Henry Fielding Quotes - Page 2

Riches without charity are nothing worth. They are a blessing only to him who makes them a blessing to others.

Fashion is the great governor of this world; it presides, not only in matters of dress and amusement, but in law, physic, politics, religion, and all other things of the gravest kind; indeed, the wisest of men would be puzzled to give any better reason why particular forms in all these have been at certain times universally received, and at others universally rejected, than that they were in or out of fashion.

A truly elegant taste is generally accompanied with excellency of heart.

A good countenance is a letter of recommendation.

We endeavor to conceal our vices under the disguise of the opposite virtues.

A lottery is a taxation on all of the fools in creation.

There is nothing so useful to man in general, nor so beneficial to particular societies and individuals, as trade. This is that alma mater, at whose plentiful breast all mankind are nourished.

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

A newspaper consists of just the same number of words, whether there be any news in it or not.

A beau is everything of a woman but the sex, and nothing of a man beside it.

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.

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

A broken heart is a distemper which kills many more than is generally imagined, and would have a fair title to a place in the bills of mortality, did it not differ in one instance from all other diseases, namely, that no physicians can cure it.

And here, I believe, the wit is generally misunderstood. In reality, it lies in desiring another to kiss your a-- for having just before threatened to kick his; for I have observed very accurately, that no one ever desires you to kick that which belongs to himself, nor offers to kiss this part in another.

In the forming of female friendships beauty seldom recommends one woman to another.

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

Commend a fool for his wit, or a rogue for his honesty and he will receive you into his favour.

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.

Let no man be sorry he has done good, because others have done evil.

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

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.

In a debate, rather pull to pieces the argument of thy antagonists than offer him any of thy own; for thus thou wilt fight him in his own country.

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

Good writers will, indeed, do well to imitate the ingenious traveller. . .who always proportions his stay in any place.

All nature wears one universal grin.