Background Image
...
I Shall Endeavor To Enliven Morality With Wit, And To Temper Wit With Morality.
-Joseph Addison
...
Please Wait....
Translating....

I Shall Endeavor To

Joseph Addison
...
I Shall Endeavor To Enliven Morality With Wit, And To Temper Wit With Morality.

Understanding the Quote: "i shall endeavor to enliven morality with wit, and to temper wit..."

This quote by Joseph Addison reflects deeply on the theme of morality. It connects to the universal human journey of purpose, motivation, and reflection. Often categorized under Morality, Endeavor, Wit, the quote offers insight, emotional clarity, and intellectual inspiration to readers worldwide.

Whether you’re a student exploring new ideas, a leader trying to motivate your team, or someone seeking direction in life — this quote provides value. It resonates because it’s more than words — it’s a bridge between experience and wisdom. It shows how Joseph Addison interprets life's core challenges and triumphs.

Lessons From the Quote

This quote teaches resilience and focus. It reminds readers that no matter where they stand in life, reflection and self-awareness lead to growth. Each word has meaning, and when studied, it becomes clear how impactful thoughtful language can be.

About Joseph Addison

Joseph Addison is celebrated for insightful thoughts on morality and endeavor. Their legacy lives on through writings that guide, comfort, and inspire. Discover more on their profile page.

Actionable Takeaways

  • Reflect on how this quote applies to your current life path.
  • Share the message with someone who needs inspiration.
  • Write your thoughts on this quote in a journal or blog post.
  • Use it as a daily affirmation or reminder.

Closing Thoughts

Quotes like this endure because they capture universal truths. They comfort us in solitude and empower us in groups. Carry this quote forward — live by its wisdom, share its message, and keep its essence alive.

Views: 16158
Topic
Morality
Endeavor
Wit
More From Joseph Addison
The Union Of The Word And The Mind Produces That Mystery Which Is Called Life... Learn Deeply Of The Mind And Its Mystery, For Therein Lies The Secret Of Immortality.
Lying
Secret
Mind
Content Thyself To Be Obscurely Good. When Vice Prevails, And Impious Men Bear Sway, The Post Of Honoris A Private Station.
Men
Honor
Vices
Let Echo, Too, Perform Her Part, Prolonging Every Note With Art; And In A Low Expiring Strain, Play All The Comfort O'er Again.
Art
Play
Echoes
I... Recommend To Every One Of My Readers, The Keeping A Journal Of Their Lives For One Week, And Setting Down Punctually Their Whole Series Of Employments During That Space Of Time. This Kind Of Self-examination Would Give Them A True State Of Themselves, And Incline Them To Consider Seriously What They Are About. One Day Would Rectifie The Omissions Of Another, And Make A Man Weigh All Those Indifferent Actions, Which, Though They Are Easily Forgotten, Must Certainly Be Accounted For.
Men
Space
Omission
There Is A Great Amity Between Designing And Art.
Art
Design
Amity
Music Religious Heat Inspires, It Wakes The Soul, And Lifts It High, And Wings It With Sublime Desires, And Fits It To Bespeak The Deity.
Music
Religious
Wings
Sweet Are The Slumbers Of The Virtuous Man.
Sweet
Men
Slumber
The Greatest Parts, Without Discretion As Observed By An Elegant Writer, May Be Fatal To Their Owner; As Polyphemus, Deprived Of His Eyes, Was Only The More Exposed On Account Of His Enormous Strength And Stature.
Eye
May
Polyphemus
Most Of Our Fellow-subjects Are Guided Either By The Prejudice Of Education Or By A Deference To The Judgment Of Those Who Perhaps In Their Own Hearts Disapprove The Opinions Which They Industriously Spread Among The Multitude.
Heart
Prejudice
Opinion
Plutarch Has Written An Essay On The Benefits Which A Man May Receive From His Enemies; And Among The Good Fruits Of Enmity, Mentions This In Particular, That By The Reproaches Which It Casts Upon Us, We See The Worst Side Of Ourselves.
Men
Enemy
May
The Ways Of Heaven Are Dark And Intricate, Puzzled In Mazes, And Perplex'd With Errors; Our Understanding Traces Them In Vain, Lost And Bewilder'd In The Fruitless Search; Nor Sees With How Much Art The Windings Run, Nor Where The Regular Confusion Ends.
Running
Art
Dark
Prejudice And Self-sufficiency Naturally Proceed From Inexperience Of The World, And Ignorance Of Mankind.
Ignorance
Self
Inexperience
E'en The Rough Rocks With Tender Myrtle Bloom, And Trodden Weeds Send Out A Rich Perfume.
Weed
Rocks
Myrtle
Two Persons Who Have Chosen Each Other Out Of All The Species With A Design To Be Each Other's Mutual Comfort And Entertainment Have, In That Action, Bound Themselves To Be Good-humored, Affable, Discreet, Forgiving, Patient, And Joyful, With Respect To Each Other's Frailties And Perfections, To The End Of Their Lives.
Anniversary
Two
Perfection
It Is Indeed Very Possible, That The Persons We Laugh At May In The Main Of Their Characters Be Much Wiser Men Than Our Selves; But If They Would Have Us Laugh At Them, They Must Fall Short Of Us In Those Respects Which Stir Up This Passion.
