Joseph Addison

Bekannte Zitate von Joseph Addison

Books are the legacies that a great genius leaves to mankind, which are delivered down from generation to generation as presents to the posterity of those who are yet unborn.

What sculpture is to a block of marble, education is to the soul.

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 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.

Three grand essentials to happiness in this life are something to do, something to love, and something to hope for.

Everything that is new or uncommon raises a pleasure in the imagination, because it fills the soul with an agreeable surprise, gratifies its curiosity, and gives it an idea of which it was not before possessed.

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.

Courage that grows from constitution often forsakes a man when he has occasion for it courage which arises from a sense of duty acts in a uniform manner.

A just and reasonable modesty does not only recommend eloquence, but sets off every great talent which a man can be possessed of.

It is folly for an eminent man to think of escaping censure, and a weakness to be affected with it. All the illustrious persons of antiquity, and indeed of every age in the world, have passed through this fiery persecution.

Cheerfulness is the best promoter of health and is as friendly to the mind as to the body.

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.

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.

To be an atheist requires an indefinitely greater measure of faith than to recieve all the great truths which atheism would deny.

There is nothing more requisite in business than despatch.

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.

The greatest sweetener of human life is Friendship. To raise this to the highest pitch of enjoyment, is a secret which but few discover.

The fear of death often proves mortal, and sets people on methods to save their Lives, which infallibly destroy them.

The utmost extent of man's knowledge, is to know that he knows nothing.

Man is subject to innumerable pains and sorrows by the very condition of humanity, and yet, as if nature had not sown evils enough in life, we are continually adding grief to grief and aggravating the common calamity by our cruel treatment of one another.

Young men soon give, and soon forget, affronts old age is slow in both.

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.

A cloudy day or a little sunshine have as great an influence on many constitutions as the most recent blessings or misfortunes.