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Henry Fielding Quotes
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The slander of some people is as great a recommendation as the praise of others.
Henry Fielding
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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
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As the malicious disposition of mankind is too well known, and the cruel pleasure which they take in destroying the reputation of others, the use we are to make of this knowledge is, to afford no handle for reproach; for bad as the world is, it seldom falls on anyone who hath not given some slight cause for censure.
Henry Fielding
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Guilt, on the contrary, like a base thief, suspects every eye that beholds him to be privy to his transgressions, and every tongue that mentions his name to be proclaiming them.
Henry Fielding
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The act of eating,which hath by several wise men been considered as extremely mean and derogatory from the philosophic dignity, must be in some measure performed by the greatest prince, hero, or philosopher upon earth; nay, sometimes Nature hath been so frolicsome as to exact of these dignified characters a much more exorbitant share of this office than she hath obliged those of the lowest orders to perform.
Henry Fielding
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O innocence, how glorious and happy a portion art thou to the breast that possesses thee! thou fearest neither the eyes nor the tongues of men. Truth, the most powerful of all things, is thy strongest friend; and the brighter the light is in which thou art displayed, the more it discovers thy transcendent beauties.
Henry Fielding
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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
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As it often happens that the best men are but little known, and consequently cannot extend the usefulness of their examples a great way, the biographer is of great utility, as, by communicating such valuable patterns to the world, he may perhaps do a more extensive service to mankind than the person whose life originally afforded the pattern.
Henry Fielding
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For parents to restrain the inclinations of their children in marriage is an usurped power.
Henry Fielding
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As a wise general never despises his enemy, however inferior that enemy's force may be, so neither doth a wise physician ever despise a distemper, however inconsiderable.
Henry Fielding
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Ingratitude never so thoroughly pierces the human breast as when it proceeds from those in whose behalf we have been guilty of transgressions.
Henry Fielding
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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.
Henry Fielding
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Fashion is the great governor of this world; it presides, not only in matters of dress and amusement, but in law, physic, politics, religion, and all other things of the gravest kind; indeed, the wisest of men would be puzzled to give any better reason why particular forms in all these have been at certain times universally received, and at others universally rejected, than that they were in or out of fashion.
Henry Fielding
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Great vices are the proper objects of our detestation, smaller faults of our pity, but affectation appears to be the only true source of the ridiculous.
Henry Fielding
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Yes, I had two strings to my bow; both golden ones, egad! and both cracked.
Henry Fielding
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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.
Henry Fielding
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The woman and the soldier who do not defend the first pass will never defend the last.
Henry Fielding
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Good-nature is that benevolent and amiable temper of mind which disposes us to feel the misfortunes and enjoy the happiness of others, and, consequently, pushes us on to promote the latter and prevent the former; and that without any abstract contemplation on the beauty of virtue, and without the allurements or terrors of religion.
Henry Fielding
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None of our political writers... take notice of any more than three estates, namely, Kings, Lords and Commons... passing by in silence that very large and powerful body which form the fourth estate in the community... the Mob.
Henry Fielding
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What caricature is in painting, burlesque is in writing; and in the same manner the comic writer and painter correlate to each other; as in the former, the painter seems to have the advantage, so it is in the latter infinitely on the side of the writer. For the monstrous is much easier to paint than describe, and the ridiculous to describe than paint.
Henry Fielding
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The gentleman of the Aesculapin art are in the right in advising, that the moment the disease has entered at one door, the physician should be introduced at the other.
Henry Fielding
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Nothing can be so quick and sudden as the operations of the mind, especially when hope, or fear, or jealousy, to which the other two are but journeymen, set it to work.
Henry Fielding
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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
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A man may go to heaven with half the pains it cost him to purchase hell.
Henry Fielding
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Custom may lead a man into many errors; but it justifies none.
Henry Fielding
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Quote of the day
Life is not having been told that the man has just waxed the floor.
Ogden Nash
Henry Fielding
Creative Commons
Born:
April 22, 1707
Died:
October 8, 1754
(aged 47)
Bio:
Henry Fielding was an English novelist and dramatist known for his rich earthy humour and satirical prowess, and as the author of the novel Tom Jones.
Known for:
The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling (1749)
Joseph Andrews (1742)
The works of Henry Fielding
The Journal of a Voyage to Lisbon
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Henry Fielding on Wikipedia
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