Top 180 Henry Fielding Quotes (2024 Update)
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151. “It may be laid down as a general rule, that no woman who hath any great pretensions to admiration is ever well pleased in a company where she perceives herself to fill only the second place.”

— Henry Fielding

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

— Henry Fielding

153. “Men who pay for what they eat will insist on gratifying their palates.”

— Henry Fielding

154. “Perhaps the summary of good-breeding may be reduced to this rule. “Behave unto all men as you would they should behave unto you.” This will most certainly oblige us to treat all mankind with the utmost civility and respect, there being nothing that we desire more than to be treated so by them.”

— Henry Fielding

155. “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

156. “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

157. “The exceptions of the scrupulous put one in mind of some general pardons where everything is forgiven except crimes.”

— Henry Fielding

158. “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

159. “A good conscience is never lawless in the worst regulated state, and will provide those laws for itself which the neglect of legislators had forgotten to supply.”

— Henry Fielding

160. “Considering the unforeseen events of this world, we should be taught that no human condition should inspire men with absolute despair.”

— Henry Fielding

161. “Good-humor will even go so far as often to supply the lack of wit.”

— Henry Fielding

162. “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

163. “He said “They were heartily welcome to his poor cottage”, and turning to Mr. Didapper, cried out, ‘Non mea renidet in domo lacunar.’ The beau answered, “He did not understand Welsh”; at which the parson stared and made no reply.”

— Henry Fielding

164. “The dignity of history.”

— Henry Fielding

165. “It is an error common to many to take the character of mankind from the worst and basest amongst them; whereas, as an excellent writer has observed, nothing should be esteemed as characteristical, of a species but what is to be found amongst the best and the most perfect individuals of that species.”

— Henry Fielding

166. “It is my intention, therefore, to signify, that, as it is the nature of a kite to devour little birds, so is it the nature of such persons as Mrs Wilkins to insult and tyrannize over little people. This being indeed the means which they use to recompense to themselves their extreme servility and condescension to their superiors; for nothing can be more reasonable, than that slaves and flatterers should exact the same taxes on all below them, which they themselves pay to all above them.”

— Henry Fielding

167. “In a word, they are the same folly, the same childishness, the same ill–breeding, and the same ill–nature, which raise all the clamours and uproars both in life and on the stage. The worst of men generally have the words rogue and villain most in their mouths, as the lowest of all wretches are the aptest to cry out low in the pit.”

— Henry Fielding

168. “He had indeed conversed so entirely with money, that it may almost be doubted whether he imagined there was any other thing really existing in the world; this at least may be certainly averred, that he firmly believed nothing else to have any real value.”

— Henry Fielding

169. “I hope my friends will pardon me when I declare, I know none of them without a fault;.”

— Henry Fielding

170. “I had now regained my liberty,” said the stranger; “but I had lost my reputation; for there is a wide difference between the case of a man who is barely acquitted of a crime in a court of justice, and of him who is acquitted in his own heart, and in the opinion of the people.”

— Henry Fielding

171. “It hath been observed, by wise men or women, I forget which, that all persons are doomed to be in love once in their lives.”

— Henry Fielding

172. “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

173. “I believe it is a true observation, that few secrets are divulged to one person only; but certainly, it would be next to a miracle that a fact of this kind should be known to a whole parish, and not transpire any farther.”

— Henry Fielding

174. “There is, perhaps, no surer mark of folly than an attempt to correct the natural infirmities of those we love. The finest composition of human nature, as well as the finest china, may have a flaw in it; and this, I am afraid, in either case is equally incurable, though, nevertheless, the pattern may remain of the highest value.”

— Henry Fielding

175. “Some people have been noted to be able to read in no book but their own.”

— Henry Fielding

176. “I had rather enjoy my own mind than the fortune of another man. What is the poor pride arising from a magnificent house, a numerous equipage, a splendid table, and from all the other advantages or appearances of fortune, compared to the warm, solid content, the swelling satisfaction, the thrilling transports, and the exulting triumphs, which a good mind enjoys, in the contemplation of a generous, virtuous, noble, benevolent action?”

— Henry Fielding

177. “In all bargains, whether to fight or to marry, or concerning any other such business, little previous ceremony is required to bring the matter to an issue when both parties are really in earnest.”

— Henry Fielding

178. “Death, that inexorable judge, had passed sentence on him, and refused to grant him a reprieve, though two doctors who arrived, and were fee’d at one and the same instant, were his counsel.”

— Henry Fielding

179. “That our work, therefore, might be in no danger of being likened to the labours of these historians, we have taken every occasion of interspersing through the whole sundry similes, descriptions, and other kind of poetical embellishments.”

— Henry Fielding

180. “The elegant Lord Shaftesbury somewhere objects to telling too much truth: by which it may be fairly inferred, that, in some cases, to lie is not only excusable but commendable. And.”

— Henry Fielding

181. “An incident which happened about this time will set the characters of these two lads more fairly before the discerning reader than is in the power of the longest dissertation.”

— Henry Fielding

182. “Chapter iv. Containing such very deep and grave matters, that some readers, perhaps, may not relish it. Square.”

— Henry Fielding

183. “Nothing less than a persuasion of universal depravity can lock up the charity of a good man; and this persuasion must lead him, I think, either into atheism, or enthusiasm;.”

— Henry Fielding

184. “Her passions were indeed equally violent, whichever way they inclined; for as she could be extremely angry, so could she be altogether as fond.”

— Henry Fielding

185. “As there is no wholesomer, so perhaps there are few stronger, sleeping potions than fatigue.”

— Henry Fielding

186. “I am, indeed, set over them for their own good only, and was created for their use, and not they for mine.”

— Henry Fielding

187. “Good writers will, indeed, do well to imitate the ingenious traveller in this instance, who always proportions his stay at any place to the beauties, elegancies, and curiosities which it affords.”

— Henry Fielding

188. “Whether his religion was real, or consisted only in appearance, I shall not presume to say, as I am not possessed of any touchstone which can distinguish the true from the false.”

— Henry Fielding

189. “Secondly, that what is commonly called love, namely, the desire of satisfying a voracious appetite with a certain quantity of delicate white human flesh, is by no means that passion for which I here contend. This is indeed more properly hunger; and as no glutton is ashamed to apply the word love to his appetite, and to say he LOVES such and such dishes; so may the lover of this kind, with equal propriety, say, he HUNGERS after such and such women.”

— Henry Fielding

190. “The reader will pardon a digression in which so invaluable a secret is communicated, since every gamester will agree how necessary it is to know exactly the play of another, in order to countermine him.”

— Henry Fielding

191. “When I mention religion, I mean the Christian religion; and not only the Christian religion, but the Protestant religion; and not only the Protestant religion, but the Church of England. And when I mention honour, I mean that mode of Divine grace which is not only consistent with, but dependent upon, this religion; and is consistent with and dependent upon no other.”

— Henry Fielding

192. “It had, indeed, in a superlative degree, the two principal ingredients which serve to recommend all great and noble designs of this nature; for it required an immoderate expense to execute, and a vast length of time to bring it to any sort of perfection.”

— Henry Fielding