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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.

— Joseph Addison Disputed

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Source and credibility

Wikiquote notes doubts about whether Joseph Addison really said this.

Source: This appears as an anonymous proverb in Frank Leslie's Sunday Magazine Vol. XIII, (January - June 1883) edited by T. De Witt Talmage, and apparently only in recent years has it become attributed to Addison.
Source quality: Precise citation Points to a specific work with a page, chapter, date or similar locator, so you can look it up.

More by Joseph Addison

The Fear of Death often proves Mortal, and sets People on Methods to save their Lives, which infallibly destroy them.

The Spectator (1711)

I shall endeavor to enliven morality with wit, and to temper wit with morality.

The Spectator (1711)

Music, the greatest good that mortals know,
And all of heaven we have below.

Song for St. Cecilia's Day (1692)

If there's a power above us,
(And that there is all nature cries aloud
Through all her works) he must delight in virtue.

Cato, A Tragedy (1713)

A day, an hour, of virtuous liberty
Is worth a whole eternity in bondage.

Cato, A Tragedy (1713)

Some virtues are only seen in affliction and some in prosperity.

The Spectator (1711)

Health and cheerfulness mutually beget each other.

The Spectator (1711)

Nature does nothing without purpose or uselessly.

Cato, A Tragedy (1713)

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More quotes by Joseph Addison

Keep up the loud harmonious song,
And imitate the blest above,
In joy, and harmony, and love.

Song for St. Cecilia's Day (1692)

If we may believe our logicians, man is distinguished from all other creatures by the faculty of laughter.

The Spectator (1711)

'Tis not in mortals to command success,
But we'll do more, Sempronius; we'll deserve it.

Cato, A Tragedy (1713)

We are growing serious, and,
Let me tell you, that's the very next step to being dull.

The Drummer (1716)

Thus I live in the world rather as a spectator of mankind than as one of the species.

The Spectator (1711)

All Joseph Addison quotes →

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Joseph Addison (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.