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, Tom Jones
It hath been often said, that it is not death, but dying, which is terrible.
O vanity! How little is thy force acknowledged or thy operations discerned! How wantonly dost thou deceive mankind under different disguises! Sometimes thou dost wear the face of pity: sometimes of generosity; nay, thou hast the assurance to put on those glorious ornaments which belong only to heroic virtue.
HENRY FIELDING, The Adventures of Joseph Andrews
Love and scandal are the best sweeteners of tea.
HENRY FIELDING, Love in Several Masques
The slander of some people is as great a recommendation as the praise of others.
HENRY FIELDING, The Temple Beau
The hasty divulgers of news often give themselves the trouble of contradicting it.
HENRY FIELDING, attributed, Day's Collacon
Thy modesty's a candle to thy merit.
HENRY FIELDING, Tom Thumb the Great
Hunting is a manly exercise, and therefore a proper recreation. But it is the business of a knight-errant to rid the world of other sort of animals than foxes.
HENRY FIELDING, Don Quixote in England
Guilt has very quick ears to an accusation.
HENRY FIELDING, Amelia
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.
HENRY FIELDING, "A-Hunting We Will Go"
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.
