Quotes by Joseph Addison

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Reading is to me what exercise is to the body.

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Books are the legacy that a great genius leaves to mankind and are handed down from generation to generation as a gift to posterity yet to be born.

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It is easier for the calculated and indifferent cunning to convince a woman that he loves her and to be successful than the passionate lover with his fiery expression of feelings.

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The belief that you are loved lessens the pain of separation.

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A coward is a man who in moments of danger thinks with his feet.

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It is hard to imagine what would happen to a man who would live in a state populated only by literary heroes.

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He who has a fine nose for all kinds of allusions and attacks, perceives the most innocent words as deception and incitement - while the sky-crying vices and wanderings of all kinds interest him only in books.

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The titles and fame of the forefathers give luster to the name borne with dignity, but they make even more contemptible a shameful name.

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The meaning of true friendship is that it doubles the joy, and doubles the suffering.

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Words, if carefully chosen, have such power that something written on paper often makes a stronger impression than something seen with one's own eyes.

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Modesty is not only an ornament, but also a guardian of virtue.

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The most irremediable vices are those that delight us.

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The most important and most difficult thing for a strong spirit is to hold back: the lake sits quietly in a valley, but it needs mountains to hold it in place.

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The most unbridled passions of all living beings are sensuality and hunger; the first arises from the constant tendency to give birth to offspring, and the second, from self-preservation.

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The last "forgive me" loses some of its bitterness, if the echo of love is still felt in it.

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The wise man is happy only when he personally receives praise; but the fool is also satisfied with the applause given to those next to him.

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The quarrelers remind me of the fish that, caught on the fishing rod, foams the water around until it is not noticed.

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I try to enliven morality with ingenuity and temper ingenuity with morality.

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I do not consider that a man is wasting his time if he does not occupy himself with the affairs of the state. On the contrary, I support the opinion that time is spent more usefully if we occupy ourselves with something that does not make noise, that does not attract attention.

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I have always preferred joy, gaiety. Cheerfulness is a way of behaving, while joy is a state of mind. Joy is short-lived, joy is permanent and constant.

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Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body.

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The reader will read a book with more pleasure if he knows who the author is: black or white, choleric or sanguine, married or bachelor.

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The man who is gifted with the gift of irony has a habit of attaching himself to anything that gives him the opportunity to demonstrate his talent.

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Man is distinguished from all other creatures by the ability to laugh.

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Man must always think of how much wealth he has in addition to what he needs, and how unhappy he may be in the future.

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Man is the most joyful creature of all God's creations; everything below it or above it inclines to seriousness.

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Although I am always serious, I do not know melancholy...

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A beautiful book is a gift bequeathed by the author to all humanity.

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Nothing, short of murder, makes a man so contemptible and vile in the eyes of the world as inconsistency.

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People take nothing with more disgust than advice.

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There is no being in the world more agitated than an out-of-fashion idol.

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No wonder that a great amount of knowledge, not being able to make a man clever, often makes him conceited and impudent.

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There is no defense to defamation other than anonymity.

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In nature there is no phenomenon more diverse and changeable than women's head coverings.

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A cleverly written pamphlet is like an arrow which not only makes a wound, but makes it unhealable.

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The peacock in all its splendor does not expose to everyone's view as many colors as can be counted in the festive outfits of English women.

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The first glass - for oneself, the second - for friends, the third - for a good mood, the fourth - for enemies.

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One can judge the ignorance or nobility of a nation by its cemeteries, tombstones, and epitaphs.

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It sometimes occurs to you that it is better to be a slave on a galley than a spiritual ins, especially if that spirit is the fruit of the inventions of our men of letters, men as educated as they are ungifted.

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The lyrics of an opera are usually as bad as their music is beautiful.

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Most people can manage with the help of exercise and moderation, and without medicine.

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Spouses' separate money is as unnatural as separate beds.

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Time seems to me like an unfathomable ocean that swallows up many remarkable writers, injuring some and turning others into dust.

