We are growing serious, and let me tell you, that's the next step to being dull.
~ Joseph Addison - [Seriousness]

Our disputants put me in mind of the cuttlefish that, when he is unable to extricate himself, blackens the water about him till he becomes invisible.
~ Joseph Addison - [Slander]

To be exempt from the passions with which others are tormented, is the only pleasing solitude.
~ Joseph Addison - [Solitude]

There is not a more unhappy being than a superannuated idol.
~ Joseph Addison - [Stardom]

Our delight in any particular study, art, or science rises and improves in proportion to the application which we bestow upon it. Thus, what was at first an exercise becomes at length an entertainment.
~ Joseph Addison - [Studying]

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.
~ Joseph Addison - [Suspicion]

Eternity! thou pleasing, dreadful thought.
~ Joseph Addison - [Time and Time Management]

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 - [Treason]

Some virtues are only seen in affliction and others only in prosperity.
~ Joseph Addison - [Virtue]

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.
~ Joseph Addison - [Patience]

What pity is it That we can die, but once to serve our country.
~ Joseph Addison - [Patriotism]

It is only imperfection that complains of what is imperfect. The more perfect we are the more gentle and quiet we become towards the defects of others.
~ Joseph Addison - [Perfection]

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 - [Pleasure]

''We are always doing,'' says he, ''something for posterity, but I would see posterity do something for us.''
~ Joseph Addison - [Posterity]

Prejudice and self-sufficiency naturally proceed from inexperience of the world, and ignorance of mankind.
~ Joseph Addison - [Prejudice]

Pride goes before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall.
~ Joseph Addison - [Pride]

It is the privilege of posterity to set matters right between those antagonists who, by their rivalry for greatness, divided a whole age.
~ Joseph Addison - [Rivalry]

The disease of jealously is so malignant that is converts all it takes into its own nourishment.
~ Joseph Addison - [Jealousy]

Knowledge is that which, next to virtue, truly raises one person above another.
~ Joseph Addison - [Knowledge]

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.
~ Joseph Addison - [Laughter]