beauty.
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Whether this happens because they stay so long and attend their work so diligently that they forget the faces and persons, which they first sat down with, or whatever it is, they seldom rise from the toilet the same woman they appeared when they began to dress
JOSEPH ADDISON -
There is not a more unhappy being than a superannuated idol.
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Evil may at some future period bring forth good; and good may bring forth evil, both equally unexpected.
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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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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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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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Wit is the fetching of congruity out of incongruity.
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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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A man must be both stupid and uncharitable who believes there is no virtue or truth but on his own side.
JOSEPH ADDISON -
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.
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 -
When a woman comes to her class, she does not employ her time in making herself look more advantageously what she really is, but endeavours to be as much another creature as she possibly can.
JOSEPH ADDISON -
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 ADDISON -
There is no virtue so truly great and godlike as justice.
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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 -
When all thy mercies, O my God, My rising soul surveys, Transported with the view I’m lost, in wonder, love and praise.
JOSEPH ADDISON -
I never knew an early-rising, hard-working, prudent man, careful of his earnings and strictly honest, who complained of hard luck.
JOSEPH ADDISON