Fall
Passion
Character
It Happened Very Providentially, To The Honor Of The Christian Religion, That It Did Not Take Its Rise In The Dark Illiterate Ages Of The World, But At A Time When Arts And Sciences Were At Their Height.
Christian
Art
Dark
It Is A Great Presumption To Ascribe Our Successes To Our Own Management, And Not To Esteem Ourselves Upon Any Blessing, Rather As It Is The Bounty Of Heaven, Than The Acquisition Of Our Own Prudence.
Success
Blessing
Heaven
Round-heads And Wooden-shoes Are Standing Jokes.
Shoes
Standing
Jokes
The Utmost Extent Of Man's Knowledge, Is To Know That He Knows Nothing.
Knowledge
Men
Literature
There Is Nothing More Requisite In Business Than Despatch.
Business
Decision Making
It Was A Saying Of An Ancient Philosopher, Which I Find Some Of Our Writers Have Ascribed To Queen Elizabeth, Who Perhaps Might Have Taken Occasion To Repeat It, That A Good Face Is A Letter Of Recommendation.
Queens
Taken
Letters
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.
Moon
Listening
Stories
Riches Are Apt To Betray A Man Into Arrogance.
Pride
Men
Arrogance
A Man Who Is Furnished With Arguments From The Mint, Will Convince His Antagonist Much Sooner Than One Who Draws Them From Reason And Philosophy. - Gold Is A Wonderful Clearer Of The Understanding; It Dissipates Every Doubt And Scruple In An Instant; Accommodates Itself To The Meanest Capacities; Silences The Loud And Clamorous, And Cringes Over The Most Obstinate And Inflexible. - Philip Of Macedon Was A Man Of Most Invincible Reason This Way. He Refuted By It All The Wisdom Of Athens; Confounded Their Statesmen; Struck Their Orators Dumb; And At Length Argued Them Out Of All Their Liberties.
Wisdom
Philosophy
Men
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.
Birthday
Mother Daughter
Fathers Day
Blesses His Stars And Thinks It Luxury.
Stars
Thinking
Luxury
The Great Number Of The Jews Furnishes Us With A Sufficient Cloud Of Witnesses That Attest The Truth Of The Bible.
Clouds
Numbers
Jew
The Fear Of Death Often Proves Mortal, And Sets People On Methods To Save Their Lives, Which Infallibly Destroy Them.
Death
People
Dying
There Is No Greater Sign Of A General Decay Of Virtue In A Nation, Than A Want Of Zeal In Its Inhabitants For The Good Of Their Country.
Country
Want
Decay
I Believe That Everyone, Some Time Or Other, Dreams That He Is Reading Papers, Books, Or Letters; In Which Case The Invention Prompts So Readily That The Mind Is Imposed Upon, And Mistakes Its Own Suggestions For The Composition Of Another.
Dream
Mistake
Believe
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.
Beautiful
Kings
Tombstone
In Private Conversation Between Intimate Friends, The Wisest Men Very Often Talk Like The Weakest : For Indeed The Talking With A Friend Is Nothing Else But Thinking Aloud.
Friends
Men
Thinking
Those Who Were Skillful In Anatomy Among The Ancients, Concluded From The Outward And Inward Make Of An Human Body, That It Was The Work Of A Being Transcendently Wise And Powerful. As The World Grew More Enlightened In This Art, Their Discoveries Gave Them Fresh Opportunities Of Admiring The Conduct Of Providence In The Formation Of An Human Body.
God
Wise
Art
A Woman Seldom Asks Advice Before She Has Bought Her Wedding Clothes.
Marriage
Wedding
Women
A Great Large Book Is A Great Evil.
Book
Evil
Eternity! Thou Pleasing Dreadful Thought! Through What Variety Of Untried Being, Through What New Scenes And Changes Must We Pass!
Eternity
Scene
Variety
It Is A Melancholy Consideration That There Should Be Several Among Us So Hardened And Deluded As To Think An Oath A Proper Subject For A Jest; And To Make This, Which Is One Of The Most Solemn Acts Of Religion, An Occasion Of Mirth. Yet Such Is The Depravation Of Our Manners At Present, That Nothing Is More Frequent Than To Hear Profligate Men Ridiculing, To The Best Of Their Abilities, These Sacred Pledges Of Their Duty And Allegiance; And Endeavouring To Be Witty Upon Themselves, For Daring To Prevaricate With God And Man.
Witty
Men
Thinking
I Have Always Preferred Cheerfulness To Mirth. The Latter I Consider As An Act, The Former As A Habit Of Mind. Mirth Is Short And Transient, Cheerfulness Fixed And Permanent.
Optimism
Mind
Mirth
I Have Often Thought, Says Sir Roger, It Happens Very Well That Christmas Should Fall Out In The Middle Of Winter.
Fall
Winter
Roger
From Social Intercourse Are Derived Some Of The Highest Enjoyments Of Life; Where There Is A Free Interchange Of Sentiments The Mind Acquires New Ideas, And By Frequent Exercise Of Its Powers, The Understanding Gains Fresh Vigor.
Life
Exercise
Ideas
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 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.
Believe
Opposites
Two
There Is More Of Turn Than Of Truth In A Saying Of Seneca, "that Drunkenness Does Not Produce But Discover Faults." Common Experience Teaches The Contrary. Wine Throws A Man Out Of Himself, And Infuses Dualities Into The Mind Which She Is A Stranger To In Her Sober Moments.
