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The very first discovery of beauty strikes the mind with an inward joy, and spreads a cheerfulness and delight through all its faculties.
Joseph Addison
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In love to our wives there is desire, to our sons there is ambition; but in that to our daughters there is something which there are no words to express.
Joseph Addison
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I would fain ask one of these bigotted Infidels, supposing all the great Points of Atheism … were laid together and formed into a kind of Creed, according to the Opinions of the most celebrated Atheists; I say, supposing such a Creed as this were formed, and imposed upon any one People in the World, whether it would not require an infinitely greater Measure of Faith, than any Set of Articles which they so violently oppose.
Joseph Addison
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The schoolboy counts the time till the return of the holidays; the minor longs to be of age; the lover is impatient till he is married.
Joseph Addison
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Vanity is the natural weakness of an ambitious man, which exposes him to the secret scorn and derision of those he converses with, and ruins the character he is so industrious to advance by it.
Joseph Addison
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A noble metaphor, when it is placed to an advantage, casts a kind of glory around it, and darts a luster through a whole sentence.
Joseph Addison
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Though we seem grieved at the shortness of life in general, we are wishing every period of it at an end. The minor longs to be at age, then to be a man of business, then to make up an estate, then to arrive at honors, then to retire.
Joseph Addison
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There is no passion which steals into the heart more imperceptibly, and covers itself under more disguises, than pride.
Joseph Addison
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A contemplation of God's works, a generous concern for the good of mankind, and the unfeigned exercise of humility only, denominate men great and glorious.
Joseph Addison
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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.
Joseph Addison
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The first of all virtues is innocence; the next is modesty. If we banish modesty out of the world, she carries away with her half the virtue that is in it.
Joseph Addison
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Good-nature is more agreeable in conversation than wit, and gives a certain air to the countenance which is more amiable than beauty. It shows virtue in the fairest light; takes off in some measure from the deformity of vice; and makes even folly and impertinence supportable.
Joseph Addison
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Through all Eternity to Thee
A joyful Song I'll raise,
For oh! Eternity's too short
To utter all thy Praise.
Joseph Addison
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There are many more shining qualities in the mind of man, but there is none so useful as discretion; it is this, indeed, which gives a value to all the rest, which sets them at work in their proper times and places, and turns them to the advantage of the person who is possessed of them. Without it, learning is pedantry, and wit impertinence ; virtue itself looks like weakness; the best parts only qualify a man to be more sprightly in errors, and active to his own prejudice.
Joseph Addison
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These widows, sir, are the most perverse creatures in the world.
Joseph Addison
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It is very wonderful to see persons of the best sense passing hours together in shuffling and dividing a pack of cards with no conversation but what is made up of a few game-phrases, and no other ideas but those of black or red spots arranged together in different figures. Would not a man laugh to hear any one of his species complaining that life is short?
Joseph Addison
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Contentment produces, in some measure, all those effects which the alchemist usually ascribes to what he calls the philosopher's stone; and if it does not bring riches, it does the same thing by banishing the desire for them.
Joseph Addison
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Love, anger, pride and avarice all visibly move in those little orbs.
Joseph Addison
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The soul, considered with its Creator, is like one of those mathematical lines that may draw nearer to another for all eternity without a possibility of touching it; and can there be a thought so transporting as to consider ourselves in these perpetual approaches to Him, who is not only the standard of perfection, but of happiness?
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I consider a human soul without education like marble in the quarry, which shows none of its inherent beauties until the skill of the polisher fetches out the colors and makes the surface shine.
Joseph Addison
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Fables take off from the severity of instruction, and enforce it at the same time that they conceal it.
Joseph Addison
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Cunning has only private selfish aims, and sticks at nothing which may make them succeed. Discretion has large and extended views, and, like a well-formed eye, commands a whole horizon; cunning is a kind of short-sightedness, that discovers the minutest objects which are near at hand, but is not able to discern things at a distance.
Joseph Addison
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Guard thy heart on this weak side, where most our nature fails.
Joseph Addison
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As vivacity is the gift of women, gravity is that of men.
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He who would pass his declining years with honor and comfort, should, when young, consider that he may one day become old, and remember when he is old, that he has once been young.
Joseph Addison
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Quote of the day
Be a sinner and sin strongly, but more strongly have faith and rejoice in Christ.
Martin Luther
Joseph Addison
Creative Commons
Born:
May 1, 1672
Died:
June 17, 1719
(aged 47)
Bio:
Joseph Addison was an English essayist, poet, playwright, and politician. He was the eldest son of The Reverend Lancelot Addison.
Known for:
Cato, a Tragedy
The Spectator
Essays of Joseph Addison
The works of Joseph Addison
Cato, a tragedy in five acts
Most used words:
man
life
mind
nature
virtue
soul
love
sense
kind
mankind
time
day
heart
consider
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