Henry Fielding Quotes

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?

He in a few minutes ravished this fair creature, or at least would have ravished her, if she had not, by a timely compliance, prevented him.

Lo, when two dogs are fighting in the streets,
With a third dog one of the two dogs meets;
With angry teeth he bites him to the bone,
And this dog smarts for what that dog has done.

...for nothing can be more reasonable, than that slaves and flatterers should exact the same taxes on all below them, which they themselves pay to all above them.

I describe not men, but manners; not an individual, but a species.

Guilt has very quick ears to an accusation.

The same animal which hath the honour to have some part of his flesh eaten at the table of a duke, may perhaps be degraded in another part,and some of his limbs gibbeted, as it were, in the vilest stall in town.

When widows exclaim loudly against second marriages, I would always lay a wager that the man, if not the wedding day, is absolutely fixed on.

It hath been often said, that it is not death, but dying which is terrible.

Sir, money, money, the most charming of all things; money, which will say more in one moment than the most elegant lover can in years. Perhaps you will say a man is not young; I answer he is rich. He is not genteel, handsome, witty, brave, good-humoured, but he is rich, rich, rich, rich, rich — that one word contradicts everything you can say against him.

Depend on me; never fear your enemies. I'll warrant we make more noise than they.

I am content; that is a blessing greater than riches; and he to whom that is given need ask no more.

The only source of the true Ridiculous (as it appears to me) is affectation

...the excellence of the mental entertainment consists less in the subject than in the author's skill in well dressing it up.

To whom nothing is given, of him can nothing be required.