Wine
Men
Mind
Nothing That Is Not A Real Crime Makes A Man Appear So Contemptible And Little In The Eyes Of The World As Inconsistency, Especially When It Regards Religion Or Party. In Either Of These Cases, Though A Man Perhaps Does But His Duty In Changing His Side, He Not Only Makes Himself Hated By Those He Left, But Is Seldom Heartily Esteemed By Those He Comes Over To.
Real
Party
Eye
T Is Liberty Crowns Britannia's Isle, And Makes Her Barren Rocks And Her Bleak Mountains Smile.
Rocks
Liberty
Mountain
There Is Sometimes A Greater Judgement Shewn In Deviating From The Rules Of Art, Than In Adhering To Them; And?there Ismore Beauty Inthe 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.
Art
Judgement
Ignorant
I Would Fain Ask One Of These Bigotted Infidels, Supposing All The Great Points Of Atheism... Were Laid Together And Formed Into A Kind Of Creed, According To The Opinions Of The Most Celebrated Atheists; I Say, Supposing Such A Creed As This Were Formed, And Imposed Upon Any One People In The World, Whether It Would Not Require An Infinitely Greater Measure Of Faith, Than Any Set Of Articles Which They So Violently Oppose.
Faith
Atheist
Religion
It Is Of Unspeakable Advantage To Possess Our Minds With An Habitual Good Intention, And To Aim All Our Thoughts, Words, And Actions At Some Laudable End.
Mind
Action
Good Intentions
Exercise Ferments The Humors, Casts Them Into Their Proper Channels, Throws Off Redundancies, And Helps Nature In Those Secret Distributions, Without Which The Body Cannot Subsist In Its Vigor, Nor The Soul Act With Cheerfulness.
Inspirational
Nature
Exercise
Irregularity And Want Of Method Are Only Supportable In Men Of Great Learning Or Genius, Who Are Often Too Full To Be Exact, And Therefore They Choose To Throw Down Their Pearls In Heaps Before The Reader, Rather Than Be At The Pains Of Stringing Them.
Pain
Learning
Men
The Moderns Cannot Reach Their Beauties, But Can Avoid Their Imperfections.
Imperfection
Whether Zeal Or Moderation Be The Point We Aim At, Let Us Keep Fire Out Of The One, And Frost Out Of The Other.
Inspirational
Attitude
Fire
A Day, An Hour, Of Virtuous Liberty Is Worth A Whole Eternity In Bondage.
Liberty
Virtue
Eternity
The Discreet Man Finds Out The Talents Of Those He Converses With, And Knows How To Apply Them To Proper Uses. Accordingly, If We Look Into Particular Communities And Divisions Of Men, We May Observe That It Is The Discreet Man, Not The Witty, Nor The Learned, Nor The Brave, Who Guides The Conversation, And Gives Measures To The Society.
Witty
Men
Giving
A Reader Seldom Peruses A Book With Pleasure Until He Knows Whether The Writer Of It Be A Black Man Or A Fair Man, Of A Mild Or Choleric Disposition, Married Or A Bachelor.
Book
Men
Black
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.
Years
Yesterday
Great Day
If Our Zeal Were True And Genuine We Should Be Much More Angry With A Sinner Than A Heretic.
Should
Genuine
Zeal
Others Proclaim The Infirmities Of A Great Man With Satisfaction And Complacence, If They Discover None Of The Like In Themselves.
Men
Satisfaction
Infirmity
In That Disputable Point Of Persecuting Men For Conscience Sake, I See Such Dreadful Consequences Rising, I Would Be As Fully Convinced Of The Truth Of It, As A Mathematical Demonstration, Before I Would Venture To Act Upon It Or Make It A Part Of My Religion.
Men
Would Be
Rising
This Party Spirit Has So Ill An Effect On Our Morals, It Has Likewise A Very Great One Upon Our Judgments.
Party
Moral
Spirit
Some Virtues Are Only Seen In Affliction And Others Only In Prosperity.
Destiny
Affliction
Prosperity
With Regard To Donations Always Expect The Most From Prudent People, Who Keep Their Own Accounts.
Inspirational
People
Prudent
A Contemplation Of God's Works, A Generous Concern For The Good Of Mankind, And The Unfeigned Exercise Of Humility Only, Denominate Men Great And Glorious.
Humility
Exercise
Greatness
There Are Many More Shining Qualities In The Mind Of Man, But There Is None So Useful As Discretion.
Men
Shining
Mind
An Ostentatious Man Will Rather Relate A Blunder Or An Absurdity He Has Committed, Than Be Debarred From Talking Of His Own Dear Person.
Conceited
Men
Talking
Husband A Lie, And Trump It Up In Some Extraordinary Emergency.
Husband
Lying
Emergencies
True Fortitude Is Seen In Great Exploits That Justice Warrants, And That Wisdom Guides; And All Else Is Tow'ring Phrenzy And Distraction.
Courage
Justice
Fortitude
Reading Is To The Mind What Exercise Is To The Body.
Inspirational
Education
Book
Admiration Is A Very Short-lived Passion, That Immediately Decays Upon Growing Familiar With Its Object.
Passion
Admiration And Respect
Decay
Instability Of Temper Ought To Be Checked When It Disposes Men To Wander From One Scheme To Another: Since Such A Fickleness Cannot But Be Attended With Fatal Consequences.
Men
Schemes
Wander
By Anticipation We Sugar Misery And Enjoy Happiness Before They Are In Being. We Can Set The Sun And Stars Forward, Or Lose Sight Of Them By Wandering Into Those Retired Parts Of Eternity When The Heavens And Earth Shall Be No More.
