Henry Fielding Quotes & Sayings

Men are strangely inclined to worship what they do not understand. A grand secret, upon which several imposers on mankind have totally relied for the success of their frauds. — Henry Fielding

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. — Henry Fielding

an hour at which (as it was now mid-winter) the dirty fingers of Night would have drawn her sable curtain over the universe, had not the moon forbid her, who now, with a face as broad and as red as those of some jolly mortals, who, like her, turn night into day, began to rise from her bed, where she had slumbered away the day, in order to sit up all night. — Henry Fielding

There is no zeal blinder than that which is inspired
with a love of justice against offenders. — Henry Fielding

Fashion is the science of appearance, and it inspires one with the desire to seem rather than to be. — Henry Fielding

Prudence is a duty which we owe ourselves, and if we will be so much our own enemies as to neglect it, we are not to wonder if the world is deficient in discharging their duty to us; for when a man lays the foundation of his own ruin, others too often are apt to build upon it. — Henry Fielding

There is an insolence which none but those who themselves deserve contempt can bestow, and those only who deserve no contempt can bear. — Henry Fielding

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

As [ale] is the liquor of modern historians, ... , it ought likewise to be the potation of their readers, since every book ought to be read with the same spirit and in the same manner as it is writ. — Henry Fielding

One fool at least in every married couple. — Henry Fielding

Gravity is the best cloak for sin in all countries. — Henry Fielding

Great vices are the proper objects of our detestation, smaller faults of our pity, but affectation appears to be the only true source of the ridiculous. — Henry Fielding

No one hath seen beauty in its highest lustre who hath never seen it in distress. — Henry Fielding

The slander of some people is as great a recommendation as the praise of others. — Henry Fielding

Wisdom, in short, whose lessons have been represented as so hard to learn by those who never were at her school, only teaches us to extend a simple maxim universally known and followed even in the lowest life, a little farther than that life carries it. And this is, not to buy at too dear a price. Now, whoever takes this maxim abroad with him into the grand market of the world, and constantly applies it to honours, to riches, to pleasures, and to every other commodity which that market affords, is, I will venture to affirm, a wise man. — Henry Fielding

Adversity is the trial of principle. Without it a man hardly knows whether he is honest or not. — Henry Fielding

Clergy are men as well as other folks. — Henry Fielding

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

There are a set of religious, or rather moral writers, who teach that virtue is the certain road to happiness, and vice to misery, in this world. A very wholesome and comfortable doctrine, and to which we have but one objection, namely, that it is not true. — Henry Fielding

His designs were strictly honourable, as the phrase is; that is, to rob a lady of her fortune by way of marriage. — Henry Fielding

To speak a bold truth, I am, after much mature deliberation, inclined to suspect that the public voice hath, in all ages, done much injustice to Fortune, and hath convicted her of many facts in which she had not the least concern. — Henry Fielding

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

A good countenance is a letter of recommendation. — Henry Fielding

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

It is not death, but dying, which is terrible. — Henry Fielding

Good-humor will even go so far as often to supply the lack of wit. — Henry Fielding

With the latitude of unbounded scurrility, it is easy enough to attain the character of a wit, especially when it is considered how wonderfully pleasant it is to the generality of the public to see the folly of their acquaintance exposed by a third person. — Henry Fielding

It is certainly a vulgar error, that aversion in a woman may be conquered by perseverance. Indifference may, perhaps, sometimes yield to it; but the usual triumphs gained by perseverance in a lover are over caprice, prudence, affectation, and often an exorbitant degree of levity, which excites women not over-warm in their constitutions to indulge their vanity by prolonging the time of courtship, even when they are well enough pleased with the object, and resolve (if they ever resolve at all) to make him a very pitiful amends in the end. But a fixed dislike, as I am afraid this is, will rather gather strength than be conquered by time. — Henry Fielding

Neither great poverty nor great riches will hear reason. — Henry Fielding

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

Good-nature is that benevolent and amiable temper of mind which disposes us to feel the misfortunes and enjoy the happiness of others, and, consequently, pushes us on to promote the latter and prevent the former; and that without any abstract contemplation on the beauty of virtue, and without the allurements or terrors of religion. — Henry Fielding

A good conscience is never lawless in the worst regulated state, and will provide those laws for itself, which the neglect of legislators hath forgotten to supply. — Henry Fielding

Wine and youth are fire upon fire. — Henry Fielding

What a silly fellow must he be who would do the devil's work for free. — Henry Fielding

When mighty roast beef was the Englishman's food It ennobled our hearts and enriched our blood
Our soldiers were brave and our courtiers were good. Oh! the roast beef of England. And Old England's roast beef. — Henry Fielding

There is a sort of knowledge beyond the power of learning to bestow, and this is to be had in conversation; so necessary is this to the understanding the characters of men, that none are more ignorant of them than those learned pedants whose lives have been entirely consumed in colleges and among books; for however exquisitely human nature may have been described by writers the true practical system can be learned only in the world. — Henry Fielding

In Truth, none seem to have any Title to assert Human Nature to be necessarily and universally evil, but those whose own Minds afford them one Instance of this natural Depravity. — Henry Fielding

