Henry Fielding
Henry Fielding
Henry Fieldingwas an English novelist and dramatist best known for his rich, earthy humour and satirical prowess, and as the author of the novel Tom Jones. Additionally, he holds a significant place in the history of law enforcement, having used his authority as a magistrate to foundwhat some have called London's first police force, the Bow Street Runners. His younger sister, Sarah, also became a successful writer...
NationalityEnglish
ProfessionNovelist
Date of Birth22 April 1707
Henry Fielding quotes about
book giving gentleman
An author ought to consider himself, not as a gentleman who gives a private or eleemosynary treat, but rather as one who keeps a public ordinary, at which all persons are welcome for their money.
book mind example
It is a trite but true Observation, that Examples work more forcibly on the Mind than Precepts: and if this be just in what is odious and blameable, it is more strongly so in what is amiable and praiseworthy.
beauty female female-friendship
In the forming of female friendships beauty seldom recommends one woman to another.
joining-in laughing mirth
The raillery which is consistent with good-breeding is a gentle animadversion of some foible, which, while it raises the laugh in the rest of the company, doth not put the person rallied out of countenance, or expose him to shame or contempt. On the contrary, the jest should be so delicate that the object of it should be capable of joining in the mirth it occasions.
eye done reason
There are those who never reason on what they should do, but what they have done; as if Reason had her eyes behind, and could only see backwards.
gambling luxury temptation
Gaming is a vice the more dangerous as it is deceitful; and, contrary to every other species of luxury, flatters its votaries with the hopes of increasing their wealth; so that avarice itself is so far from securing us against its temptations that it often betrays the more thoughtless and giddy part of mankind into them.
friendship pleasure highest
The highest friendship must always lead us to the highest pleasure.
heart mean compassion
Contempt of others is the truest symptom of a base and bad heart,--while it suggests itself to the mean and the vile, and tickles there little fancy on every occasion, it never enters the great and good mind but on the strongest motives; nor is it then a welcome guest,--affording only an uneasy sensation, and bringing always with it a mixture of concern and compassion.
book character college
There is a sort of knowledge beyond the power of learning to bestow, and this is to be had in conversation; so necessary is this to the understanding the characters of men, that none are more ignorant of them than those learned pedants whose lives have been entirely consumed in colleges and among books; for however exquisitely human nature may have been described by writers the true practical system can be learned only in the world.
lying coquette judgment
The life of a coquette is one constant lie; and the only rule by which you can form any correct judgment of them is that they are never what they seem.
heart broken despair
A broken heart is a distemper which kills many more than is generally imagined, and would have a fair title to a place in the bills of mortality, did it not differ in one instance from all other diseases, namely, that no physicians can cure it.
and-love dignity boon
Dignity and love were never yet boon companions.
opposites vices virtue
We endeavor to conceal our vices under the disguise of the opposite virtues.
men animal drink
Thirst teaches all animals to drink, but drunkenness belongs only to man.