Stars
Sight
Heaven
Though A Man Cannot Abstain From Being Weak, He May From Being Vicious.
Men
May
Weak
Our Grub-street Biographers Watch For The Death Of A Great Man Like So Many Undertakers On Purpose To Make A Penny Of Him.
Men
Watches
Purpose
From Hence, Let Fierce Contending Nations Know, What Dire Effects From Civil Discord Flow.
War
Flow
Fierce
Arguments Out Of A Pretty Mouth Are Unanswerable.
Love
Heart
Mouths
Talk Not Of Love: Thou Never Knew'st Its Force.
Force
The Great Art In Writing Advertisements Is The Finding Out Of A Proper Method To Catch The Reader's Eye; Without Which, A Good Thing May Pass Over Unobserved, Or Lost Among Commissions Of Bankrupt.
Art
Writing
Eye
A True Critic Ought To Dwell Rather Upon Excellencies Than Imperfections
Inspiration
Imperfection
Critics
For Ever Singing As They Shine, The Hand That Made Us Is Divine.
Hands
Shining
Singing
Among The Writers Of Antiquity There Are None Who Instruct Us More Openly In The Manners Of Their Respective Times In Which They Lived Than Those Who Have Employed Themselves In Satire, Under Whatever Dress It May Appear.
Dresses
May
Satire
I Have Often Reflected Within Myself On This Unaccountable Humor In Womankind Of Being Smitten With Everything That Is Showy And Superficial, And On The Numberless Evils That Befall The Sex From This Light Fantastical Disposition.
Sex
Light
Evil
Upon Laying A Weight In One Of The Scales, Inscribed Eternity, Though I Threw In That Of Time, Prosperity, Affliction, Wealth, And Poverty, Which Seemed Very Ponderous, They Were Not Able To Stir The Opposite Balance.
Opposites
Balance
Weight
We Are Apt To Rely Upon Future Prospects, And Become Really Expensive While We Are Only Rich In Possibility. We Live Up To Our Expectations, Not To Our Possessions, And Make A Figure Proportionable To What We May Be, Not What We Are.
Rely Upon
Expectations
May
Music, Among Those Who Were Styled The Chosen People, Was A Religious Art.
Music
Religious
Art
In England We See People Lulled Sleep With Solid And Elaborate Discourses Of Piety, Who Would Be Warmed And Transported Out Of Themselves By The Bellowings And Distortions Of Enthusiasm.
Sleep
People
Would Be
He Only Is A Great Man Who Can Neglect The Applause Of The Multitude And Enjoy Himself Independent Of Its Favor.
Independent
Greatness
Men
Health And Cheerfulness Naturally Beget Each Other.
Inspirational
Get Well
Yoga
Nothing Is More Amiable Than True Modesty, And Nothing More Contemptible Than The False. The One Guards Virtue, The Other Betrays It.
Modesty
Virtue
Betray
When A Woman Comes To Her Class, She Does Not Employ Her Time In Making Herself Look More Advantageously What She Really Is, But Endeavours To Be As Much Another Creature As She Possibly Can. Whether This Happens Because They Stay So Long And Attend Their Work So Diligently That They Forget The Faces And Persons, Which They First Sat Down With, Or Whatever It Is, They Seldom Rise From The Toilet The Same Woman They Appeared When They Began To Dress
Maturity
Class
Long
The Friendships Of The World Are Oft Confederacies In Vice, Or Leagues Of Pleasures.
Friendship
League
Vices
Complaisance, Though In Itself It Be Scarce Reckoned In The Number Of Moral Virtues, Is That Which Gives A Lustre To Every Talent A Man Can Be Possessed Of. It Was Plato's Advice To An Unpolished Writer That He Should Sacrifice To The Graces. In The Same Manner I Would Advise Every Man Of Learning, Who Would Not Appear In The World A Mere Scholar Or Philosopher, To Make Himself Master Of The Social Virtue Which I Have Here Mentioned.
Plato
Sacrifice
Men
Guard Thy Heart On This Weak Side, Where Most Our Nature Fails.
Heart
Weakness
Sides
The Consciousness Of Being Loved Softens The Keenest Pang Even At The Moment Of Parting; Yea, Even The Eternal Farewell Is Robbed Of Half Of Its Bitterness When Uttered In Accents That Breathe Love To The Last Sigh.
Love
Farewell
Half
Unbounded Courage And Compassion Join'd, Tempering Each Other In The Victor's Mind, Alternately Proclaim Him Good And Great, And Make The Hero And The Man Complete.
Courage
Hero
Men
There Is Nothing Touches Our Imagination So Much As A Beautiful Woman In A Plain Dress.
Beautiful
Imagination
Beautiful Women
I Should Think Myself A Very Bad Woman, If I Had Done What I Do For A Farthing Less.
Thinking
Done
Should
The First Race Of Mankind Used To Dispute, As Our Ordinary People Do Now-a-days, In A Kind Of Wild Logic, Uncultivated By Rule Of Art.
Art
Race
People
I Shall Endeavour To Enliven Morality With Wit, And To Temper Wit With Morality, That My Readers May, If Possible, Both Ways Findtheir Account In The Speculation Of The Day.
May
Way
Morality
They Were A People So Primitive They Did Not Know How To Get Money, Except By Working For It.
