Joseph Addison

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

“What sunshine is to flowers, smiles are to humanity. These are but trifles, to be sure; but scattered along life's pathway, the good they do is inconceivable.”

“A woman seldom asks advice before she has bought her wedding clothes.”

“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.”

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

“We all of us complain of the shortness of time, saith Seneca, and yet have much more than we know what to do with. Our lives, says he, are spent either in doing nothing at all, or in doing nothing to the purpose, or in doing nothing that we ought to do: we are always complaining our days are few, and acting as though there would no end of them."- On the Right Use of Time”

“Some virtues are only seen in affliction and others only in prosperity.”

“One should take good care not to grow too wise for so great a pleasure of life as laughter.”

“I value my garden more for being full of blackbirds than of cherries, and very frankly give them fruit for their songs.”

“The post of honour is a private station.”

“Mere bashfulness without merit is awkwardness.”

“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.”

“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.”

“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.'”

“Jealousy is that pain which a man feels from the apprehension that he is not equally beloved by the person whom he entirely loves.”

“Mysterious love, uncertain treasure, hast thou more of pain or pleasure! Endless torments dwell about thee: Yet who would live, and live without thee!”

“Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body.”

“Admiration is a very short-lived passion, that immediately decays upon growing familiar with its object.”

“The unassuming youth seeking instruction with humility gains good fortune.”

“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.”