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.”

“When I consider the Question, Whether there are such Persons in the World as those we call Witches? my Mind is divided between the two opposite Opinions; or rather (to speak my Thoughts freely) I believe in general that there is, and has been such a thing as Witchcraft; but at the same time can give no Credit to any Particular Instance of it.”

“The friendships of the world are oft
Confederacies in vice, or leagues of pleasure;
Ours has severest virtue for its basis,
And such a friendship ends not but with life.”

“Young men soon give and soon forget affronts;
Old age is slow in both.”

“We are always doing something for Posterity, but I would fain see Posterity do something for us.”

“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.”

“If I can any way contribute to the diversion or improvement of the country in which I live, I shall leave it, when I am summoned out of it, with the secret satisfaction of thinking that I have not lived in vain.”

“Great Pompey's shade complains that we are slow,
And Scipio's ghost walks unavenged amongst us!”

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

“Nature does nothing without purpose or uselessly.”

“For ever singing as they shine,
The hand that made us is divine.”

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

“Courage that grows from constitution very often forsakes a man when he has occasion for it, and when it is only a kind of instinct in the Soul breaks out on all occasions without judgment or discretion. That courage which proceeds from the sense of our duty, and from the fear of offending Him that made us, acts always in a uniform manner, and according to the dictates of right reason.”

“Men may change their climate, but they cannot change their nature. A man that goes out a fool cannot ride or sail himself into common sense.”

“Talk not of love: thou never knew'st its force.”

“Tis pride, rank pride, and haughtiness of soul:
I think the Romans call it Stoicism.”

“Oh! think what anxious moments pass between
The birth of plots, and their last fatal periods,
Oh! 'tis a dreadful interval of time,
Filled up with horror all, and big with death!”

“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.”

“What sculpture is to a block of marble, education is to the human soul.”

“The circumstance which gives authors an advantage above all these great masters, is this, that they can multiply their originals; or rather, can make copies of their works, to what number they please, which shall be as valuable as the originals themselves.”

“When love's well-timed 'tis not a fault of love;
The strong, the brave, the virtuous, and the wise,
Sink in the soft captivity together.”

“What an absurd thing it is to pass over all the valuable parts of a man, and fix our attention on his infirmities.”

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

“The dawn is overcast, the morning lowers,
And heavily in clouds brings on the day,
The great, the important day,
Big with the fate Of Cato, and of Rome.”

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

“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.”

“A thousand trills and quivering sounds
In airy circles o'er us fly,
Till, wafted by a gentle breeze,
They faint and languish by degrees,
And at a distance die.”

“The man who will live above his present circumstances is in great danger of living in a little time much beneath them; or as the Italian proverb runs, "The man who lives by hope, will die by hunger."”

“I will indulge my sorrows, and give way
To all the pangs and fury of despair.”

“Were not this desire of fame very strong, the difficulty of obtaining it, and the danger of losing it when obtained, would be sufficient to deter a man from so vain a pursuit.”