Inspirational Quotes by Henry Fielding (English Novelist)

Inspirational Quotations by Henry Fielding (English Novelist)

Henry Fielding (1707–54) was an English novelist. He established the genre’s inventive purpose as a massive criticism of life and culture.

Educated at Eton and Leiden, Fielding wrote numerous satirical burlesques including The Historical Register for 1736 (1737.) Such sharp political satires of Prime Minister Robert Walpole’s government provoked the introduction of censorship in England. The ensuing Licensing Act of 1737 effectively ended Fielding’s career as a dramatist.

Fielding then turned to write picaresque novels, notably Joseph Andrews (1742) and Tom Jones (1749.) The latter is considered the first undisputed masterpiece of English novels. The central character is a charming, uninhibited youthful man of fierce temper, who pursues true love through contemporary Britain in a sequence of contemptible and hilarious adventures.

In addition to his literary genius, Fielding holds a significant place in the history of law enforcement. In 1749, he used his authority as a magistrate to institute the Bow Street Runners, arguably London’s first professional police force.

More: Wikipedia • READ: Works by Henry Fielding

Fraud and falsehood are his weak and treacherous allies; and he lurks trembling in the dark, dreading every ray of light, lest it should discover him, and give him up to shame and punishment.
—Henry Fielding
Topics: Guilt

Wine is a turncoat; first a friend and then an enemy.
—Henry Fielding
Topics: Alcohol, One liners, Alcoholism

Worth begets in base minds, envy; in great souls, emulation.
—Henry Fielding
Topics: Worth

Thy modesty’s a candle to thy merit.
—Henry Fielding
Topics: Life

Make money your God, and it will plague you like the devil.
—Henry Fielding
Topics: Money

To the composition of novels and romances, nothing is necessary but paper, pens, and ink, with the manual capacity of using them.
—Henry Fielding

There is a set of religious, or rather moral, writings which teach that virtue is the certain road to happiness, and vice to misery in this world. A very wholesome and comfortable doctrine, and to which we have but one objection, namely, that it is not true.
—Henry Fielding
Topics: Books, Reading

No acquisitions of guilt can compensate the loss of that solid inward comfort of mind, which is the sure companion of innocence and virtue; nor can in the least balance the evil of that horror and anxiety which, in their room, guilt introduces into our bosoms.
—Henry Fielding
Topics: Guilt

Wicked companions invite and lure us to hell.
—Henry Fielding

When widows exclaim loudly against second marriages, I would always lay a wager that the man, if not the wedding day, is absolutely fixed on.
—Henry Fielding
Topics: Marriage

What’s vice today may be virtue, tomorrow.
—Henry Fielding
Topics: Vice, Virtue

In debate, rather pull to pieces the argument of thine antagonist, than offer him any of thine own; for thus thou will fight him in his own country.
—Henry Fielding

Guilt hath very quick ears to an accusation.
—Henry Fielding
Topics: Guilt

Without adversity a person hardly knows whether they are honest or not.
—Henry Fielding
Topics: Honesty

Affectation proceeds from one of these two causes,—vanity or hypocrisy; for as vanity puts us on affecting false characters, in order to purchase applause; so hypocrisy sets us on an endeavor to avoid censure, by concealing our vices under an appearance of their opposite virtues
—Henry Fielding
Topics: Affectation

Love and scandal are the best sweeteners of tea.
—Henry Fielding
Topics: Love, Gossip

Scarcely one person in a thousand is capable of tasting the happiness of others.
—Henry Fielding
Topics: Happiness

There is not in human nature a more odious disposition than a proneness to contempt, which is a mixture of pride and ill-nature. Nor is there any which more certainly denotes a bad disposition; for in a good and benign temper, there can be no room for it.—It is the truest symptom of a base and bad heart.
—Henry Fielding

The raillery which is consistent with good breeding is a gentle animal version on 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

There is nothing a man of good sense dreads in a wife so much as her having more sense than himself.
—Henry Fielding
Topics: Common Sense

The summary of good-breeding may be reduced to this rale: “Behave to all others as you would they should behave to you.”
—Henry Fielding

There is scarcely any man, how much soever he may despise the character of a flatterer, but will condescend in the meanest manner to flatter himself.
—Henry Fielding
Topics: Flattery

A truly elegant taste is generally accompanied with an excellency of heart.
—Henry Fielding
Topics: Taste

We are as liable to be corrupted by books, as by companions.
—Henry Fielding
Topics: Reading, Books

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
Topics: Guilt

It is a good maxim to trust a person entirely or not at all.
—Henry Fielding
Topics: Trust

It is a trite but true definition that examples work more forcibly on the mind than precepts.
—Henry Fielding
Topics: Example

When I’m not thank’d at all, I’m thank’d enough. I’ve done my duty, and I’ve done no more.
—Henry Fielding
Topics: Gratitude, Appreciation

When mighty roast beef was the Englishman’s food It ennobled our hearts and enriched our blood—Our soldiers were brave and our courtiers ere good. Oh! the roast beef of England. And Old England’s roast beef.
—Henry Fielding
Topics: Eating

The slander of some people is as great a recommendation as the praise of others.
—Henry Fielding
Topics: Slander

It is not from nature, but from education and habits, that our wants are chiefly derived.
—Henry Fielding
Topics: Desires, Desire, Habits

Adversity is the trial of principle. Without it, a man hardly knows whether he is honest or not.
—Henry Fielding
Topics: Difficulties, Vision, Adversity

A lover, when he is admitted to cards, ought to be solemnly silent, and observe the motions of his mistress. He must laugh when she laughs, sigh when she sighs. In short, he should be the shadow of her mind. A lady, in the presence of her lover, should never want a looking-glass; as a beau, in the presence of his looking-glass, never wants a mistress.
—Henry Fielding
Topics: Love, Lovers

Distance of time and place generally cure what they seem to aggravate; and taking leave of our friends resembles taking leave of the world, of which it has been said, that it is not death, but dying, which is terrible.
—Henry Fielding
Topics: Death, Dying, Absence

It is well known to all great men, that by conferring an obligation they do not always procure a friend, but are certain of creating many enemies.
—Henry Fielding
Topics: Obligation

Wine and youth are fire upon fire.
—Henry Fielding
Topics: Wine

A tender-hearted and compassionate disposition, which inclines men to pity and feel for the misfortunes of others, and which is, even for its own sake, incapable of involving any man in ruin and misery, is of all tempers of mind the most amiable; and though it seldom receives much honor, is worthy of the highest.
—Henry Fielding

A good man therefore is a standing lesson to us all.
—Henry Fielding
Topics: Goodness

One fool at least in every married couple.
—Henry Fielding
Topics: Marriage

Bad habits are as infectious by example as the plague itself is by contact.
—Henry Fielding
Topics: Habit