Joseph Addison

A man's first care should be to avoid the reproaches of his own heart; his next to escape the censures of the world

Much might be said on both sides.

The most violent appetites in all creatures are lust and hunger: the first is a perpetual call upon them to propogate their kind; the latter to preserve themselves.

Animals in their generation are wiser than the sons of men; but their wisdom is confined to a few particulars, and lies in a very narrow compass.

When I consider the Question, Whether there are such Persons in the World as those we call Witches? my Mind is divided between the two opposite Opinions; or rather (to speak my Thoughts freely) I believe in general that there is, and has …

Exercise ferments the humors, casts them into their proper channels, throws off redundancies, and helps nature in those secret distributions, without which the body cannot subsist in its vigor, nor the soul act with cheerfulness.

Sunday clears away the rust of the whole week.

If men of eminence are exposed to censure on one hand, they are as much liable to flattery on the other. If they receive reproaches which are not due to them, they likewise receive praises which they do not deserve.

All the illustrious persons of antiquity, and indeed of every age in the world, have passed through this fiery persecution. There is no defense against reproach but obscurity

There is not so variable a thing in Nature as a lady's head-dress.

Of all the diversions of life, there is none so proper to fill up its empty spaces as the reading of useful and entertaining authors.

A man that has a taste of music, painting, or architecture, is like one that has another sense, when compared with such as have no relish of those arts.

There is not a more unhappy being than a superannuated idol.

In all thy humours, whether grave or mellow, Thou 'rt such a touchy, testy, pleasant fellow, Hast so much wit and mirth and spleen about thee, There is no living with thee, nor without thee.

It is indeed very possible, that the Persons we laugh at may in the main of their Characters be much wiser Men than our selves; but if they would have us laugh at them, they must fall short of us in those Respects which stir up this …

The Fear of Death often proves Mortal, and sets People on Methods to save their Lives, which infallibly destroy them.

That nothing is capable of being well set to Musick, that is not Nonsense.

True happiness is of a retired nature, and an enemy to pomp and noise; it arises, in the first place, from the enjoyment of one's self, and in the next, from the friendship and conversation of a few select companions.

I shall endeavor to enliven morality with wit, and to temper wit with morality.

I would... earnestly advise them for their good to order this paper to be punctually served up, and to be looked upon as a part of the tea equipage.

To be exempt from the passions with which others are tormented, is the only pleasing solitude.

Thus I live in the world rather as a spectator of mankind than as one of the species.

If I can any way contribute to the diversion or improvement of the country in which I live, I shall leave it, when I am summoned out of it, with the secret satisfaction of thinking that I have not lived in vain.

Gifts and alms are the expressions, not the essence, of this virtue.