Quotes from Joseph Addison

Tradition is an important help to history, but its statements should be carefully scrutinized before we rely on them.

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

Nothing that isn't a real crime makes a man appear so contemptible and little in the eyes of the world as inconsistency.

Some virtues are only seen in affliction and others only in prosperity.

It is ridiculous for any man to criticize the works of another if he has not distinguished himself by his own performances

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

The post of honour is a private station.

A beautiful eye makes silence eloquent, a kind eye makes contradiction an assent, an enraged eye makes beauty deformed. This little member gives life to every other part about us; and I believe the story of Argus implies no more than that the eye is in every part; that is to say, every other part would be mutilated were not its force represented more by the eye than even by itself.

True benevolence, or compassion, extends itself through the whole of existence and sympathizes with the distress of every creature capable of sensation.

Hypocrisy itself does great honor, or rather justice, to religion, and tacitly acknowledges it to be an ornament to human nature. The hypocrite would not be at so much pains to put on the appearance of virtue, if he did not know it was the most proper and effectual means to gain the love and esteem of mankind.

Charity is a virtue of the heart, and not of the hands.

Cheerfulness keeps up a kind of daylight in the mind, filling it with a steady and perpetual serenity

No oppression is so heavy or lasting as that which is inflicted by the perversion and exorbitance of legal authority.

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.

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

Their is no defense against criticism except obscurity.

If men would consider not so much wherein they differ, as wherein they agree, there would be far less of uncharitableness and angry feeling.

Devotion, when it does not lie under the check of reason, is apt to degenerate into enthusiasm.

Modesty in woman is a virtue most deserving, since we do all we can to cure her of it.

Nothing is more amiable than true modesty, and nothing more contemptible than the false.

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

A just and reasonable modesty does not only recommend eloquence, but sets off every great talent which a man can be possessed of.

Marriage enlarges the scene of our happiness and of our miseries. A marriage of love is pleasant, of interest, easy, and where both meet, happy. A happy marriage has in it all the pleasures of friendship, all the enjoyments of sense and reason, and,

The union of the Word and Mind produces that mystery which is called life...Learn deeply of the Mind and its mystery, for their-in lies the secret of mortality.