A biography for Joseph Addisonhasn’t been written yet.
“Plenty of people wish to become devout, but no one wishes to be humble.”
“Nothing is more gratifying to the mind of man than power or dominion.”
“To be perfectly just is an attribute of the divine nature; to be so to the utmost of our abilities, is the glory of man.”
“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.”
“To say that authority, whether secular or religious, supplies no ground for morality is not to deny the obvious fact that it supplies a sanction.”
“The utmost extent of man's knowledge, is to know that he knows nothing.”
“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.”
“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.”
“Sunday clears away the rust of the whole week.”
“Better to die ten thousand deaths than wound my honor.”