Henry Fielding

He that can heroically endure adversity will bear prosperity with equal greatest of the soul; for the mind that cannot be dejected by the former is not likely to be transported without the latter.

— Henry Fielding

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

— Henry Fielding

When I'm not thanked at all, I'm thanked enough, I've done my duty, and I've done no more.

— Henry Fielding

We are as liable to be corrupted by books, as by companions.

— Henry Fielding

There is a set of religious, or rather moral, writings which 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

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

When children are doing nothing, they are doing mischief.

— Henry Fielding

There is not in the universe a more ridiculous, nor a more contemptible animal, than a proud clergyman.

— Henry Fielding

There is nothing a man of good sense dreads in a wife so much as her having more sense than himself.

— Henry Fielding

Conscience -- the only incorruptible thing about us.

— Henry Fielding

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

— Henry Fielding

Dancing begets warmth, which is the parent of wantonness. It is, Sir, the great grandfather of cuckoldom.

— Henry Fielding

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

— Henry Fielding

It is not death, but dying, which is terrible.

— Henry Fielding

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

— Henry Fielding

Public schools are the nurseries of all vice and immorality.

— Henry Fielding

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

— Henry Fielding

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!

— Henry Fielding

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

— Henry Fielding

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

— Henry Fielding

Love and scandal are the best sweeteners of tea.

— Henry Fielding

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

— Henry Fielding

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

— Henry Fielding

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

— Henry Fielding

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

— Henry Fielding

Where the law ends tyranny begins.

— Henry Fielding

A lover, when he is admitted to cards, ought to be solemnly silent, and observe the motions of his mistress. He must laugh when she laughs, sigh when she sighs. In short, he should be the shadow of her mind. A lady, in the presence of her lover, should never want a looking-glass; as a beau, in the presence of his looking-glass, never wants a mistress.

— Henry Fielding

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.

— Henry Fielding

One fool at least in every married couple.

— Henry Fielding

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

— Henry Fielding

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-humored, but he is rich, rich, rich, rich, rich --that one word contradicts everything you can say against him.

— Henry Fielding

Money will say more in one moment than the most eloquent lover can in years.

— Henry Fielding

Money is the fruit of evil, as often as the root of it.

— Henry Fielding

All nature wears one universal grin.

— Henry Fielding

The prudence of the best heads is often defeated by the tenderness of the best of hearts.

— Henry Fielding

Thwackum was for doing justice, and leaving mercy to Heaven.

— Henry Fielding

Neither great poverty nor great riches will hear reason.

— Henry Fielding

I have found it; I have discovered the cause of all the misfortunes which befell him. A public school, Joseph, was the cause of all the calamities which he afterwards suffered. Public schools are the nurseries of all vice and immorality.

— Henry Fielding

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.

— Henry Fielding

What's vice today may be virtue, tomorrow.

— Henry Fielding

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

— Henry Fielding

Have you the assurance to pretend, that when a lady demeans herself to throw aside the rules of decency, in order to honour you with the highest favour in her power, your virtue should resist her inclination? That when she had conquer'd her own virtue, she should find an obstruction in yours?

— Henry Fielding

Life is sweet, let me tell you, and never sweeter than when we are near losing it.

— Henry Fielding