Quotes from Joseph Addison

Here will I hold. If there's a power above us, (And that there is all nature cries aloud Thro' all her works), He must delight in virtue; And that which he delights in must be happy.

I was highly pleased to see the discipline of the pack, and the good-nature of the Knight, who could not find in his heart to murder a creature that had given him so much diversion.

Cato Lose not a thought on me, I'm out of danger. Heaven will not leave me in the victor's hand. Caesar shall never say, I conquered Cato. But, oh! my friends, your safety fills my heart With anxious thoughts: a thousand secret terrors 115 Rise in my soul: how shall I save my friends! 'Tis now, O Caesar, I begin to fear thee.

When vice prevails, and impious men bear sway, The post of honour is a private station.15

I'm sick to death—Oh when shall I get loose From this vain world, the abode of guilt and sorrow! —And yet methinks a beam of light breaks in On my departing soul. Alas! I fear 95 I've been too hasty. O ye powers that search The heart of man, and weigh his inmost thoughts, If I have done amiss, impute it not!— The best may err, but you are good, and—oh!  [Dies.]

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

A man must be excessively stupid, as well as uncharitable, who believes that there is no virtue but on his own side, and that there are not men as honest as himself who may differ from him in political principles.

Knowledge is, indeed, that which, next to virtue, truly and essentially raises one man above another.

While there is hope, do not distrust the gods;

Better to die ten thousand deaths than wound my honor.

The great number of the Jews furnishes us with a sufficient cloud of witnesses that attest the truth of the Bible.

When love's well-timed 'tis not a fault to love; The strong, the brave, the virtuous, and the wise, Sink in the soft captivity together.