WIST Quotations

Addison, Joseph -- “Sir Roger on the Bench”

Dave — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 13:24:13 +0000

A little nonsense now and then
Is relished by the wisest men.

Joseph Addison (1672-1719) English essayist, poet, statesman
“Sir Roger on the Bench”

Addison, Joseph -- (Attributed)

Dave — Fri, 19 Apr 2013 12:24:26 +0000

If men would consider not so much wherein they differ, as wherein they agree, there would be far less of uncharitableness and angry feeling in the world.

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

Disputed. First attributed to "Addison" in the early 20th Century, in a paper by A. L. Evans, "Unity in Diversity," read before the Massachusetts Osteopathic Society (17 Mar 1906), and by Tryon Edwards, A Dictionary of Thoughts (1908). But this may have been a reference to another man of the same last name who was credited with publishing Interesting Anecdotes, Memoirs, Allegories, Essays, and Poetical Fragments (1794).

Addison, Joseph -- (Attributed)

Dave — Mon, 14 Jun 2021 17:10:29 +0000

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.

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

Broadly attributed to Addison, but possibly a 19th Century creation. The earliest found appearance is in 1854, and the earliest attribution to Addison in in 1862.

Addison, Joseph -- Cato, Act 1, sc. 1, l. 20ff (1713)

Dave — Mon, 09 Feb 2026 17:36:51 +0000

MARCUS: Oh Portius, is there not some chosen curse,
Some hidden thunder in the stores of heav’n
Red with uncommon wrath to blast the man,
Who owes his greatness to his country’s ruin?

Joseph Addison (1672-1719) English essayist, poet, statesman
Cato, Act 1, sc. 1, l. 20ff (1713)
(Source)

Of Julius Caesar and his overthrow of the Roman Republic.

Addison, Joseph -- Cato, Act 1, sc. 2, l. 43ff (1713)

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

PORTIUS: ‘Tis not in mortals to command success,
But we’ll do more, Sempronius; we’ll deserve it.

Joseph Addison (1672-1719) English essayist, poet, statesman
Cato, Act 1, sc. 2, l. 43ff (1713)
(Source)

This passage was widely known to America's Founders; John Adams paraphrases it in a letter to his wife Abigail (1776-02-18), and George Washington in letters to Nicholas Cooke (1775-10-29) and, most famously, Benedict Arnold (1775-12-05).

Addison, Joseph -- Cato, Act 1, sc. 3, l. 50ff (1713)

Dave — Mon, 22 Apr 2024 19:32:27 +0000

SEMPRONIUS: Oh! think what anxious moments pass between
The birth of plots, and their last fatal periods,
Oh! ’tis a dreadful interval of time,
Filled up with horror all, and big with death!
Destruction hangs on every word we speak,
On every thought, till the concluding stroke
Determines all, and closes our design.

Joseph Addison (1672-1719) English essayist, poet, statesman
Cato, Act 1, sc. 3, l. 50ff (1713)
(Source)

Addison, Joseph -- Cato, Act 1, sc. 4 (1713)

Dave — Mon, 07 Feb 2022 17:05:44 +0000

JUBA: Beauty soon grows familiar to the lover,
Fades in his eye, and palls upon the sense.

Joseph Addison (1672-1719) English essayist, poet, statesman
Cato, Act 1, sc. 4 (1713)
(Source)

Addison, Joseph -- Cato, Act 2, sc. 5, l. 136ff (1713)

Dave — Tue, 04 Jun 2024 19:55:46 +0000

SYPHAX: Young men soon give and soon forget affronts;
Old age is slow in both.

Joseph Addison (1672-1719) English essayist, poet, statesman
Cato, Act 2, sc. 5, l. 136ff (1713)
(Source)

Addison, Joseph -- Cato, Act 3, sc. 5, l. 60ff (1713)

Dave — Mon, 16 Feb 2026 17:19:04 +0000

CATO: Forbear, Sempronius! — see they suffer death,
But in their deaths remember they are men.
Strain not the laws to make their tortures grievous.