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There is no more pleasant training for the mind than gratitude: the expression of gratitude is accompanied by such inward satisfaction that the duty is fully compensated by its performance.

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We are all endowed by nature with the ability to make puns, only in simple people these buds of ingenuity are controlled by logic and common sense, and in talented people they actually blossom.

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Health and happiness feed off each other.

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Why should I be told that my happiness is nothing but an illusion? Even if it's an illusion, let me enjoy it.

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Women who were happy in their first marriage accept the second one more easily.

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The woman is too sincere and too principled to obey the voice of reason...

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A woman rarely asks for advice before buying her wedding dress.

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I love my garden not because a cherry tree grows there, but because the blackbirds come there; they sing and I feed them cherries.

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If much scientific knowledge has not succeeded in making man smarter, then it naturally makes him conceited and arrogant.

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If we are to believe our philosophers, man is distinguished from other living beings by the ability to laugh.

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Pride comes from too little judgment and ignorance of self.

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There is always something to be said to justify both sides.

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We all do something for posterity; I'd like to see what the descendants do for us.

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As we mature, we become more and more serious, and this, I may say, is the first step towards becoming more stupid.

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There is nothing in the world more illusory than what we call "zeal."

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In face-to-face conversations between close friends, the wisest people very often make the weakest judgments, because talking to a friend is like thinking out loud.

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Marriage is characterized above all by the fact that, with it, the worship of idols ceases. When the man takes a closer look at his goddess, she becomes a mere woman again.

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The disease of the jealous is so severe that it turns everything into food for it.

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Where there is no fidelity, there is no love, no friendship, no virtue.

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Defamation and ridicule - this is the constant demand of the public.

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Knowledge is that thing that fundamentally elevates one above others.

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Of all the representatives of the human species the weakest poets are most indulged in the envy of defamation.

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Men who treat women with great respect rarely enjoy great success.

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We renounce sins and vices, leaving it to the Most High to decide what both mean.

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We, the English, are characterized by a special shyness in everything that concerns religion.

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The least noisy and most discreet friendship is the most useful. That is why I have always preferred a restrained friend to an overzealous one.

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The true critic must dwell more on the qualities than on the defects...

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"I only have ninepence cash, but I have a thousand pounds in my bank account" - that's the difference between the art of conversation and the science of expressing yourself in writing on paper.

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Our great clubs are based on food and drink, which is what brings most people together.

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An indiscreet man is often more dangerous than an evil one, because the latter attacks only his enemies, while the former harms both his enemies and his friends.

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Silence is sometimes more meaningful and nobler than the most elegant and expressive eloquence, and in many cases it is the proof of an elevated mind.

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Godly men refrain from reprehensible deeds out of fear; honest people, out of contempt for such deeds.

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If the dead could read the laudatory inscriptions on their graves, they would die a second time - of shame.

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True happiness likes solitude; it is the enemy of the clamor of luxury, and is born above all from self-love.

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It is not difficult to be cheerful when you are in the service of vice.

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The real humorist knows how to keep a serious face when everyone around them is laughing; and the fake one, on the contrary, is ridiculous - and those around keep their seriousness.

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Books are a treasure, a testament of human intelligence, meant to be passed down from generation to generation, for the benefit of those who will be born in the future.

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When the soul dreams, it is also stage and actor and audience.

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When a king comes to the throne, it is time to give laws against the iniquities of power.

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When I see these tables covered with so many dishes, it seems to me that gout, dropsy, colds and many other diseases are hidden behind each of them, as if in an attack.

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True blessing often comes in the form of pain, loss, and disappointment; but if we manage to wait, it will soon show itself in its actual form.

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Joy is like a flash of lightning that breaks through the dark cover of the clouds for a brilliant moment; cheerfulness steals sunlight into the soul and fills it with constant, never-ending peace.

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What sunshine is to flowers, smiles are to people. True, it is a trifle; but the value of the smiles scattered along the path of our lives is priceless.

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There is no other pure angelic love than that of a father for his daughter. We love our wives with longing, our sons with ambition, but there are no words for what we feel for our daughters.