Funny
Money
Work
I Have Often Thought If The Minds Of Men Were Laid Open, We Should See But Little Difference Between That Of The Wise Man And That Of The Fool. There Are Infinite Reveries, Numberless Extravagances, And A Perpetual Train Of Vanities Which Pass Through Both. The Great Difference Is, That The First Knows How To Pick And Cull His Thoughts For Conversation, By Suppressing Some, And Communicating Others; Whereas The Other Lets Them All Indifferently Fly Out In Words.
Wise
Men
Vanity
Justice Is An Unassailable Fortress, Built On The Brow Of A Mountain Which Cannot Be Overthrown By The Violence Of Torrents, Nor Demolished By The Force Of Armies.
Army
Hiking
Justice
It Must Be So,-plato, Thou Reasonest Well! Else Whence This Pleasing Hope, This Fond Desire, This Longing After Immortality? Or Whence This Secret Dread And Inward Horror Of Falling Into Naught? Why Shrinks The Soul Back On Herself, And Startles At Destruction? 't Is The Divinity That Stirs Within Us; 't Is Heaven Itself That Points Out An Hereafter, And Intimates Eternity To Man. Eternity! Thou Pleasing, Dreadful Thought!
Plato
Fall
Men
We Make Provisions For This Life As If It Were Never To Have An End, And For The Other Life As Though It Were Never To Have A Beginning.
Inspirational
Change
Ends
A Man Who Is Furnished With Arguments From The Mint Will Convince His Antagonist Much Sooner Than One Who Draws Them From Reason And Philosophy.
Money
Philosophy
Men
A Common Civility To An Impertinent Fellow, Often Draws Upon One A Great Many Unforeseen Troubles; And If One Doth Not Take Particular Care, Will Be Interpreted By Him As An Overture Of Friendship And Intimacy.
Care
Common
Trouble
Nature Does Nothing Without Purpose Or Uselessly.
Nature
Doe
Purpose
There Is Not On Earth A Spectacle More Worthy The Regard Of A Creator Intent On His Works, Than A Brave Man Superior To His Sufferings.
Men
Suffering
Earth
It Is Certain That There Is No Other Passion Which Does Produce Such Contrary Effects In So Great A Degree. But This May Be Said For Love, That If You Strike It Out Of The Soul, Life Would Be Insipid, And Our Being But Half Animated.
Love
Passion
Soul
Beauty Commonly Produces Love, But Cleanliness Preserves It. Age Itself Is Not Unamiable While It Is Preserved Clean And Unsullied; Like A Piece Of Metal Constantly Kept Smooth And Bright, We Look On It With More Pleasure Than On A New Vessel Cankered With Rust.
Age
Looks
Pieces
If Gratitude, When Exerted Towards Another, Naturally Produces A Very Pleasing Sensation In The Mind Of A Grateful Man, It Exalts The Soul Into Rapture When It Is Employed On This Great Object Of Gratitude To The Beneficent Being Who Has Given Us Everything We Already Possess, And From Whom We Expect Everything We Yet Hope For.
Thank You
Gratitude
Grateful
Is There Not Some Chosen Curse, Some Hidden Thunder In The Stores Of Heaven, Red With Uncommon Wrath, To Blast The Man Who Owes His Greatness To His Country's Ruin!
Country
Integrity
Patriotic
If We May Believe Our Logicians, Man Is Distinguished From All Other Creatures By The Faculty Of Laughter. He Has A Heart Capable Of Mirth, And Naturally Disposed To It.
Laughter
Believe
Heart
Nature Has Laid Out All Her Art In Beautifying The Face; She Has Touched It With Vermilion, Planted In It A Double Row Of Ivory, Made It The Seat Of Smiles And Blushes, Lighted It Up And Enlivened It With The Brightness Of The Eyes, Hung It On Each Side With Curious Organs Of Sense, Given It Airs And Graces That Cannot Be Described, And Surrounded It With Such A Flowing Shade Of Hair As Sets All Its Beauties In The Most Agreeable Light.
Art
Eye
Light
Admiration Is A Very Short Lived Passion That Immediately Decays Upon Growing Familiar With Its Object, Unless It Still Be Fed With Fresh Discoveries, And Kept Alive By A New Perpetual Succession Of Miracles Rising Up To Its View.
Life
Respect
Passion
Our Disputants Put Me In Mind Of The Cuttlefish That, When He Is Unable To Extricate Himself, Blackens The Water About Him Till He Becomes Invisible.
Water
Mind
Invisible
The Most Exquisite Words And Finest Strokes Of An Author Are Those Which Very Often Appear The Most Doubtful And Exceptionable To A Man Who Wants A Relish For Polite Learning; And They Are Those Which A Sour Undistinguishing Critic Generally Attacks With The Greatest Violence.
Men
Want
Violence
Mankind Are More Indebted To Industry Than Ingenuity; The Gods Set Up Their Favors At A Price, And Industry Is The Purchaser.
Favors
Mankind
Ingenuity
The English Writers Of Tragedy Are Possessed With A Notion, That When They Represent A Virtuous Or Innocent Person In Distress, They Ought Not To Leave Him Till They Have Delivered Him Out Of His Troubles, Or Made Him Triumph Over His Enemies.
Innocent Person
Enemy
Criticism
There Is Noting Truly Valuable Which Can Be Purchased Without Pains And Labor. The Gods Have Set A Price Upon Every Real And Noble Pleasure.
