Joseph Addison Man Quotations

Learning is pedantry, wit, impertinence, virtue itself looked like weakness, and the best parts only qualify a man to be more sprightly in errors, and active to his own prejudice.

Sir Roger told them, with the air of a man who would not give his judgement rashly, that much might be said on both sides.

Method is not less requisite in conversation than in writing, provided a man would talk to make himself understood

A man should always consider how much more unhappy he might be than he is

Pray consider what a figure a man would make in the republic of letters.

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.

There are a sort of knight-errants in the world, who, quite contrary to those in romance, are perpetually seeking adventures to bring virgins into distress, and to ruin innocence. When men of rank and figure pass away their lives in these criminal pursuits and practices, they ought to consider that they render themselves more vile and despicable than any innocent man can be, whatever low station his fortune or birth have placed him in.

Cunning is only the mimic of discretion, and may pass upon weak men in the same manner as vivacity is often mistaken for wit, and gravity for wisdom.

Government mitigates the inequality of power, and makes an innocent man, though of the lowest rank, a match for the mightiest of his fellow-subjects.

The man who lives by hope, will die by hunger.

Title and ancestry render a good man more illustrious, but an ill one more contemptible.

It is ridiculous for any man to criticize the works of another if he has not distinguished himself by his own performances