Henry Fielding

“Without adversity a person hardly knows whether they are honest or not.”

“Scarcely one person in a thousand is capable of tasting the happiness of others.”

“Where the law ends tyranny begins.”

“The devil take me, if I think anything but love to be the object of love.”

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

“The characteristic of coquettes is affectation governed by whim.”

“Why, then,' answered the squire, 'I am very sorry you have given him so much learning; for, if he cannot get his living by that, it will rather spoil him for anything else; and your other son, who can hardly write his name, will do more at ploughing and sowing, and is in a better condition, than he.' And indeed so it proved; for the poor lad, not finding friends to maintain him in his learning, as he had expected, and being unwilling to work, fell to drinking, though he was a very sober lad before; and in a short time, partly with grief, and partly with good liquor, fell into a consumption, and died.”

“Dancing begets warmth, which is the parent of wantonness.”

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

“Neither great poverty nor great riches will hear reason.”

“Worth begets in base minds, envy; in great souls, emulation.”

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

“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!”

“Conscience - the only incorruptible thing about us.”

“One fool at least in every married couple.”

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

“Such indeed was her image, that neither could Shakespeare describe, nor Hogarth paint, nor Clive act, a fury in higher perfection.”

“If you make money your god, it will plague you like the devil.”

“A rich man without charity is a rogue; and perhaps it would be no difficult matter to prove that he is also a fool.”

“There is perhaps no surer mark of folly, than to attempt to correct natural infirmities of those we love.”