Joseph Addison (1672-1719) English essayist, poet, statesman
Cato, Act 3, sc. 5, l. 60ff (1713)
(Source)

In response to Sempronius' plans to torture the captured rebel soldiers before their execution, as an example to others.

Addison, Joseph -- Cato, Act 4, sc. 4 (1713)

Dave — Mon, 26 Jan 2026 03:32:11 +0000

CATO: Curse on his virtues! they’ve undone his country.
Such popular humanity is treason.

Joseph Addison (1672-1719) English essayist, poet, statesman
Cato, Act 4, sc. 4 (1713)
(Source)

Speaking of Caesar.

Addison, Joseph -- Cato, Act 4, sc. 4, l. 79ff (1713)

Dave — Mon, 10 Jun 2024 18:02:46 +0000

CATO: How beautiful is death, when earn’d by virtue!
Who would not be that youth? What pity is it
That we can die but once to serve our country!

Joseph Addison (1672-1719) English essayist, poet, statesman
Cato, Act 4, sc. 4, l. 79ff (1713)
(Source)

On being presented with the corpse of his son. This line is thought to have inspired Nathan Hale.

Addison, Joseph -- Cato, Act 4, sc. 4, l. 139ff (1713)

Dave — Wed, 24 Aug 2016 00:18:21 +0000

CATO: Content thyself to be obscurely good.
When vice prevails, and impious men bear sway,
The post of honour is a private station.

Joseph Addison (1672-1719) English essayist, poet, statesman
Cato, Act 4, sc. 4, l. 139ff (1713)
(Source)

Addison, Joseph -- Cato, Act 5, sc. 1, l. 124ff (1713)

Dave — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 10:45:57 +0000

CATO: The soul, secur’d in her existence, smiles
At the drawn dagger, and defies its point.

Joseph Addison (1672-1719) English essayist, poet, statesman
Cato, Act 5, sc. 1, l. 124ff (1713)
(Source)

Addison, Joseph -- Cato, Act 5, sc. 4, l. 26 (1713)

Dave — Mon, 13 May 2024 17:06:58 +0000

LUCIUS: Sweet are the slumbers of the virtuous man!

Joseph Addison (1672-1719) English essayist, poet, statesman
Cato, Act 5, sc. 4, l. 26 (1713)
(Source)

Addison, Joseph -- Cato, Act 5, sc. 4, l. 106ff (1713)

Dave — Mon, 23 Feb 2026 18:06:56 +0000

LUCIUS: From hence, let fierce contending nations know,
What dire effects from civil discord flow.

Joseph Addison (1672-1719) English essayist, poet, statesman
Cato, Act 5, sc. 4, l. 106ff (1713)
(Source)

After Cato's suicide during the civil war against Julius Caesar.

Addison, Joseph -- The Drummer, Act 4, sc. 6 (1716)

Dave — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 04:58:12 +0000

TINSEL: We are growing serious, and, let me tell you, that’s the very next step to being dull.

Joseph Addison (1672-1719) English essayist, poet, statesman
The Drummer, Act 4, sc. 6 (1716)
(Source)

Addison, Joseph -- The Drummer, Act 5, sc. 1 (1716)

Dave — Mon, 19 Jan 2026 19:12:53 +0000

VELLUM: There is nothing more requisite in business than dispatch.

Joseph Addison (1672-1719) English essayist, poet, statesman
The Drummer, Act 5, sc. 1 (1716)
(Source)

Addison, Joseph -- Essay (1710-07-01), The Tatler, No. 192

Dave — Fri, 15 Jul 2016 13:44:09 +0000

A cheerful temper, joined with innocence, will make beauty attractive, knowledge delightful, and wit good-natured.

