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Joseph Addison
Joseph Addison
- And, pleased th' Almighty's orders to perform,
Rides in the whirlwind, and directs the storm.The Campaign (1705) l. 291 - 'Tis not in mortals to command success,
But we'll do more, Sempronius; we'll deserve it.Cato (1713) act 1, sc. 2, l. 43 - The woman that deliberates is lost.Cato (1713) act 4, sc. 1, l. 31
- What pity is it
That we can die but once to serve our country!Cato (1713) act 4, sc. 1, l. 258 - When vice prevails, and impious men bear sway,
The post of honour is a private station.Cato (1713) act 4, sc. 1, l. 320 - From hence, let fierce contending nations know
What dire effects from civil discord flow.Cato (1713) act 5, sc. 1, closing lines - Music, the greatest good that mortals know,
And all of heaven we have below.‘A Song for St Cecilia's Day’ (1694) - Nothing is capable of being well set to music that is not nonsense.in The Spectator no. 1 (21 March 1711)
- 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.in The Spectator 10 April 1711
- What sculpture is to a block of marble, education is to a human soul.The Spectator no. 215 (6 November 1711)
- 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 day-light in the mind.The Spectator no. 381 (17 May 1712)
- The spacious firmament on high,
With all the blue ethereal sky,
And spangled heavens, a shining frame,
Their great Original proclaim.The Spectator no. 465 (23 August 1712) ‘Ode’ - A woman seldom asks advice before she has bought her wedding clothes.The Spectator no. 475 (4 September 1712)
- There is more beauty in the works of a great genius who is ignorant of all the rules of art, than in the works of a little genius, who not only knows but scrupulously observes them.in The Spectator no. 592 (10 September 1714)
