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Misattributed quotes — Joseph Addison

1672–1719 England

← All quotes by Joseph Addison

22 quotes

That he delights in the misery of others no man will confess, and yet what other motive can make a father cruel?

Misattributed

The unjustifiable severity of a parent is loaded with this aggravation, that those whom he injures are always in his sight.

Misattributed

To say that authority, whether secular or religious, supplies no ground for morality is not to deny the obvious fact that it supplies a sanction.

Misattributed

The grand essentials to happiness in this life are something to do, something to love and something to hope for.

Misattributed

No oppression is so heavy or lasting as that which is inflicted by the perversion and exorbitance of legal authority.

Misattributed

The beloved of the Almighty are: the rich who have the humility of the poor, and the poor who have the magnanimity of the rich.

Misattributed

The chief ingredients in the composition of those qualities that gain esteem and praise, are good nature, truth, good sense, and good breeding.

Misattributed

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

Misattributed

Plenty of people wish to become devout, but no one wishes to be humble.

Misattributed

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

Misattributed

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.

Misattributed

With regard to donations always expect the most from prudent people, who keep their own accounts.

Misattributed This is attributed to Addison in The Columbia Dictionary of Quotations (1993)

When you are at Rome, live as Romans live.

Misattributed

To a man of pleasure every moment appears to be lost, which partakes not of the vivacity of amusement.

Misattributed

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.

Misattributed

He that would pass the latter part of life with honour and decency, must, when he is young, consider that he shall one day be old; and remember, when he is old, that he has once been young.

Misattributed

Jesters do often prove prophets.

Misattributed

The utmost extent of man's knowledge, is to know that he knows nothing.

Misattributed

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.

Misattributed

They were a people so primitive they did not know how to get money, except by working for it.

Misattributed

Attribution

Quotes and notes from Wikiquote: Joseph Addison (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.