Joseph Addison (1672-1719) English essayist, poet, statesman
Essay (1710-07-01), The Tatler, No. 192
(Source)

Addison, Joseph -- Essay (1711-03-24), The Spectator, No. 25

Dave — Mon, 13 Feb 2023 18:45:22 +0000

The Fear of Death often proves Mortal, and sets People on Methods to save their Lives, which infallibly destroy them.

Joseph Addison (1672-1719) English essayist, poet, statesman
Essay (1711-03-24), The Spectator, No. 25
(Source)

Addison, Joseph -- Essay (1711-03-30), “Thoughts in Westminster Abbey,” The Spectator, No. 26

Dave — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 10:08:44 +0000

When I look upon the tombs of the great, every emotion of envy dies in me; when I read the epitaphs of the beautiful, every inordinate desire goes out; when I meet with the grief of parents upon a tombstone, my heart melts with compassion; when I see the tomb of the parents themselves, I consider the vanity of grieving for those whom we must quickly follow; when I see kings lying by those who deposed them, when I consider rival wits placed side by side, or the holy men that divided the world with their contests and disputes, I reflect with sorrow and astonishment on the little competitions, factions and debates of mankind.

Joseph Addison (1672-1719) English essayist, poet, statesman
Essay (1711-03-30), “Thoughts in Westminster Abbey,” The Spectator, No. 26
(Source)

Addison, Joseph -- Essay (1711-03-30), “Thoughts in Westminster Abbey,” The Spectator, No. 26

Dave — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 07:35:56 +0000

When I read the several dates of the tombs, of some that died yesterday, and some six hundred years ago, I consider that great day when we shall all of us be contemporaries, and make our appearance together.

Joseph Addison (1672-1719) English essayist, poet, statesman
Essay (1711-03-30), “Thoughts in Westminster Abbey,” The Spectator, No. 26
(Source)

Addison, Joseph -- Essay (1711-03-30), “Thoughts in Westminster Abbey,” The Spectator, No. 26

Dave — Wed, 05 Nov 2025 18:21:53 +0000

I yesterday passed a whole afternoon in the churchyard, the cloisters, and the church, amusing myself with the tombstones and inscriptions that I met with in those several regions of the dead. Most of them recorded nothing else of the buried person, but that he was born upon one day, and died upon another: the whole history of his life being comprehended in those two circumstances, that are common to all mankind. I could not but look upon these registers of existence, whether of brass or marble, as a kind of satire upon the departed persons; who had left no other memorial of them, but that they were born and that they died. They put me in mind of several persons mentioned in the battles of heroic poems, who have sounding names given them, for no other reason but that they may be killed, and are celebrated for nothing but being knocked on the head.

Joseph Addison (1672-1719) English essayist, poet, statesman
Essay (1711-03-30), “Thoughts in Westminster Abbey,” The Spectator, No. 26
(Source)

Addison, Joseph -- Essay (1711-03-30), “Thoughts in Westminster Abbey,” The Spectator, No. 26

Dave — Mon, 17 Nov 2025 16:32:51 +0000

Upon my going into the church, I entertained myself with the digging of a grave; and saw in every shovelful of it that was thrown up, the fragment of a bone or skull intermixt with a kind of fresh mouldering earth, that some time or other had a place in the composition of a human body. Upon this, I began to consider with myself what innumerable multitudes of people lay confused together under the pavement of that ancient cathedral; how men and women, friends and enemies, priests and soldiers, monks and prebendaries, were crumbled amongst one another, and blended together in the same common mass; how beauty, strength, and youth, with old age, weakness and deformity, lay undistinguished in the same promiscuous heap of matter.

Joseph Addison (1672-1719) English essayist, poet, statesman
Essay (1711-03-30), “Thoughts in Westminster Abbey,” The Spectator, No. 26
(Source)

Addison, Joseph -- Essay (1711-05-18), The Spectator, No. 68

Dave — Mon, 20 Oct 2025 16:44:59 +0000

In all thy humours, whether grave or mellow,
Thou’rt such a touchy, testy, pleasant fellow ,
Hast so much wit, and mirth, and spleen about thee,
There is no living with thee, nor without thee.

