Henry Fielding (1707 – 1754)
English novelist and dramatist known for his rich earthy humor and satirical prowess and as the author of the novel Tom Jones.
All Nature wears one universal grin.
Love and scandal are the best sweeteneers of tea.
Can any man have a higher notion of the rule of right and the eternal fitness of things?
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.
Some folks rail against other folks, because other folks have what some folks would be glad of.
To whom nothing is given, of him can nothing be required.
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.
I am content; that is a blessing greater than riches; and he to whom that is given need ask no more.
He was, indeed, in a condition, in which, if reason had interposed, though only to advise, she might have received the answer which one Cleostratus gave many years ago to a silly fellow, who asked him, if he was not ashamed to be drunk? "Are not you," said Cleostratus, "ashamed to admonish a drunken man?" — To say the truth, in a court of justice drunkenness must not be an excuse, yet in a court of conscience it is greatly so.
There is not in the universe a more ridiculous, nor more contemptible animal, than a proud clergyman.
I describe not men, but manners; not an individual, but a species.
This story will not go down.
It hath been often said, that it is not death, but dying which is terrible.
It is a trite but true observation, that examples work more forcibly on the mind than precepts.
Oh, the roast beef of England,
And old England's roast beef!
The dusky night rides down the sky,
And ushers in the morn;
The hounds all join in glorious cry,
The huntsman winds his horn,
And a-hunting we will go.
One fool at least in every married couple.
When I'm not thanked at all, I'm thanked enough;
I've done my duty, and I've done no more.
To sun myself in Huncamunca's eyes.
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.