Joseph Addison Quotes

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.

There is no virtue so truly great and godlike as justice.

Misery and ignorance are always the cause of great evils. Misery is easily excited to anger, and ignorance soon yields to perfidious counsels.

According to this definition there is nothing so contradictory to his nature as error and falsehood.

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.

Their is no defense against criticism except obscurity.

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.

Evil may at some future period bring forth good; and good may bring forth evil, both equally unexpected.

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.

There is noting truly valuable which can be purchased without pains and labor. The gods have set a price upon every real and noble pleasure.