English essayist, poet & playwright (1672-1719)
True modesty avoids everything that is criminal; false modesty everything that is unfashionable.
JOSEPH ADDISON
The Spectator, August 15, 1712
Blessings may appear under the shape of pains, losses and disappointments; but let him have patience, and he will see them in their proper figures.
JOSEPH ADDISON
The Guardian, Jul. 25, 1713
If we hope for what we are not likely to possess, we act and think in vain, and make life a greater dream and shadow than it really is.
JOSEPH ADDISON
The Spectator, Nov. 13, 1712
Eternity! thou pleasing dreadful thought! Through what variety of untried being, through what new scenes and changes must we pass!
JOSEPH ADDISON
Cato
One of the best springs of generous and worthy actions, is having generous and worthy thoughts of ourselves: whoever has a mean opinion of the dignity of his nature will act in no higher a rank than he has allotted himself in his own estimation.
JOSEPH ADDISON
The Spectator, October 31, 1711
The ill are damped with pain and anguish at the sight of all that is laudable, lovely, or happy.
JOSEPH ADDISON & RICHARD STEELE
History, Opinions, and Lucubrations, of Isaac Bickerstaff, Esq
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.
JOSEPH ADDISON
The Spectator, Jul. 17, 1711
After having treated of these false Zealots in Religion, I cannot forbear mentioning ... the Zealots in Atheism. One would fancy that these Men, tho' they fall short, in every other Respect, of those who make a Profession of Religion, would at least outshine them in this Particular, and be exempt from that single Fault which seems to grow out of the impudent Fervours of Religion: But so it is, that Infidelity is propagated with as much Fierceness and Contention, Wrath and Indignation, as if the Safety of Mankind depended upon it.
JOSEPH ADDISON
The Spectator, Oct. 2, 1711
Disease generally brings that equality which death completes.
JOSEPH ADDISON
The Saturday Magazine, November 11, 1837