Pain
Real
Noble
I Have Often Wondered That Learning Is Not Thought A Proper Ingredient In The Education Of A Woman Of Quality Or Fortune. Since They Have The Same Improvable Minds As The Male Part Of Their Species.
Women
Mind
Quality
Nothing Makes A Woman More Esteemed By The Opposite Sex Than Chastity; Whether It Be That We Always Prize Those Most Who Are Hardest To Come At, Or That Nothing Besides Chastity, With Its Collateral Attendants, Truth, Fidelity, And Constancy, Gives A Man A Property In The Person He Loves, And Consequently Endears Her To Him Above All Things.
Sex
Men
Opposites
Supposing All The Great Points Of Atheism Were Formed Into A Kind Of Creed, I Would Fain Ask Whether It Would Not Require An Infinite Greater Measure Of Faith Than Any Set Of Articles Which They So Violently Oppose.
Atheism
Kind
Infinite
We Are Always Doing Something For Posterity, But I Would Fain See Posterity Do Something For Us.
Literature
Posterity
Pedantry In Learning Is Like Hypocrisy Inn Religion--a Form Of Knowledge Without The Power Of It.
Hypocrisy
Pedants
Form
The Greatest Sweetener Of Human Life Is Friendship.
Friendship
Real
Life Is
Nothing Makes Men Sharper Than Want.
Men
Want
The Most Violent Appetites In All Creatures Are Lust And Hunger; The First Is A Perpetual Call Upon Them To Propagate Their Kind, The Latter To Preserve Themselves.
Lust
Literature
Firsts
The Gods In Bounty Work Up Storms About Us, That Give Mankind Occasion To Exert Their Hidden Strength, And Throw Our Into Practice Virtues That Shun The Day, And Lie Concealed In The Smooth Seasons And The Calms Of Life.
Life
Lying
Practice
It Is Always To Be Understood That A Lady Takes All You Detract From The Rest Of Her Sex To Be A Gift To Her.
Sex
Slander
Understood
Content Has A Kindly Influence On The Soul Of Man, In Respect Of Every Being To Whom He Stands Related. It Extinguishes All Murmuring, Repining, And Ingratitude Toward That Being Who Has Allotted Us Our Part To Act In The World. It Destroys All Inordinate Ambition; Gives Sweetness To The Conversation, And Serenity To All The Thoughts; And If It Does Not Bring Riches, It Does The Same Thing By Banishing The Desire Of Them.
Ambition
Men
Giving
An Indiscreet Man Is More Hurtful Than An Ill-natured One; For As The Latter Will Only Attack His Enemies, And Those He Wishes Ill To, The Other Injures Indifferently Both Friends And Foes.
Men
Enemy
Wish
Fame Is A Good So Wholly Foreign To Our Natures That We Have No Faculty In The Soul Adapted To It, Nor Any Organ In The Body To Relish It; An Object Of Desire Placed Out Of The Possibility Of Fruition.
Soul
Desire
Fruition
The Gloomy Months Of November, When The People Of England Hang And Drown Themselves.
People
Months
England
A Jealous Man Is Very Quick In His Application: He Knows How To Find A Double Edge In An Invective, And To Draw A Satire On Himself Out Of A Panegyrick On Another.
Jealous
Men
Envy
The Man Who Will Live Above His Present Circumstances, Is In Great Danger Of Soon Living Beneath Them; Or As The Italian Proverb Says, "the Man That Lives By Hope, Will Die By Despair.
Italian
Men
Despair
What An Absurd Thing It Is To Pass Over All The Valuable Parts Of A Man, And Fix Our Attention On His Infirmities.
Men
Attention
Absurd
Artificial Intelligence Will Never Be A Match For Natural Stupidity.
Stupid
People
Natural
Quick Sensitivity Is Inseperable From A Ready Understanding.
Understanding
Sensitivity
Ready
Life Is Not Long Enough For A Coquette To Play All Her Tricks In.
Play
Long
Dating
That Fine Part Of Our Construction, The Eye, Seems As Much The Receptacle And Seat Of Our Passions As The Mind Itself; And At Least It Is The Outward Portal To Introduce Them To The House Within, Or Rather The Common Thoroughfare To Let Our Affections Pass In And Out.
Passion
Eye
House
A Man That Has A Taste Of Music, Painting, Or Architecture, Is Like One That Has Another Sense, When Compared With Such As Have No Relish Of Those Arts
Music
Art
Men
Beauty Soon Grows Familiar To The Lover, Fades In His Eye, And Palls Upon The Sense.
Beauty
Beautiful
Eye
Irresolution On The Schemes Of Life Which Offer Themselves To Our Choice, And Inconstancy In Pursuing Them, Are The Greatest Causes Of All Our Unhappiness.
Life
Choices
Causes
A Money-lender--he Serves You In The Present Tense; He Lends You In The Conditional Mood; Keeps You In The Conjunctive; And Ruins You In The Future.
Ruins
Mood
Tense
To Look Upon The Soul As Going On From Strength To Strength, To Consider That She Is To Shine Forever With New Accessions Of Glory, And Brighten To All Eternity; That She Will Be Still Adding Virtue To Virtue, And Knowledge To Knowledge,--carries In It Something Wonderfully Agreeable To That Ambition Which Is Natural To The Mind Of Man.
