Henry FieldingThinkers

Adversity is honest or not.

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.

The Conscience is a judge In every man’s breast, which none can cheat or corrupt, and perhaps the only incorrupt thing about him ; yet, inflexible and honest as this judge is (however polluted the bench on which he sits), no man can, in my opinion, enjoy any applause which is not there adjudged to be his due.

Domestic happiness is the end of almost all our pursuits, and the common reward of all our pains.

Enough is equal to a feast.

Flattery is never so agreeable as to our blind side... commend a fool for his wit, or a knave for his honesty, and they will receive you into their bosoms.

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.

Good breeding is not confined to externals, much less to any particular dress or attitude of the body; it is the art of pleasing or contributing as much ns possible to the ease and happiness of those with whom you converse.

Good humor will even go so far as often to supply the lack of wit.

Gravity is the best cloak for sin in all countries.