Quotes from Joseph Addison

Physic is, for the most part, only a substitute for temperance and exercise.

Better to die ten thousand deaths, Than wound my honour.

Honor's a fine imaginary notion, that draws in raw and unexperienced men to real mischiefs.

The man who lives by hope, will die by hunger.

Dependence is a perpetual call upon humanity, and a greater incitement to tenderness and pity than any other motive whatever.

Their is no defense against criticism except obscurity.

Health and cheerfulness naturally beget each other.

With regard to donations always expect the most from prudent people, who keep their own accounts.

Whether zeal or moderation be the point we aim at, let us keep fire out of the one, and frost out of the other.

We make provisions for this life as if it were never to have an end, and for the other life as though it were never to have a beginning.

I will indulge my sorrows, and give way to all the pangs and fury of despair.

Whether dark presages of the night proceed from any latent power of the soul during her abstraction, or from any operation of subordinate spirits, has been a dispute.

Yet then from all my grief, O Lord, Thy mercy set me free, Whilst in the confidence of pray'r My soul took hold on thee.

Artificial intelligence will never be a match for natural stupidity.

It is folly for an eminent man to think of escaping censure, and a weakness to be affected with it. All the illustrious persons of antiquity, and indeed of every age in the world, have passed through this fiery persecution.

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

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

To say that authority, whether secular or religious, supplies no ground for morality is not to deny the obvious fact that it supplies a sanction.

Pedantry in learning is like hypocrisy inn religion--a form of knowledge without the power of it.

Religion prescribes to every miserable man the means of bettering his condition; nay, it shows him that the bearing of his afflictions as he ought to do, will naturally end in the removal of them.

A cheerful temper, joined with innocence will make beauty attractive, knowledge delightful, and wit good-natured.

Our sight is the most perfect and most delightful of all our senses.

T is liberty crowns Britannia's Isle, And makes her barren rocks and her bleak mountains smile.

In all thy humours, whether grave or mellow, Thou'rt such a touchy, testy, pleasant fellow, Hast so much wit and mirth and spleen about thee, There is no living with thee, nor without thee.