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| JOSEPH ADDISON |
| �A true critic ought to dwell rather upon the excellencies than imperfections, to discover the concealed beauties of a writer, and communicate to the world such things as are worth their observation.� �Admiration is a very short-lived passion, that immediately decays upon growing familiar with its object.� �Better to die ten thousand deaths than wound my honor.� �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.� �Eternity! thou pleasing, dreadful thought.� �Great souls by instinct to each other turn, demand alliance, and in friendship burn.� �Music, the greatest good that mortals know, And all of heaven we have below.� �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.� �Our real blessings often appear to us in the shapes of pains, losses and disappointments; but let us have patience, and we soon shall see them in their proper figures.� �See in what peace a Christian can die.� �The hours of a wise man are lengthened by his ideas.� �The transition from cause to effect, from event to event, is often carried on by secret steps, which our foresight cannot divine, and our sagacity is unable to trace.� �There is nothing which we receive with so much reluctance as advice.� �Three grand essentials to happiness in life are something to do, something to love, and something to hope for.� �Through all eternity to thee, a joyful song I'll raise; for oh! Eternity's too short to utter all thy praise.� �We are growing serious, and let me tell you, that�s the next step to being dull.� |
| (1672-1719) English essayist, politician & distinguished Classical scholar |