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.
"For it is very hard, my lord," said a convicted felon at the bar to the late excellent judge Burnet, "to hang a poor man for stealing a horse." "You are not to be hanged sir," answered my ever-honored and beloved friend, "for stealing a horse, but you are to be hanged that horses may not be stolen."
Thwackum was for doing justice, and leaving mercy to heaven.
Penny saved is a penny got.
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-humoured, but he is rich, rich, rich, rich, rich — that one word contradicts everything you can say against him.
Oons, sir! do you say that I am drunk? I say, sir, that I am as sober as a judge.
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?
Life may as properly be called an art as any other.
We must eat to live and live to eat.
His designs were strictly honorable, as the phrase is; that is, to rob a lady of her fortune by way of marriage.
Depend on me; never fear your enemies. I'll warrant we make more noise than they.
Petition me no petitions, sir, to-day;
Let other hours be set apart for business.
Today it is our pleasure to be drunk;
And this our queen shall be as drunk as we.
Every physician almost hath his favorite disease.
In reality, the world have payed too great a compliment to critics, and have imagined them men of much greater profundity than they really are.
Dancing begets warmth, which is the parent of wantonness. It is, Sir, the great grandfather of cuckoldom.
Distinction without a difference.
Lo, when two dogs are fighting in the streets,
With a third dog one of the two dogs meets;
With angry teeth he bites him to the bone,
And this dog smarts for what that dog has done.
Much may be said on both sides.
The same animal which hath the honour to have some part of his flesh eaten at the table of a duke, may perhaps be degraded in another part,and some of his limbs gibbeted, as it were, in the vilest stall in town.
These are called the pious frauds of friendship.