Henry Fielding Quotes - Page 4

Now in reality, the world has paid too great a compliment to critics, and has imagined them to be men of much greater profundity than they really are.

A tender-hearted and compassionate disposition, which inclines men to pity and feel the misfortunes of others, and which is, even for its own sake, incapable of involving any man in ruin and misery, is of all tempers of mind the most amiable; and though it seldom receives much honor, is worthy of the highest.

Some virtuous women are too liberal in their insults to a frail sister; but virtue can support itself without borrowing any assistance from the vices of other women.

An author ought to consider himself, not as a gentleman who gives a private or eleemosynary treat, but rather as one who keeps a public ordinary, at which all persons are welcome for their money.

For parents to restrain the inclinations of their children in marriage is an usurped power.

It is a good maxim to trust a person entirely or not at all.

A good face they say, is a letter of recommendation. O Nature, Nature, why art thou so dishonest, as ever to send men with these false recommendations into the World!

Where the law ends tyranny begins.

Good-breeding is not confined to externals, much less to any particular dress or attitude of the body; it is the art of pleasing, or contributing as much as possible to the ease and happiness of those with whom you converse.

Some folks rail against other folks, because other folks have what some folks would be glad of.

A good man therefore is a standing lesson to us all.

Men who pay for what they eat will insist on gratifying their palates

For I hope my Friends will pardon me, when I declare, I know none of them without a Fault; and I should be sorry if I could imagine, I had any Friend who could not see mine. Forgiveness, of this Kind, we give and demand in Turn.

It is not enough that your designs, nay that your actions, are intrinsically good, you must take care they shall appear so.

Wine and youth are fire upon fire.

Great joy, especially after a sudden change of circumstances, is apt to be silent, and dwells rather in the heart than on the tongue.

Nothing more aggravates ill success than the near approach of good.

It is not from nature, but from education and habits, that our wants are chiefly derived.

To the composition of novels and romances, nothing is necessary but paper, pens, and ink, with the manual capacity of using them.

Life may as properly be called an art as any other.

A man may go to heaven with half the pains it cost him to purchase hell.

The woman and the soldier who do not defend the first pass will never defend the last.

Every physician almost hath his favourite disease.

LOVE: A word properly applied to our delight in particular kinds of food; sometimes metaphorically spoken of the favorite objects of all our appetites.

What is commonly called love, namely the desire of satisfying a voracious appetite with a certain quantity of delicate white human flesh.