Joseph Addison Literature Quotations

A man should always consider how much he has more than he wants.

Suspicion is not less an enemy to virtue than to happiness; he that is already corrupt is naturally suspicious, and he that becomes suspicious will quickly be corrupt.

Modesty is not only an ornament, but also a guard to virtue.

There is nothing which we receive with so much reluctance as advice.

A true critic ought to dwell upon excellencies rather than imperfections, to discover the concealed beauties of a writer, and communicate to the world such things as are worth their observation.

The chief ingredients in the composition of those qualities that gain esteem and praise, are good nature, truth, good sense, and good breeding.

The most violent appetites in all creatures are lust and hunger; the first is a perpetual call upon them to propagate their kind, the latter to preserve themselves.

Mutability of temper and inconsistency with ourselves is the greatest weakness of human nature.

To be perfectly just is an attribute of the divine nature; to be so to the utmost of our abilities, is the glory of man.

The unassuming youth seeking instruction with humility gains good fortune.

We are always doing something for posterity, but I would fain see posterity do something for us.

The post of honour is a private station.

There is not a more unhappy being than a superannuated idol.

I have somewhere met with the epitaph on a charitable man which has pleased me very much. I cannot recollect the words, but here is the sense of it: 'What I spent I lost; what I possessed is left to others; what I gave away remains with me.'

There is not so variable a thing in nature as a lady's head-dress.

The utmost extent of man's knowledge, is to know that he knows nothing.

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.

Those Marriages generally abound most with Love and Constancy, that are preceded by a long Courtship.

Jesters do often prove prophets.