Joseph Addison - Cato, a Tragedy

36 Sourced Quotes

View all Joseph Addison Quotes
How beautiful is death, when earn'd by virtue!
Who would not be that youth? What pity is it
That we can die but once to serve our country!

Joseph Addison
Great Pompey's shade complains that we are slow,
And Scipio's ghost walks unavenged amongst us!

Joseph Addison
Why wilt thou add to all the griefs I suffer
Imaginary ills, and fancy'd tortures?

Joseph Addison
Content thyself to be obscurely good.
When vice prevails, and impious men bear sway,
The post of honor is a private station.

Joseph Addison
In doing what we ought we deserve no praise,
Because it is our duty.

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

Joseph Addison
'Tis not in mortals to command success,
But we'll do more, Sempronius; we'll deserve it.

Joseph Addison
The dawn is overcast, the morning lowers,
And heavily in clouds brings on the day,
The great, the important day,
Big with the fate Of Cato, and of Rome.

Joseph Addison
The ideal man bears the accidents of life
With dignity and grace, the best of circumstances.

Joseph Addison
Thy steady temper, Portius,
Can look on guilt, rebellion, fraud, and Caesar,
In the calm lights of mild philosophy.

Joseph Addison
When love once pleas admission to our hearts,
(In spite of all the virtue we can boast),
The woman that deliberates is lost.

Joseph Addison
I will indulge my sorrows, and give way
To all the pangs and fury of despair.

Joseph Addison
The honors of this world, what are they
But puff, and emptiness, and peril of falling?

Joseph Addison
A day, an hour, of virtuous liberty
Is worth a whole eternity in bondage.

Joseph Addison
Were you with these, my prince, you'd soon forget
The pale, unripened beauties of the north.

Joseph Addison
The stars shall fade away, the sun himself
Grow dim with age, and nature sink in years,
But thou shalt flourish in immortal youth,
Unhurt amidst the wars of elements,
The wrecks of matter, and the crush of worlds.

Joseph Addison
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
Loveliest of women! heaven is in thy soul,
Beauty and virtue shine forever round thee,
Bright'ning each other! thou art all divine!

Joseph Addison
My voice is still for war.
Gods! Can a Roman senate long debate
Which of the two to choose, slavery or death?
No, let us rise at once,
Gird on our swords, and,
At the head of our remaining troops, attack the foe,
Break through the thick array of his throng'd legions,
And charge home upon him.
Perhaps some arm, more lucky than the rest,
May reach his heart, and free the world from bondage.

Joseph Addison
'Tis pride, rank pride, and haughtiness of soul:
I think the Romans call it Stoicism.

Joseph Addison
If there's a power above us,
(And that there is all nature cries aloud
Through all her works) he must delight in virtue.

Joseph Addison
If the following day he chance to find
A new repast, or an untasted spring,
Blesses his stars, and thinks it luxury.

Joseph Addison
What means this heaviness that hangs upon me?
This lethargy that creeps through all my senses?
Nature, oppress'd and harrass'd out with care,
Sinks down to rest.

Joseph Addison
Eternity! thou pleasing dreadful thought!
Through what variety of untried being,
Through what new scenes and changes must we pass!

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

Joseph Addison
Oh! think what anxious moments pass between
The birth of plots, and their last fatal periods,
Oh! 'tis a dreadful interval of time,
Filled up with horror all, and big with death!

Joseph Addison
See they suffer death,
But in their deaths remember they are men,
Strain not the laws to make their tortures grievous.

Joseph Addison
To my confusion, and eternal grief,
I must approve the sentence that destroys me.

Joseph Addison
I'm weary of conjectures,—this must end 'em.
Thus am I doubly armed: my death and life,
My bane and antidote, are both before me:
This in a moment brings me to an end;
But this informs me I shall never die.
The soul, secured in her existence, smiles
At the drawn dagger, and defies its point.
The stars shall fade away, the sun himself
Grow dim with age, and Nature sink in years;
But thou shalt flourish in immortal youth,
Unhurt amidst the war of elements,
The wrecks of matter, and the crush of worlds.

Joseph Addison