Joseph Addison (1672-1719)

Joseph Addison (1672-1719)

Joseph Addison (May 1 1672 – June 17 1719) was an English politician and writer. His name is often remembered in tandem with that of his friend, Richard Steele, with whom he founded The Spectator magazine.

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Admiration

@ Admiration is a very short-lived passion that immediately decays upon growing familiar with its object, unless it be still fed with fresh discoveries, and kept alive by a new perpetual succession of miracles rising up to its view.
Joseph Addison in Spectator No. 256 (24 December 1711).

Courage

@ I think the Romans call it Stoicism. [Joseph Addison, Cato, A Tragedy (1713), Act I, scene 4.]

Friendship

@ 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.
[Joseph Addison, in Cato, A Tragedy (1713), Act III, scene 1.]