Joseph Addison (1672-1719) English essayist, poet, statesman
Essay (1711-05-18), The Spectator, No. 68
(Source)

Addison's translation of Martial's Epigram 12.47.

Addison, Joseph -- Essay (1711-05-24), The Spectator, No. 73

Dave — Mon, 16 Jun 2025 18:05:15 +0000

The truth of it is, there is not a more unhappy being than a superannuated idol.

Joseph Addison (1672-1719) English essayist, poet, statesman
Essay (1711-05-24), The Spectator, No. 73
(Source)

The essay in focuses in particular on women who are idolized by coteries of men around them.

Addison, Joseph -- Essay (1711-06-18), The Spectator, No. 94

Dave — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 10:10:02 +0000

Of all the diversions of life, there is none so proper to fill up its empty spaces as the reading of useful and entertaining authors.

Joseph Addison (1672-1719) English essayist, poet, statesman
Essay (1711-06-18), The Spectator, No. 94
(Source)

Addison, Joseph -- Essay (1711-06-22), The Spectator, No. 98

Dave — Mon, 23 Jun 2025 20:23:42 +0000

There is not so variable a thing in Nature as a lady’s head-dress.

Joseph Addison (1672-1719) English essayist, poet, statesman
Essay (1711-06-22), The Spectator, No. 98
(Source)

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

Dave — Mon, 30 Jun 2025 17:24:31 +0000

“Censure,” says a late ingenious author, “is the tax a man pays for being eminent.” It is a folly for an eminent man to think of escaping it, and a weakness to be affected with it. All the illustrious persons of antiquity, and indeed of every age in the world, have passed through this fiery persecution. There is no defense against reproach but obscurity; it is a kind of concomitant to greatness, as satires and invectives were an essential part of a Roman triumph.

Joseph Addison (1672-1719) English essayist, poet, statesman
Essay (1711-06-26), The Spectator, No. 101
(Source)

The quotation is from Jonathan Swift.

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

Dave — Mon, 07 Jul 2025 17:28:01 +0000

Joseph Addison (1672-1719) English essayist, poet, statesman
Essay (1711-06-26), The Spectator, No. 101
(Source)

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

Dave — Mon, 14 Jul 2025 18:13:39 +0000

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
(Source)

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

Dave — Mon, 21 Jul 2025 18:19:51 +0000

Every one that has been long dead has a due proportion of praise allotted him, in which, whilst he lived, his friends were too profuse, and his enemies too sparing.

Joseph Addison (1672-1719) English essayist, poet, statesman
Essay (1711-06-26), The Spectator, No. 101
(Source)

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

Dave — Mon, 06 Apr 2026 21:31:43 +0000

If men of eminence are exposed to censure on one hand, they are as much liable to flattery on the other. If they receive reproaches which are not due to them, they likewise receive praises which they do not deserve. In a word, the man in a high post is never regarded with an indifferent eye, but always considered as a friend or an enemy. For this reason 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 them. When writers have the least opportunity of knowing the truth, they are in the best disposition to tell it.
It is therefore the privilege of posterity to adjust the characters of illustrious persons, and to set matters right between those antagonists who by their rivalry for greatness divided a whole age into factions.

Joseph Addison (1672-1719) English essayist, poet, statesman
Essay (1711-06-26), The Spectator, No. 101
(Source)

The last line is sometimes shortened to:

It is the privilege of posterity to set matters right between those antagonists who, by their rivalry for greatness, divided a whole age.

Addison, Joseph -- Essay (1711-07-14), The Spectator, No. 117

Dave — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 17:52:14 +0000

When I consider the Question, Whether there are such Persons in the World as those we call Witches? my Mind is divided between the two opposite Opinions; or rather (to speak my Thoughts freely) I believe in general that there is, and has been such a thing as Witchcraft; but at the same time can give no Credit to any Particular Instance of it.

