Frases de Joseph Addison

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“Um temperamento agradável pode compensar-nos da falta de beleza, mas a beleza não basta para nos indemnizar de um temperamento desagradável.”

“A alegria mantém uma espécie de amanhecer em nossa mente e a enche de serenidade firme e perpétua.”

“Depois da virtude, é o conhecimento o que eleva um homem sobre os demais.”

“Tudo o que é novo suscita na imaginação um raro prazer, porque ele enche a alma com uma agradável surpresa, gratifica sua curiosidade e lhe dá uma idéia do que antes não possuía.”

“A leitura é para o intelecto o que o exercício é para o corpo.”

“O homem se diferencia de todas as outras criaturas pela faculdade de rir.”

“É ridículo para um homem criticar o trabalho de um outro se não se distinguiu pessoalmente na mesma realização.”

“Uma mente satisfeita é a maior bênção que um homem pode aproveitar neste mundo.”

“A vida parece-nos curta, e as horas parecem-nos compridas; o nosso gosto seria alongar a cadeia, encurtando os anéis.”

“Os grandes essenciais
para a felicidade
nesta vida, são
alguma coisa para fazer
alguma coisa para amar
e algo por que esperar.”

“As cores falam todas as línguas.”

“Felicidade é alguém para amar, algo para fazer e algo para aspirar.”

“Nossas verdadeiras bênçãos aparecem para nós em forma de dores, perdas e decepções; mas tenhamos paciência, e logo devemos vê-las em suas próprias figuras.”

“Saúde e alegria mutuamente se geram.”

“Música, o maior produto que os mortais conhecem e tudo de celestial que escutamos aqui em baixo.”

“A amizade aumenta a felicidade e reduz o infortúnio, multiplicando a nossa alegria e dividindo a nossa dor.”

“O sol é para as flores o que os sorrisos são para a humanidade.”

“Dores de irmão exigem piedade de irmão.”

“Há diversos tipos de curiosidade; uma de interesse, que nos leva ao desejo de aprender o que nos pode ser útil, e outra, de orgulho, que provém do desejo de saber o que os outros ignoram.”

“Um bom livro é um legado precioso que o autor faz à humanidade.”

“Nunca encontrei companhia tão amigável como a solidão.”

“Uma mulher raramente pede conselhos antes de ter comprado seu vestido de casamento.”

“O fraco poderá lutar e vencer; perdoar, nunca.”

“O poeta nunca está inteiramente absorto nos seus pensamentos. O técnico está sempre.”

“A modéstia não é um simples ornamento da virtude; é também o seu guardião.”

“Não há nada que recebamos com tanta relutância como os conselhos.”

“O vinho transforma a indiferença em amor, o amor em ciúme e o ciúme em loucura.”

“The great art in writing advertisements is the finding out a proper method to catch the reader's eye; without which a good thing may pass over unobserved, or be lost among commissions of bankrupt.”

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

“Our disputants put me in mind of the skuttle fish, that when he is unable to extricate himself, blackens all the water about him, till he becomes invisible.”

“The sense of honour is of so fine and delicate a nature, that it is only to be met with in minds which are naturally noble, or in such as have been cultivated by good examples, or a refined education.”

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

“There is nothing more requisite in business than dispatch.”

“Authors have established it as a kind of rule, that a man ought to be dull sometimes; as the most severe reader makes allowances for many rests and nodding places in a voluminous writer.”

“On you, my lord, with anxious fear I wait,
And from your judgment must expect my fate.”

“When hosts of foes with foes engage,
And round th' anointed hero rage,
The cleaving fauchion I misguide,
And turn the feather'd shaft aside.”

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

“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.”

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

“Man is subject to innumerable pains and sorrows by the very condition of humanity, and yet, as if nature had not sown evils enough in life, we are continually adding grief to grief, and aggravating the common calamity by our cruel treatment of one another.”

“Jesters do often prove prophets.”

“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.”

“Justice discards party, friendship, kindred, and is therefore always represented as blind.”

“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.”

“What means this heaviness that hangs upon me?
This lethargy that creeps through all my senses?
Nature, oppress'd and harrass'd out with care,
Sinks down to rest.”

“Rais'd of themselves, their genuine charms they boast,
And those who paint them truest praise them most.”

“The stars shall fade away, the sun himself
Grow dim with age, and nature sink in years,
But thou shalt flourish in immortal youth,
Unhurt amidst the wars of elements,
The wrecks of matter, and the crush of worlds.”

“When men are easy in their circumstances, they are naturally enemies to innovations.”

“I would… earnestly advise them for their good to order this paper to be punctually served up, and to be looked upon as a part of the tea equipage.”

“A man should always consider how much he has more than he wants.”

“Blessings may appear under the shape of pains, losses and disappointments; but let him have patience, and he will see them in their proper figures.”

“If we hope for what we are not likely to possess, we act and think in vain, and make life a greater dream and shadow than it really is.”

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

“Were I to prescribe a rule for drinking, it should be formed upon a saying quoted by Sir William Temple: the first glass for myself, the second for my friends, the third for good humor, and the fourth for mine enemies.”

“Better to die ten thousand deaths,
Than wound my honour.”

“A misery is not to be measured from the nature of the evil, but from the temper of the sufferer.”