Joseph Addison Quotes


When I behold a fashionable table set out in all its magnificence, I fancy that I see gouts and dropsies, fevers and lethargies, with other innumerable distempers lying in ambuscade among the dishes. Nature delights in the most plain and simple diet. Every animal but man keeps to one dish. Herbs are the food of this species, fish of that, and flesh of a third. Man falls upon everything that comes in his way; not the smallest fruit or excrescence of the earth, scarce a berry or a mushroom can escape him.


Citations

Addison, Joseph. The Spectator, No. 195, 13 Oct. 1711. Published in The Spectator, Vol. 3, J. Tonson, 1712, p. 106.

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Joseph Addison
Joseph Addison
  • Born: May 1, 1672
  • Died: June 17, 1719
  • Nationality: English
  • Profession: Writer, Politician

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.