Ambition
Men
Forever
It Generally Takes Its Rise Either From An Ill-will To Mankind, A Private Inclination To Make Ourselves Esteemed, An Ostentation Of Wit, And Vanity Of Being Thought In The Secrets Of The World; Or From A Desire Of Gratifying Any Of These Dispositions Of Mind In Those Persons With Whom We Converse.
Vanity
Ill Will
Mind
Men May Change Their Climate, But They Cannot Change Their Nature. A Man That Goes Out A Fool Cannot Ride Or Sail Himself Into Common Sense.
Inspirational
Funny
Nature
The Productions Of A Great Genius, With Many Lapses And Inadvertences, Are Infinitely Preferable To The Works Of An Inferior Kind Of Author Which Are Scrupulously Exact, And Conformable To All The Rules Of Correct Writing.
Writing
Lapses
Genius
Men Who Profess A State Of Neutrality In Times Of Public Danger, Desert The Common Interest Of Their Fellow Subjects; And Act With Independence To That Constitution Into Which They Are Incorporated. The Safety Of The Whole Requires Our Joint Endeavours. When This Is At Stake, The Indifferent Are Not Properly A Part Of The Community; Or Rather Are Like Dead Limbs, Which Are An Encumbrance To The Body, Instead Of Being Of Use To It.
Men
Safety
Community
There Is No Society Or Conversation To Be Kept Up In The World Without Good-nature, Or Something Which Must Bear Its Appearance And Supply Its Place. For This Reason Mankind Have Been Forced To Invent A Kind Of Artificial Humanity, Which Is What We Express By The Word Good-breeding.
Humanity
World
Bears
Hope Calculates Its Scenes For A Long And Durable Life; Presses Forward To Imaginary Points Of Bliss; And Grasps At Impossibilities; And Consequently Very Often Ensnares Men Into Beggary, Ruin And Dishonor.
Hope
Men
Long
How Is It Possible For Those Who Are Men Of Honor In Their Persons, Thus To Become Notorious Liars In Their Party
Liars
Party
Men
Adulterers, In The First Stages Of The Church, Were Excommunicated Forever, And Unqualified All Their Lives For Bearing A Part In Christian Assemblies, Notwithstanding They Might Seek It With Tears, And All The Appearances Of The Most Unfeigned Repentance.
Christian
Forever
Tears
Yet Then From All My Grief, O Lord, Thy Mercy Set Me Free, Whilst In The Confidence Of Pray'r My Soul Took Hold On Thee.
Prayer
Grief
Soul
Fables Take Off From The Severity Of Instruction, And Enforce It At The Same Time That They Conceal It.
Fables
Instruction
Severity
I Never Knew A Critic Who Made It His Business To Lash The Faults Of Other Writers That Was Not Guilty Of Greater Himself--as The Hangman Is Generally A Worse Malefactor Than The Criminal That Suffers By His Hand.
Hands
Suffering
Criminals
A Virtuous Mind In A Fair Body Is Indeed A Fine Picture In A Good Light, And Therefore It Is No Wonder That It Makes The Beautiful Sex All Over Charms.
Beautiful
Sex
Women
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.
Life
Mirth
Graves
God Discovers The Martyr And Confessor Without The Trial Of Flames And Tortures, And Will Hereafter Entitle Many To The Reward Of Actions Which They Had Never The Opportunity Of Performing.
Opportunity
Flames
Trials
There Is No Passion That Steals Into The Heart More Imperceptibly And Covers Itself Under More Disguises Than Pride.
Passion
Heart
Pride
There Is Nothing Which One Regards So Much With An Eye Of Mirth And Pity As Innocence When It Has In It A Dash Of Folly.
Eye
Mirth
Innocence
True Modesty Avoids Everything That Is Criminal; False Modesty Everything That Is Unfashionable.
Criminals
Modesty
False Modesty
Our Sight Is The Most Perfect And Most Delightful Of All Our Senses. It Fills The Mind With The Largest Variety Of Ideas, Converses With Its Objects At The Greatest Distance, And Continues The Longest In Action Without Being Tired Or Satiated With Its Proper Enjoyments.
Distance
Tired
Sight
All Of Heaven We Have Below.
Music
Heaven
But Silence Never Shows Itself To So Great An Advantage, As When It Is Made The Reply To Calumny And Defamation, Provided That We Give No Just Occasion For Them.
Giving
Silence
Advantage
Laughter, While It Lasts, Slackens And Unbraces The Mind, Weakens The Faculties, And Causes A Kind Of Remissness And Dissolution In All The Powers Of The Soul.
Laughter
Soul
Mind
There Is Nothing That More Betrays A Base Ungenerous Spirit Than The Giving Of Secret Stabs To A Man's Reputation. Lampoons And Satires That Are Written With Wit And Spirit Are Like Poisoned Darts, Which Not Only Inflict A Wound, But Make It Incurable.
Men
Giving
Gossip
Eternity! Thou Pleasing, Dreadful Thought.
Time
Time Management
Eternity
Antidotes Are What You Take To Prevent Dotes.
Stupid
People
Antidote
There Is Not A More Melancholy Object Than A Man Who Has His Head Turned With Religious Enthusiasm.
Religious
Men
Enthusiasm
Among The English Authors, Shakespeare Has Incomparably Excelled All Others. That Noble Extravagance Of Fancy, Which He Had In So Great Perfection, Thoroughly Qualified Him To Touch The Weak, Superstitious Part Of His Readers' Imagination, And Made Him Capable Of Succeeding Where He Had Nothing To Support Him Besides The Strength Of His Own Genius.
