Joseph Addison Quotes
We are apt to rely upon future prospects, and become really expensive while we are only rich in possibility. We live up to our expectations, not to our possessions, and make a figure proportionable to what we may be, not what we are.
Addison, Joseph. The Spectator, No. 191, 9 Oct. 1711. The Works of the Right Honourable Joseph Addison, vol. 2, Henry G. Bohn, 1854, p. 257.
He was referring to invention and manufacturing.
Joseph Addison was an English essayist, poet, playwright and politician. He was the eldest son of The Reverend Lancelot Addison. His name is usually remembered alongside that of his long-standing friend Richard Steele, with whom he founded The Spectator magazine. His simple prose style marked the end of the mannerisms and conventional classical images of the 17th century.