Joseph Addison

“I am...I am constantly moving in the direction of higher evolutionary impulses, creativity, abstraction, and meaning.”

“Sunday clears away the rust of the whole week.”

“The gods in bounty work up storms about us, that give mankind occasion to exert their hidden strength and throw out into practice virtues that shun the day, and lie concealed in the smooth seasons and the calms of life.”

“It is only imperfection that complains of what is imperfect. The more perfect we are, the more gentle and quiet we become towards the defects of others.”

“Oh! think what anxious moments pass betweenThe birth of plots, and their last fatal periods.”

“Jealousy is that pain which a man feels from the apprehension that he is not equally beloved by the person whom he entirely loves.”

“Soon as the evening shades prevail, The moon takes up the wondrous tale, And nightly to the listening earth Repeats the story of her birth.”

“Certain is it that there is no kind of affection so purely angelic as of a father to a daughter. In love to our wives there is desire; to our sons, ambition, but to our daughters there is something which there are no words to express.”

“A misery is not to be measured from the nature of the evil, but from the temper of the sufferer.”

“In doing what we ought we deserve no praise, because it is our duty.”

“We are always doing something for posterity, but I would fain see posterity do something for us.”

“True benevolence, or compassion, extends itself through the whole of existence and sympathises with the distress of every creature capable of sensation”

“Books are the legacies that a great genius leaves tomankind, which are delivered down from generation togeneration as presents to the posterity of those who are yet unborn”

“A contented mind is the greatest blessing a man can enjoy in this world.”

“A man must be both stupid and uncharitable who believes there is no virtue or truth but on his own side.”

“Reading is to the mind what exerise is to the body.”

“Cheerfulness keeps up a kind of daylight in the mind.”

“The important question is not, what will yield to man a few scattered pleasures, but what will render his life happy on the whole amount.”

“If you wish success in life, make perseverance your bosom friend, experience your wise counselor, caution your elder brother and hope your guardian genius.”

“An empty desk is a sign of a cluttered desk drawer.”

“What sculpture is to a block of marble, education is to a human soul.”

“The greatest sweetener of human life is Friendship. To raise this to the highest pitch of enjoyment, is a secret which but few discover”

“We all of us complain of the shortness of time, saith Seneca, and yet have much more than we know what to do with. Our lives, says he, are spent either in doing nothing at all, or in doing nothing to the purpose, or in doing nothing that we ought to do: we are always complaining our days are few, and acting as though there would no end of them."- On the Right Use of Time”

“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;”

“And, pleased th’ Almighty’s orders to perform,Rides in the whirl-wind, and directs the storm.”

“Should the whole frame of nature round him break,In ruin and confusion hurled,He, unconcerned, would hear the mighty crack,And stand secure amidst a falling world.”

“Reading is a basic tool in the living of a good life.”

“To be exempt from the passions with which others are tormented, is the only pleasing solitude.”

“Quick sensitivity is inseperable from a ready understanding.”

“A man’s first care should be to avoid the reproaches of his own heart.”

“What sunshine is to flowers, smiles are to humanity. These are but trifles, to be sure; but scattered along life's pathway, the good they do is inconceivable.”

“Rahmat sering datang kepada kita dalam bentuk kesakitan, kehilangan dan kekecewaan.Tetapi kalau kita sabar, kita segera akan melihat bentuk aslinya.”

“Everything that is new or uncommon raises a pleasure in the imagination, because it fills the soul with an agreeable surprise, gratifies its curiosity, and gives it an idea of which it was not before possessed.”

“Senyum bagi manusia adalah ibarat cahaya matahari bagi bunga.Kelihatannya sepele, tetapi apabila disebarkan sepanjang hidup, manfaatnya tidak bisa dihitung.”

“I will indulge my sorrows, and give way to all the pangs and fury of despair.”

“True happiness is of a retired nature, and an enemy to pomp and noise; it arises, in the first place, in the enjoyment of one's self, and, in the next, from the friendship and conversation of a few select companions.”

“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.”

“Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body.”