Authors
Joseph Addison
1672 – 1719
Joseph Addison was an English essayist who, with his friend Richard Steele, co-founded The Spectator, a daily paper read aloud and debated in the coffee houses of London. His clear, friendly essays about manners, books, and everyday life helped invent the modern magazine style of writing. He believed good writing should bring learning out of libraries and into ordinary conversation, and alongside his writing he rose to become one of Britain's most senior statesmen, serving as Secretary of State.
Quotes
“Reading is to the mind, what exercise is to the body.”
“In Proportion as Conversation gets into Clubs and Knots of Friends, it descends into Particulars, and grows more free and communicative: But the most open, instructive, and unreserved Discourse, is that which passes between two Persons who are familiar and intimate Friends.”
“But the Mind never unbends itself so agreeably as in the Conversation of a well chosen Friend.”
“The spacious firmament on high, With all the blue ethereal sky, And spangled heavens, a shining frame, Their great Original proclaim. Th’ unwearied Sun from day to day Does his Creator’s power display; And publishes to every land The work of an Almighty hand.”
“Soon as the evening shades prevail, The Moon takes up the wondrous tale; And nightly to the listening Earth Repeats the story of her birth: Whilst all the stars that round her burn, And all the planets in their turn, Confirm the tidings as they roll, And spread the truth from pole to pole.”
“What though in solemn silence all Move round the dark terrestrial ball; What though nor real voice nor sound Amidst their radiant orbs be found? In Reason’s ear they all rejoice, And utter forth a glorious voice; For ever singing as they shine, ‘The Hand that made us is divine.’”