Joseph Addison

“The chief ingredients in the composition of those qualities that gain esteem and praise, are good nature, truth, good sense, and good breeding.”

“With regard to donations always expect the most from prudent people, who keep their own accounts.”

“Justice is an unassailable fortress, built on the brow of a mountain which cannot be overthrown by the violence of torrents, nor demolished by the force of armies.”

“Modesty is not only an ornament, but also a guard to virtue.”

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

“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.”

“There is nothing which we receive with so much reluctance as advice.”

“There is nothing that makes its way more directly into the soul than beauty.”

“The unjustifiable severity of a parent is loaded with this aggravation, that those whom he injures are always in his sight.”

“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.”

“The ways of heaven are dark and intricate;Puzzled in mazes, and perplext with errors.”

“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.”

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

“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.”

“Mutability of temper and inconsistency with ourselves is the greatest weakness of human nature.”

“That he delights in the misery of others no man will confess, and yet what other motive can make a father cruel?”

“When men are easy in their circumstances, they are naturally enemies to innovations.”

“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.”

“Mirth is like a flash of lightning, that breaks through a gloom of clouds, and glitters for a moment; cheerfulness keeps up a kind of daylight in the mind, and fills it with a steady and perpetual serenity.”

“Reading is a basic tool in the living of a good life.”