He that can heroically endure adversity will bear prosperity with equal greatness of soul; for the mind that cannot be dejected by the former is not likely to be transported with the later. — Henry Fielding

but her patience was perhaps tired out, for this is a virtue which is very apt to be fatigued by exercise. Mrs — Henry Fielding

[F]or who ever heard of a Gold-finder that had the Impudence or Folly to assert, from the ill Success of his Search, that there was no such thing as Gold in the World? Whereas the Truth-finder, having raked out that Jakes his own mind, and being there capable of tracing no Ray of Divinity, nor any thing virtuous, or good, or lovely, very fairly, honestly, and logically concludes, that no such things exist in the whole creation. — Henry Fielding

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. — Henry Fielding

None of our political writers ... take notice of any more than three estates, namely, Kings, Lords and Commons ... passing by in silence that very large and powerful body which form the fourth estate in the community ... the Mob. — Henry Fielding

Dancing begets warmth, which is the parent of wantonness. — Henry Fielding

impossible; a word which, in common conversation, is often used to signify not only improbable, but often what is really very likely, and, sometimes, what hath certainly happened; an hyperbolical violence like that which is so frequently offered to the words infinite and eternal; by the former of which it is usual to express a distance of half a yard, and by the latter, a duration of five minutes. And thus it is as usual to assert the impossibility of losing what is already actually lost. — Henry Fielding

Heroes, notwithstanding the high ideas which, by the means of flatterers, they may entertain of themselves, or the world may conceive of them, have certainly more of mortal than divine about them. — Henry Fielding

How often, when I have told you that all men are false and perjury alike, and grow tired of us as soon as ever they have had their wicked wills of us, how often have you sworn you would never forsake me? — Henry Fielding

Custom may lead a man into many errors; but it justifies none. — Henry Fielding

I never reasoned on what I should do, but what I had done; as if my Reason had her eyes behind, and could only see backwards. — Henry Fielding

Success is a fruit of slow growth. — Henry Fielding

Handsome is that handsome does. — Henry Fielding

Though we may sometimes unintentionally bestow our beneficence on the unworthy, it does not take from the merit of the act. For charity doth not adopt the vices of its objects. — Henry Fielding

If we had any leisure we would here digress a little on that ingratitude which so many writers have observed to spring up in the people in all free governments towards their great men; who, while they have been consulting the good of the public, by raising their own greatness, in which the whole body (as the kingdom of France thinks itself in the glory of their grand monarch) was so deeply concerned, have been sometimes sacrificed by those very people for whose glory the said great men were so industriously at work: and this from a foolish zeal for a certain ridiculous imaginary thing called liberty, to which great men are observed to have a great animosity. — Henry Fielding

It is much easier to make good men wise, than to make bad men good. — Henry Fielding

Men who are ill-natured and quarrelsome when drunk are very worthy persons when sober. For drink in reality doth not reverse nature or create passions in men which did not exist in them before. It takes away the guard of reason and consequently forces us to produce those symptoms which many when sober have art enough to conceal. — Henry Fielding

Wine is a turncoat; first a friend and then an enemy. — Henry Fielding

Sensuality not only debases both body and mind, but dulls the keen edge of pleasure. — Henry Fielding

We should not be too hasty in bestowing either our praise or censure on mankind, since we shall often find such a mixture of good and evil in the same character, that it may require a very accurate judgment and a very elaborate inquiry to determine on which side the balance turns. — Henry Fielding

Make money your god and it will plague you like the devil. — Henry Fielding

As it often happens that the best men are but little known, and consequently cannot extend the usefulness of their examples a great way, the biographer is of great utility, as, by communicating such valuable patterns to the world, he may perhaps do a more extensive service to mankind than the person whose life originally afforded the pattern. — Henry Fielding

What caricature is in painting, burlesque is in writing; and in the same manner the comic writer and painter correlate to each other; as in the former, the painter seems to have the advantage, so it is in the latter infinitely on the side of the writer. For the monstrous is much easier to paint than describe, and the ridiculous to describe than paint. — Henry Fielding

Guilt, on the contrary, like a base thief, suspects every eye that beholds him to be privy to his transgressions, and every tongue that mentions his name to be proclaiming them. — Henry Fielding

It is admirably remarked, by a most excellent writer, that zeal can no more hurry a man to act in direct opposition to itself than a rapid stream can carry a boat against its own current. — Henry Fielding

These are called the pious frauds of friendship. — Henry Fielding

What was said by the Latin poet of labor
that it conquers all things
is much more true when applied to impudence. — Henry Fielding

The characteristic of coquettes is affectation governed by whim. — Henry Fielding

There is perhaps no surer mark of folly, than to attempt to correct natural infirmities of those we love. — Henry Fielding

Human life very much resembles a game of chess: for, as in the latter, while a gamester is too attentive to secure himself very strongly on one side of the board, he is apt to leave an unguarded opening on the other, so doth it often happen in life. — Henry Fielding

