Top 204 Quotes & Sayings by Henry Fielding

Explore popular quotes and sayings by an English novelist Henry Fielding.

Last updated on December 23, 2024.

Henry Fielding was an English novelist, irony writer and dramatist known for earthy humour and satire. His comic novel Tom Jones is still widely appreciated. He and Samuel Richardson are seen as founders of the traditional English novel. He also holds a place in the history of law enforcement, having used his authority as a magistrate to found the Bow Street Runners, London's first intermittently funded, full-time police force.

English - Novelist | April 22, 1707 - October 8, 1754

Source: Wikipedia

The world have payed too great a compliment to critics, and have imagined them men of much greater profundity than they really are.

Henry Fielding

When children are doing nothing, they are doing mischief.

Henry Fielding

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

Henry Fielding

The characteristic of coquettes is affectation governed by whim.

Henry Fielding

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

Henry Fielding

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

Henry Fielding

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

Henry Fielding

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

Henry Fielding

What's vice today may be virtue, tomorrow.

Henry Fielding

Love and scandal are the best sweeteners of tea.

Henry Fielding

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

Henry Fielding

One fool at least in every married couple.

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

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

Henry Fielding

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

Henry Fielding

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

Henry Fielding

Neither great poverty nor great riches will hear reason.

Henry Fielding

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

Henry Fielding

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.

Henry Fielding

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

Henry Fielding

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

Henry Fielding

Where the law ends tyranny begins.

Henry Fielding

All nature wears one universal grin.

Henry Fielding

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

Henry Fielding

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

Henry Fielding

Conscience - the only incorruptible thing about us.

Henry Fielding

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

Henry Fielding

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

Henry Fielding

Dancing begets warmth, which is the parent of wantonness.

Henry Fielding

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

Henry Fielding

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

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

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

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

Henry Fielding

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

Henry Fielding

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

Henry Fielding

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

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

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

Guilt has very quick ears to an accusation.

Henry Fielding

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

Henry Fielding

There's one fool at least in every married couple.

Henry Fielding

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

Henry Fielding

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

Henry Fielding

Most men like in women what is most opposite their own characters.

Henry Fielding

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

Henry Fielding

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

Henry Fielding

Success is a fruit of slow growth.

Henry Fielding

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

Henry Fielding

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.

Henry Fielding

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

Henry Fielding

Public schools are the nurseries of all vice and immorality.

Henry Fielding

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.

Henry Fielding

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.

Henry Fielding

Wisdom is the talent of buying virtuous pleasures at the cheapest rate.

Henry Fielding

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

Henry Fielding

Neither great poverty nor great riches will hear reason

Henry Fielding

The highest friendship must always lead us to the highest pleasure.

Henry Fielding

Make money your god, and it will plague you like the devil.

Henry Fielding

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