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Joseph Addison -
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110 Sourced Quotes
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Courage that grows from constitution very often forsakes a man when he has occasion for it, and when it is only a kind of instinct in the Soul breaks out on all occasions without judgment or discretion. That courage which proceeds from the sense of our duty, and from the fear of offending Him that made us, acts always in a uniform manner, and according to the dictates of right reason.
Joseph Addison
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The utmost we can hope for in this world is contentment; if we aim at anything higher, we shall meet with nothing but grief and disappointment. A man should direct all his studies and endeavors at making himself easy now and happy hereafter.
Joseph Addison
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Were a man's sorrows and disquietudes summed up at the end of his life, it would generally be found that he had suffered more from the apprehension of such evils as never happened to him than from those evils which had really befallen him.
Joseph Addison
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A man's reputation draws eyes upon him that will narrowly inspect every part of him.
Joseph Addison
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There is not a more melancholy object than a man who has his head turned with religious enthusiasm.
Joseph Addison
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Plutarch says very finely that a man should not allow himself to hate even his enemies.
Joseph Addison
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When a man has been guilty of any vice or folly, I think the best atonement he can make for it is to warn others not to fall into the like.
Joseph Addison
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To a man of pleasure every moment appears to be lost, which partakes not of the vivacity of amusement.
Joseph Addison
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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.
Joseph Addison
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It is odd to consider the connection between despotism and barbarity, and how the making one person more than man makes the rest less.
Joseph Addison
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If gratitude, when exerted towards another, naturally produces a very pleasing sensation in the mind of a grateful man, it exalts the soul into rapture when it is employed on this great object of gratitude to the beneficent Being who has given us everything we already possess, and from whom we expect everything we yet hope for.
Joseph Addison
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A man with great talents, but void of discretion, is like Polyphemus in the fable, strong and blind, endued with an irresistible force, which for want of sight is of no use to him.
Joseph Addison
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I would have every zealous man examine his heart thoroughly, and I believe he will often find that what he calls a zeal for his religion is either pride, interest, or ill-repute.
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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To be perfectly just is an attribute in the divine nature; to be so to the utmost of our abilities, is the glory of man.
Joseph Addison
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Others proclaim the infirmities of a great man with satisfaction and complacence, if they discover none of the like in themselves.
Joseph Addison
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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.
Joseph Addison
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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.
Joseph Addison
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Upon the whole, a contented mind is the greatest blessing a man can enjoy in this world.
Joseph Addison
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Nothing is more gratifying to the mind of man than power or dominion.
Joseph Addison
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Is there not some chosen curse,
Some hidden thunder in the stores of heaven,
Red with uncommon wrath, to blast the man
Who owes his greatness to his country's ruin?
Joseph Addison
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Why will any man be so impertinently officious as to tell me all this is only fancy? If it is a dream, let me enjoy it.
Joseph Addison
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A contented mind is the greatest blessing a man can enjoy in this world; and if in the present life his happiness arises from the subduing of his desires, it will arise in the nest from the gratification of them.
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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It is ridiculous for any man to criticise on the works of another who has not distinguished himself by his own performances.
Joseph Addison
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Quote of the day
Every hand and every hour should be devoted to rescue the world from its insanity of guilt, and to assuage the pangs of human hearts with balm and anodyne. To pity distress is but human; to relieve it is Godlike.
Horace Mann
Joseph Addison
Creative Commons
Born:
May 1, 1672
Died:
June 17, 1719
(aged 47)
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