Quotes from Joseph Addison
Our real blessings often appear to us in the shape of pains, losses and disappointments; but let us have patience and we soon shall see them in their proper figures.
- Joseph Addison
Ridicule is generally made use of to laugh men out of virtue and good sense, by attacking everything praiseworthy in human life.
- Joseph Addison
Self discipline is that which, next to virtue, truly and essentially raises one man above another.
- Joseph Addison
The friendships of the world are oft confederacies in vice, or leagues of pleasures.
- Joseph Addison
The grand essentials to happiness in this life are something to do, something to love and something to hope for.
- Joseph Addison
There is nothing that makes its way more directly to the soul than beauty.
- Joseph Addison
True happiness... arises, in the first place, from the enjoyment of one's self.
- Joseph Addison
What pity is it that we can die but once to serve our country
- Joseph Addison
What sunshine is to flowers, smiles are to humanity. These are but trifles, to be sure but scattered along life's pathway, the good they do is inconceivable.
- Joseph Addison
What an absurd thing it is to pass over all the valuable parts of a man, and fix our attention on his infirmities.
- Joseph Addison
Mirth is like a flash of lightning that breaks through a gloom of clouds and glitters for a moment.
- Joseph Addison
Reading is to the mind, what exercise is to the body. As by the one, health is preserved, strengthened, and invigorated: by the other, virtue (which is the health of the mind) is kept alive, cherished, and confirmed.
- Joseph Addison