Date: May 10, 1711

"The Seeds of Punning are in the Minds of all Men, and tho' they may be subdued by Reason, Reflection, and Good Sense, they will be very apt to shoot up in the greatest Genius that is not broken and cultivated by the Rules of Art."

— Addison, Joseph (1672-1719)

Date: Monday, July 23, 1711

"Our common Prints would be of great Use were they thus calculated to diffuse good Sense through the Bulk of a People, to clear up their Understandings, animate their Minds with Virtue, dissipate the Sorrows of a heavy Heart, or unbend the Mind from its more severe Employments with innocent Amuse...

— Addison, Joseph (1672-1719)

Date: Saturday, March 17, 1711

"In short, they consider only the Drapery of the Species, and never cast away a Thought on those Ornaments of the Mind, that make Persons Illustrious in themselves, and Useful to others."

— Addison, Joseph (1672-1719)

Date: Saturday, March 17, 1711

"When Women are thus perpetually dazling one anothers Imaginations, and filling their Heads with nothing but Colours, it is no Wonder that they are more attentive to the superficial Parts of Life, than the solid and substantial Blessings of it."

— Addison, Joseph (1672-1719)

Date: Monday, March 19, 1711

"Extinguish Vanity in the Mind, and you naturally retrench the little Superfluities of Garniture and Equipage. The Blossoms will fall of themselves, when the Root that nourishes them is destroyed."

— Addison, Joseph (1672-1719)

Date: Tuesday, March 27, 1711

"It is impossible to enumerate the Evils which arise from these Arrows that fly in the dark, and I know no other Excuse that is or can be made for them, than that the Wounds they give are only Imaginary, and produce nothing more than a secret Shame or Sorrow in the Mind of the suffering Person."

— Addison, Joseph (1672-1719)

Date: Tuesday, March 27, 1711

"But, with Submission, I think the Remark I have here made shows us, that this unworthy Treatment made an impression upon his Mind, though he had been too wise to discover it."

— Addison, Joseph (1672-1719)

Date: Friday, March 30, 1711

"When I am in a serious Humour, I very often walk by my self in Westminster Abbey; where the Gloominess of the Place, and the Use to which it is applied, with the Solemnity of the Building, and the Condition of the People who lye in it, are apt to fill the Mind with a kind of Melancholy, or rathe...

— Addison, Joseph (1672-1719)

Date: Monday, April 16, 1711

"Whatever Crosses and Disappointments a good Man suffers in the Body of the Tragedy, they will make but small Impression on our Minds, when we know that in the last Act he is to arrive at the End of his Wishes and Desires."

— Addison, Joseph (1672-1719)

Date: Friday, April 20, 1711

"Among the several Artifices which are put in Practice by the Poets to fill the Minds of an Audience with Terror, the first Place is due to Thunder and Lightning, which are often made use of at the Descending of a God, or the Rising of a Ghost, at the Vanishing of a Devil, or at the Death of a Ty...

— Addison, Joseph (1672-1719)