The important question is not, what will yield to man a few scattered pleasures, but what will render his life happy on the whole amount.
— Joseph Addison
Among all kinds of Writing, there is none in which Authors are more apt to miscarry than in Works of Humour, as there is none in which they are more ambitious to excel.
If you wish to succeed in life, make perseverance your bosom friend, experience your wise counselor, caution your elder brother, and hope your guardian genius.
Friendships, in general, are suddenly contracted; and therefore it is no wonder they are easily dissolved.
Those Marriages generally abound most with Love and Constancy, that are preceded by a long Courtship.
Talking with a friend is nothing else but thinking aloud.
Their is no defense against criticism except obscurity.
The post of honour is a private station.
Jesters do often prove prophets.
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!
The unjustifiable severity of a parent is loaded with this aggravation, that those whom he injures are always in his sight.
Men may change their climate, but they cannot change their nature. A man that goes out a fool cannot ride or sail himself into common sense.
Mutability of temper and inconsistency with ourselves is the greatest weakness of human nature.
True happiness 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.
The fear of death often proves mortal, and sets people on methods to save their Lives, which infallibly destroy them.
Mere bashfulness without merit is awkwardness.
To a man of pleasure every moment appears to be lost, which partakes not of the vivacity of amusement.
A true critic ought to dwell upon excellencies rather than imperfections, to discover the concealed beauties of a writer, and communicate to the world such things as are worth their observation.
The Mind that lies fallow but a single Day, sprouts up in Follies that are only to be killed by a constant and assiduous Culture.
Mysterious love, uncertain treasure, hast thou more of pain or pleasure! Endless torments dwell about thee: Yet who would live, and live without thee!
We are always doing something for posterity, but I would fain see posterity do something for us.
One should take good care not to grow too wise for so great a pleasure of life as laughter.
Better to die ten thousand deaths than wound my honor.
With regard to donations always expect the most from prudent people, who keep their own accounts.
The chief ingredients in the composition of those qualities that gain esteem and praise, are good nature, truth, good sense, and good breeding.
A woman seldom asks advice before she has bought her wedding clothes.
What pity is it That we can die, but once to serve our country.
An ostentatious man will rather relate a blunder or an absurdity he has committed, than be debarred from talking of his own dear person.
Nothing is capable of being well set to music that is not nonsense.
Modesty is not only an ornament, but also a guard to virtue.
I have somewhere met with the epitaph on a charitable man which has pleased me very much. I cannot recollect the words, but here is the sense of it: 'What I spent I lost; what I possessed is left to others; what I gave away remains with me.'
That he delights in the misery of others no man will confess, and yet what other motive can make a father cruel?
I will indulge my sorrows, and give way to all the pangs and fury of despair.
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.
Suspicion is not less an enemy to virtue than to happiness; he that is already corrupt is naturally suspicious, and he that becomes suspicious will quickly be corrupt.
If we may believe our logicians, man is distinguished from all other creatures by the faculty of laughter. He has a heart capable of mirth, and naturally disposed to it.
The woman that deliberates is lost.
There is not a more unhappy being than a superannuated idol.
There is nothing that makes its way more directly into the soul than beauty.
Some virtues are only seen in affliction and others only in prosperity.
Sunday clears away the rust of the whole week.
Plenty of people wish to become devout, but no one wishes to be humble.
A cloudy day or a little sunshine have as great an influence on many constitutions as the most recent blessings or misfortunes.
Our real blessings often appear to us in the shape of pains, losses and disappointments; but let us have patience and we soon shall see them in their proper figures.
Irregularity and want of method are only supportable in men of great learning or genius, who are often too full to be exact, and therefore they choose to throw down their pearls in heaps before the reader, rather than be at the pains of stringing them.
Young men soon give, and soon forget, affronts; old age is slow in both.
If we hope for what we are not likely to possess, we act and think in vain, and make life a greater dream and shadow than it really is.
There is not so variable a thing in nature as a lady's head-dress.
A contented mind is the greatest blessing a man can enjoy in this world.
The most violent appetites in all creatures are lust and hunger; the first is a perpetual call upon them to propagate their kind, the latter to preserve themselves.
