Literary Birthday – 1 May – Joseph Addison

Joseph Addison was born on 1 May 1672 and died on 17 June 1719.

Joseph Addison Quotes

1. Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body.
2. Words, when well chosen, have so great a force in them, that a description often gives us more lively ideas than the sight of things themselves.
3. Man is distinguished from all other creatures by the faculty of laughter.
4. Three grand essentials to happiness in this life are something to do, something to love, and something to hope for.
5. 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.
6. Plenty of people wish to become devout, but no one wishes to be humble.
7. An empty desk is a sign of a cluttered desk drawer.
8. There is nothing which we receive with so much reluctance as advice.

Joseph Addison was an English essayist, poet, playwright, and politician. His poem about the ‘Battle of Blenheim’ caught the attention of  politicians and led to government jobs and literary fame. He wrote the play, Cato: A Tragedy, but he is best remembered as the co-founder of The Spectator magazine. With Richard Steele, he also founded The Tatler. He used these periodicals to investigate English manners and society. Samuel Johnson’s praise of The Spectator as a model of prose style established Addison as one of the most admired and influential masters of prose in the language.

Source for Image: After Godfrey Kneller, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Joseph_Addison_by_Sir_Godfrey_Kneller,_Bt.jpg

by Amanda Patterson

Please click here for our Literary Birthday Calendar

{6}