Persons in great stations have seldom their true characters drawn till several years after their deaths. Their personal friendships and enmities must cease, and the parties they were engaged in be at an end, before their faults or their virtues can have justice done to them.

Joseph Addison (1672-1719) English essayist, poet, statesman

Essay (1711-06-26), The Spectator, No. 101
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