What sunshine is to flowers, smiles are to humanity. These are but trifles, to be sure; but scattered along life's pathway, the good they do is inconceivable.
Joseph Addison
Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body.
Three grand essentials to happiness in this life are something to do, something to love, and something to hope for.
If you wish to succeed in life, make perseverance your bosom friend, experience your wise counselor, caution your elder brother, and hope your guardian genius.
Sunday clears away the rust of the whole week.
Cheerfulness is the best promoter of health and is as friendly to the mind as to the body.
The greatest sweetener of human life is Friendship. To raise this to the highest pitch of enjoyment, is a secret which but few discover.
What sculpture is to a block of marble, education is to the soul.
A contented mind is the greatest blessing a man can enjoy in this world.
Reading is a basic tool in the living of a good life.
True happiness arises, in the first place, from the enjoyment of one's self, and in the next, from the friendship and conversation of a few select companions.
Our real blessings often appear to us in the shape of pains, losses and disappointments; but let us have patience and we soon shall see them in their proper figures.
I value my garden more for being full of blackbirds than of cherries, and very frankly give them fruit for their songs.
No oppression is so heavy or lasting as that which is inflicted by the perversion and exorbitance of legal authority.
Even a stopped clock is right twice a day.
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.
There is nothing which we receive with so much reluctance as advice.
Justice is an unassailable fortress, built on the brow of a mountain which cannot be overthrown by the violence of torrents, nor demolished by the force of armies.
Music, the greatest good that mortals know and all of heaven we have hear below.
A man should always consider how much he has more than he wants.
Mirth is like a flash of lightning, that breaks through a gloom of clouds, and glitters for a moment; cheerfulness keeps up a kind of daylight in the mind, and fills it with a steady and perpetual serenity.
Better to die ten thousand deaths than wound my honor.
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.
It is only imperfection that complains of what is imperfect. The more perfect we are the more gentle and quiet we become towards the defects of others.
I will indulge my sorrows, and give way to all the pangs and fury of despair.
Modesty is not only an ornament, but also a guard to virtue.
Is there not some chosen curse, some hidden thunder in the stores of heaven, red with uncommon wrath, to blast the man who owes his greatness to his country's ruin!
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.
A cloudy day or a little sunshine have as great an influence on many constitutions as the most recent blessings or misfortunes.
There is nothing that makes its way more directly into the soul than beauty.
Mutability of temper and inconsistency with ourselves is the greatest weakness of human nature.
Suspicion is not less an enemy to virtue than to happiness; he that is already corrupt is naturally suspicious, and he that becomes suspicious will quickly be corrupt.
We are always doing something for posterity, but I would fain see posterity do something for us.
To be an atheist requires an indefinitely greater measure of faith than to recieve all the great truths which atheism would deny.
Among all kinds of Writing, there is none in which Authors are more apt to miscarry than in Works of Humour, as there is none in which they are more ambitious to excel.
Nothing is more gratifying to the mind of man than power or dominion.
The woman that deliberates is lost.
What pity is it That we can die, but once to serve our country.
A man must be both stupid and uncharitable who believes there is no virtue or truth but on his own side.
Plenty of people wish to become devout, but no one wishes to be humble.
Mere bashfulness without merit is awkwardness.
Mysterious love, uncertain treasure, hast thou more of pain or pleasure! Endless torments dwell about thee: Yet who would live, and live without thee!
Books are the legacies that a great genius leaves to mankind, which are delivered down from generation to generation as presents to the posterity of those who are yet unborn.
Those Marriages generally abound most with Love and Constancy, that are preceded by a long Courtship.
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.
To be perfectly just is an attribute of the divine nature; to be so to the utmost of our abilities, is the glory of man.
He who would pass his declining years with honor and comfort, should, when young, consider that he may one day become old, and remember when he is old, that he has once been young.
The Mind that lies fallow but a single Day, sprouts up in Follies that are only to be killed by a constant and assiduous Culture.
The most violent appetites in all creatures are lust and hunger; the first is a perpetual call upon them to propagate their kind, the latter to preserve themselves.
The unjustifiable severity of a parent is loaded with this aggravation, that those whom he injures are always in his sight.
