Joseph Addison Quotes

Nothing can be further apart than true humility and servility.

The most virtuous are those who content themselves with being virtuous without seeking to appear so.

Humility is the foundation of all the other virtues hence, in the soul in which this virtue does not exist there cannot be any other virtue except in mere appearance.

The person who talks most of his own virtue is often the least virtuous.

Modesty is not only an ornament, but also a guard to virtue.

Let us be absolutely clear about one thing: we must not confuse humility with false modesty or servility.

Whenever I'm around some who is modest, I think, 'Run like hell and all of fire.' You don't want modesty, you want humility.

Guilt pins a fig-leaf; Innocence is its own adorning.

True modesty avoids everything that is criminal; false modesty everything that is unfashionable.

Only have enough of little virtues and common fidelities, and you need not mourn because you are neither a hero nor a saint.

Humility is, of all graces, the chiefest when it does not know itself to be a grace at all.

I choose goodness... I will go without a dollar before I take a dishonest one. I will be overlooked before I will boast. I will confess before I will accuse. I choose goodness.

Let thy virtue be too high for the familiarity of names, and if thou must speak of it, be not ashamed to stammer about it.

Honor is decency without vanity.

He who possess virtue in abundance may be compared to an infant.

A blush is the sign which Nature hangs out to show where chastity and honor dwell.

True humility scarcely ever utters words of humility.

One who has accumulated virtue will certainly also possess eloquence; but he who has eloquence doe not necessarily possess virtue.

Virtue will catch as well as vice by contact; and the public stock of honest manly principle will daily accumulate. We are not too nicely to scrutinize motives as long as action is irreproachable. It is enough (and for a worthy man perhaps too much) to deal out its infamy to convicted guilt and declared apostasy.

He is ill clothed that is bare of virtue.

What is a good person? One who achieves tranquillity by having formed the habit of asking on every occasion, "what is the right thing to do now?"

To be a saint is the exception; to be a just person is the rule. Err, stumble, commit sin, but be one of the just.

If vices were profitable, the virtuous man would be the sinner.

Kindness and humbleness are really good qualities to possess. But, if you have to use the word humble, it means you're not humble. And if you're not humble to this world, this world will thrust humbleness upon you.