Imagination
Perfection
Support
One Of The Most Important But One Of The Most Difficult Things For A Powerful Mind Is To Be Its Own Master.
Powerful
Mind
Important
It Is Usual For A Man Who Loves Country Sports To Preserve The Game In His Own Grounds, And Divert Himself Upon Those That Belongto His Neighbour.
Sports
Country
Men
Good Nature Will Always Supply The Absence Of Beauty; But Beauty Cannot Supply The Absence Of Good Nature.
Beauty
Kindness
Absence
A Man With Great Talents, But Void Of Discretion, Is Like Polyphemus In The Fable, Strong And Blind, Endued With An Irresistible Force, Which For Want Of Sight Is Of No Use To Him.
Strong
Men
Sight
True Religion And Virtue Give A Cheerful And Happy Turn To The Mind, Admit Of All True Pleasures, And Even Procure For Us The Highest.
Giving
Mind
Religion
The Spacious Firmament On High, And All The Blue Ethereal Sky, And Spangled Heavens, A Shining Frame, Their Great Original Proclaim.
Blue
Sky
Shining
Love Is A Second Life; It Grows Into The Soul, Warms Every Vein, And Beats In Every Pulse.
Love
Life
Soul
The Post Of Honour Is A Private Station.
Literature
Honour
Posts
The Time Never Lies Heavy Upon Him; It Is Impossible For Him To Be Alone.
Lying
Impossible
Heavy
Men Who Cherish For Women The Highest Respect Are Seldom Popular With Them.
Respect
Men
Cherish
One Would Think That The Larger The Company Is In Which We Are Engaged, The Greater Variety Of Thoughts And Subjects Would Be Started Into Discourse; But, Instead Of This We Find That Conversation Is Never So Much Straightened And Confined, As In Numerous Assemblies.
Thinking
Would Be
Assembly
Courage Is The Thing. All Goes If Courage Goes.
Courage
Bravery
Ifs
In The Loss Of An Object We Do Not Proportion Our Grief To The Real Value It Bears, But To The Value Our Fancies Set Upon It.
Real
Grief
Loss
What Sculpture Is To A Block Of Marble, Education Is To The Human Soul.
Motivational
Inspiring
Education
One Would Fancy That The Zealots In Atheism Would Be Exempt From The Single Fault Which Seems To Grow Out Of The Imprudent Fervor Of Religion. But So It Is, That Irreligion Is Propagated With As Much Fierceness And Contention, Wrath And Indignation, As If The Safety Of Mankind Depended Upon It.
Wrath
Safety
Atheism
There Is No Talent So Pernicious As Eloquence To Those Who Have It Under Command.
Talent
Command
Eloquence
Man Is The Merriest Species Of The Creation; All Above Or Below Him Are Serious.
Men
Mirth
Serious
Our Real Blessings Often Appear To Us In The Shape Of Pains, Losses And Disappointments; But Let Us Have Patience And We Soon Shall See Them In Their Proper Figures.
Happiness
Patience
Pain
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.
Secret
Divinity
Causes
Nature In Her Whole Drama Never Drew Such A Part; She Has Sometimes Made A Fool, But A Coxcomb Is Always Of A Man's Own Making.
Drama
Men
Fool
Waning Moons Their Settled Periods Keep, To Swell The Billows And Ferment The Deep.
Moon
Periods
O Ye Powers That Search The Heart Of Man, And Weigh His Inmost Thoughts, If I Have Done Amiss, Impute It Not! The Best May Err, But You Are Good.
Heart
Men
Done
The Pleasantest Part Of A Man's Life Is Generally That Which Passes In Courtship, Provided His Passion Be Sincere, And The Party Beloved Kind With Discretion. Love, Desire, Hope, All The Pleasing Emotions Of The Soul, Rise In The Pursuit.
Party
Passion
Men
Wine Heightens Indifference Into Love, Love Into Jealousy, And Jealousy Into Madness. It Often Turns The Good-natured Man Into An Idiot, And The Choleric Into An Assassin. It Gives Bitterness To Resentment, It Makes Vanity Insupportable, And Displays Every Little Spot Of The Soul In Its Utmost Deformity.
Wine
Men
Vanity
When A Man Becomes Familiar With His Goddess, She Quickly Sinks Into A Woman.
Men
Goddess
Familiar
Thus I Live In The World Rather As A Spectator Of Mankind, Than As One Of The Species, By Which Means I Have Made Myself A Speculative Statesman, Soldier, Merchant, And Artisan, Without Ever Meddling With Any Practical Part Of Life.
Mean
Soldier
World
The Fashionable World Is Grown Free And Easie; Our Manners Sit More Loose Upon Us: Nothing Is So Modish As An Agreeable Negligence. In A Word, Good Breeding Shows It Self Most, Where To An Ordinary Eye It Appears The Least.
Eye
Self
Ordinary
Thy Steady Temper, Portius, Can Look On Guilt, Rebellion, Fraud, And Cæsar, In The Calm Lights Of Mild Philosophy.
Philosophy
Light
Guilt
Nations With Nations Mix'd Confus'dly Die, And Lost In One Promiscuous Carnage Lie.
War
Lying
Lost
As Vivacity Is The Gift Of Women, Gravity Is That Of Men.
Women
Gravity
Vivacity
Trending Author
David Mallet
Wernher Von Braun
Mircea Eliade
Steve King
January Jones
Michael Hutchence
Category
Information