Conscience is a judge in every man's breast, which none can cheat or corrupt, and perhaps the only incorrupt thing about him; yet, inflexible and honest as this judge is (however polluted the bench on which he sits), no man can, in my opinion, enjoy any applause which is not there adjudged to be his due. — Henry Fielding

A comic writer should of all others be the least excused for deviating from nature, since it may not be always so easy for a serious poet to meet with the great and the admirable; but life every where furnishes an accurate observer with the ridiculous. — Henry Fielding

Genius,thou gift of heaven; without whose aid in vain we struggle against the stream of nature. — Henry Fielding

Dignity and love were never yet boon companions. — Henry Fielding

Affectation proceeds from one of these two causes,
vanity or hypocrisy; for as vanity puts us on affecting false characters, in order to purchase applause; so hypocrisy sets us on an endeavor to avoid censure, by concealing our vices under an appearance of their opposite virtues. — Henry Fielding

It is a trite but true Observation, that Examples work more forcibly on the Mind than Precepts: and if this be just in what is odious and blameable, it is more strongly so in what is amiable and praiseworthy. — Henry Fielding

In reality, there are many little circumstances too often omitted by injudicious historians, from which events of the utmost importance arise. The world may indeed be considered as a vast machine, in which the great wheels are originally set in motion by those which are very minute, and almost imperceptible to any but the strongest eyes. Thus, — Henry Fielding

Worth begets in base minds, envy; in great souls, emulation. — Henry Fielding

To say the Truth, I have often concluded, that the honest Part of Mankind would be much too hard for the knavish, if they could bring themselves to incur the Guilt, or thought it worth their while to take the Trouble. — Henry Fielding

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. — Henry Fielding

A French lieutenant, who had been long enough out of France to forget his own language, but not long enough in England to learn ours, so that he really spoke no language at all. — Henry Fielding

Scarcely one person in a thousand is capable of tasting the happiness of others. — Henry Fielding

As this is one of those deep observations which very few readers can be supposed capable of making themselves, I have thought proper to lend them my assistance; but this is a favour rarely to be expected in the course of my work. Indeed, I shall seldom or never so indulge him, unless in such instances as this, where nothing but the inspiration with which we writers are gifted can possibly enable anyone to make the discovery. — Henry Fielding

The raillery which is consistent with good-breeding is a gentle animadversion of some foible, which, while it raises the laugh in the rest of the company, doth not put the person rallied out of countenance, or expose him to shame or contempt. On the contrary, the jest should be so delicate that the object of it should be capable of joining in the mirth it occasions. — Henry Fielding

As for my landlord, drinking was his trade; and the liquor had no more effect on him than it had on any other vessel in his house. The — Henry Fielding

We are as liable to be corrupted by books as we are by companions. — Henry Fielding

It is well known to all great men, that by conferring an obligation they do not always procure a friend, but are certain of creating many enemies. — Henry Fielding

There cannot be a move glorious object in creation than a human being replete with benevolence, meditating in what manner he might render himself most acceptable to his Creator by doing most good to His creatures. — Henry Fielding

The citadel of Jones was now taken by surprise. All those considerations of honour and prudence which our heroe had lately with so much military wisdom placed as guards over the avenues of his heart, ran away from their posts, and the god of love marched in, in triumph. — Henry Fielding

Penny saved is a penny got. — Henry Fielding

Contempt of others is the truest symptom of a base and bad heart,
while it suggests itself to the mean and the vile, and tickles there little fancy on every occasion, it never enters the great and good mind but on the strongest motives; nor is it then a welcome guest,
affording only an uneasy sensation, and bringing always with it a mixture of concern and compassion. — Henry Fielding

Thy modesty 's a candle to thy merit. — Henry Fielding

When the effects of female jealousy do not appear openly in their proper colours of rage and fury, we may suspect that mischievous passion to be at work privately, and attempting to undermine, what it doth not attack above-ground. — Henry Fielding

Ingratitude never so thoroughly pierces the human breast as when it proceeds from those in whose behalf we have been guilty of transgressions. — Henry Fielding

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

The life of a coquette is one constant lie; and the only rule by which you can form any correct judgment of them is that they are never what they seem. — Henry Fielding

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. — Henry Fielding

There is scarce any man, how much soever he may despise the character of a flatterer, but will condescend in the meanest manner to flatter himself — Henry Fielding

The first is, If they have anything good in their house (which indeed very seldom happens) to produce it only to persons who travel with great equipages. 2dly, To charge the same for the very worst provisions, as if they were the best. And lastly, If any of their guests call but for little, to make them pay a double price for everything they have; so that the amount by the head may be much the same. The — Henry Fielding

Reader, I think proper, before we proceed any further together, to acquaint thee that I intend to digress, through this whole history, as often as I see occasion, of which I am myself a better judge than any pitiful critic whatever; and here I must desire all those critics to mind their own business, and not to intermeddle with affairs or works which no ways concern them; for till they produce the authority by which they are constituted judges, I shall not plead to their jurisdiction. — Henry Fielding

If thou hast seen all these without knowing what beauty is, thou hast no eyes; if without feeling its power, thou hast no heart. — Henry Fielding

Guilt has very quick ears to an accusation. — Henry Fielding

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. — Henry Fielding