Quotes from Joseph Addison

Love is a second life.

When a man is made up wholly of the dove, without the least grain of the serpent in his composition, he becomes ridiculous in many circumstances of life, and very often discredits his best actions.

There is a sort of economy in Providence that one shall excel where another is defective, in order to make men more useful to each other, and mix them in society.

Of all the diversions of life, there is none so proper to fill up its empty spaces as the reading of useful and entertaining authors.

The unjustifiable severity of a parent is loaded with this aggravation, that those whom he injures are always in his sight.

Faith is kept alive in us, and gathers strength, more from practice than from speculations.

If you wish to succeed in life, make perseverance your bosom friend, experience your wise counselor, caution your elder brother, and hope your guardian genius.

If you wish success in life, make perseverance your bosom friend.

To a man of pleasure every moment appears to be lost, which partakes not of the vivacity of amusement.

This not in mortals to command success, but we'll do more, Sempronius, we'll deserve it.

My death and life, My bane and antidote, are both before me.

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.

Reason shows itself in all occurrences of life; whereas the brute makes no discovery of such a talent, but in what immediately regards his own preservation or the continuance of his species.

The union of the Word and the Mind produces that mystery which is called Life... Learn deeply of the Mind and its mystery, for therein lies the secret of immortality.

Heaven is not to be looked upon only as the reward, but the natural effect, of a religious life.

A brother's sufferings claim a brother's pity.

The end of a man's life is often compared to the winding up of a well written play, where the principal persons still act in character, whatever the fate in which they undergo.

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

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

Plenty of people wish to become devout, but no one wishes to be humble.

There is not a more pleasing exercise of the mind than gratitude. It is accompanied with such an inward satisfaction that the duty is sufficiently rewarded by the performance

Every man in the time of courtship and in the first entrance of marriage, puts on a behavior like my correspondent's holiday suit.

Life is not long enough for a coquette to play all her tricks in.

Half the misery of human life might be extinguished if men would alleviate the general curse they lie under by mutual offices of compassion, benevolence, and humanity.