Joseph Addison (1672-1719) English essayist, poet, statesman
Essay (1711-07-14), The Spectator, No. 117
(Source)

Addison, Joseph -- Essay (1711-07-20), The Spectator, No. 122

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

My friend Sir Roger heard them both upon a round trot; and after having paused some time, told them with an air of a man who would not give his judgment rashly, that “much might be said on both sides.”

Joseph Addison (1672-1719) English essayist, poet, statesman
Essay (1711-07-20), The Spectator, No. 122
(Source)

Addison, Joseph -- Essay (1711-07-20), The Spectator, No. 122

Dave — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 10:50:26 +0000

A man’s first care should be to avoid the reproaches of his own heart; his next to escape the censures of the world: if the last interferes with the former, it ought to be entirely neglected; but otherwise there cannot be a greater satisfaction to an honest mind, than to see those approbations which it gives itself seconded by the applauses of the public: a man is more sure of his conduct, when the verdict which he passes upon his own behaviour is thus warranted and confirmed by the opinion of all that know him.

Joseph Addison (1672-1719) English essayist, poet, statesman
Essay (1711-07-20), The Spectator, No. 122
(Source)

Writing of his (fictional) friend, Sir Roger de Coverley.

Addison, Joseph -- Essay (1711-09-05), The Spectator, No. 162

Dave — Wed, 27 Oct 2021 22:09:23 +0000

A cloudy day, or a little sunshine, have as great an influence on many constitutions as the most real blessings or misfortunes.

Joseph Addison (1672-1719) English essayist, poet, statesman
Essay (1711-09-05), The Spectator, No. 162
(Source)

Addison, Joseph -- Essay (1711-09-10), The Spectator, No. 166

Dave — Mon, 25 Sep 2023 17:32:41 +0000

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.

Joseph Addison (1672-1719) English essayist, poet, statesman
Essay (1711-09-10), The Spectator, No. 166
(Source)

Addison, Joseph -- Essay (1711-09-13), The Spectator, No. 169

Dave — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 13:21:27 +0000

Good-nature is more agreeable in conversation than wit, and gives a certain air to the countenance which is more amiable than beauty. It shows virtue in the fairest light, takes off in some measure from the deformity of vice, and makes even folly and impertinence supportable.

Joseph Addison (1672-1719) English essayist, poet, statesman
Essay (1711-09-13), The Spectator, No. 169
(Source)

Addison, Joseph -- Essay (1711-09-13), The Spectator, No. 169

Dave — Mon, 04 Aug 2025 18:35:55 +0000

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.

Joseph Addison (1672-1719) English essayist, poet, statesman
Essay (1711-09-13), The Spectator, No. 169
(Source)

Addison, Joseph -- Essay (1711-09-27), The Spectator, No. 177

Dave — Mon, 11 Aug 2025 16:33:34 +0000

I have somewhere met with the epitaph of a charitable man, which has very much pleased me. I cannot recollect the words, but the sense of it is to this purpose: What I spent I lost; what I possessed is left to others; what I gave away remains with me.

Joseph Addison (1672-1719) English essayist, poet, statesman
Essay (1711-09-27), The Spectator, No. 177
(Source)

The epitaph was on a tomb in St. George's Church at Doncaster, Yorkshire, and read:

How now, who is heare?
I Robin of Doncastere,
And Margaret, my feare [wife]:
That I spent, that I had,
That I gave, that I have,
That I left, that I lost
A. D. 1579.
Quoth Robertus Byrks, who in this World did reign Three score years and seven, & yet lived not one.

(There are variation of spelling in various records of this epitaph, e.g., 1, 2, 3)

Addison, Joseph -- Essay (1711-10-02), The Spectator, No. 185

Dave — Wed, 27 Apr 2022 14:38:44 +0000

And that this is the Case very often, we may observe from the Behaviour of some of the most zealous for Orthodoxy, who have often great Friendships and Intimacies with vicious immoral Men, provided they do but agree with them in the same Scheme of Belief.