“Death only closes a man's reputation, and determines it as good or bad.”

— Joseph Addison, The Spectator, No. 349 (10 April 1712)

About Joseph Addison

1672 – 1719

English essayist, poet and politician, co-founder of 'The Spectator' and author of the tragedy 'Cato' (1713).

“And such a friendship ends not but with life.”

“'Tis not in mortals to command success, but we'll do more, Sempronius; we'll deserve it.”

“True happiness is of a retired nature, and an enemy to pomp and noise.”

“Death, like generation, is a secret of Nature.”

“If we open a quarrel between the past and the present, we shall find that we have lost the future.”

“No hour of life is lost that is spent in the saddle.”

“A witticism is an epigram on the death of a feeling.”

“Accepting the absurdity of everything around us is one step, a necessary experience: it should not become a dead end.”

“In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes!”