Frasi di Henry Fielding

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“Non basta che le tue azioni, o meglio le tue intenzioni siano intrinsecamente buone; devi fare in modo che appaiano tali. S'è bello l'interno, devi provvedere a far bello anche l'esterno. Altrimenti la malignità e l'invidia offuscheranno le tue virtù in modo tale che neanche un uomo intelligente e buono […] riuscirà a scorgerne l'interna bellezza. Sia questa, miei giovani lettori, la vostra massima costante: nessuno è mai tanto buono da poter trascurare le regole della prudenza; e la virtù stessa non può apparire bella quando non s'adorni esteriormente di correttezza e di decoro.”

“Esistono certi scrittori religiosi o meglio morali, i quali sostengono che in questo mondo la virtù è la via sicura della felicità e il vizio quella dell'infelicità: dottrina veramente sana e consolante, contro cui abbiamo un'obiezione sola, e cioè che non è vera.”

“Nessuno invero ha mai visto la bellezza in tutto il suo splendore quando non l'abbia vista nel dolore.”

“I seguaci di Esculapio han ragione di avvertire che quando una malattia entra dalla porta, il medico deve essere introdotto dall'altra.”

“Quasi ogni dottore ha la sua malattia favorita.”

“Thy modesty's a candle to thy merit.”

“He in a few minutes ravished this fair creature, or at least would have ravished her, if she had not, by a timely compliance, prevented him.”

“There is not in the universe a more ridiculous, nor more contemptible animal, than a proud clergyman.”

“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.”

“Lo, when two dogs are fighting in the streets,
With a third dog one of the two dogs meets;
With angry teeth he bites him to the bone,
And this dog smarts for what that dog has done.”

“His designs were strictly honorable, as the phrase is; that is, to rob a lady of her fortune by way of marriage.”

“Sir, money, money, the most charming of all things; money, which will say more in one moment than the most elegant lover can in years. Perhaps you will say a man is not young; I answer he is rich. He is not genteel, handsome, witty, brave, good-humoured, but he is rich, rich, rich, rich, rich — that one word contradicts everything you can say against him.”

“For it is very hard, my lord," said a convicted felon at the bar to the late excellent judge Burnet, "to hang a poor man for stealing a horse." "You are not to be hanged sir," answered my ever-honored and beloved friend, "for stealing a horse, but you are to be hanged that horses may not be stolen.”

“Covent Garden Journal (11 January 1752)”
Illustrious predecessors.

“Thwackum was for doing justice, and leaving mercy to heaven.”

“Penny saved is a penny got.”

“To speak a bold truth, I am, after much mature deliberation, inclined to suspect that the public voice hath, in all ages, done much injustice to Fortune, and hath convicted her of many facts in which she had not the least concern.”

“Distinction without a difference.”

“Much may be said on both sides.”

“Hairbreadth missings of happiness look like the insults of Fortune.”

“Life may as properly be called an art as any other.”

“To sun myself in Huncamunca's eyes.”

“Reader, I think proper, before we proceed any farther together, to acquaint thee that I intend to digress, through this whole history, as often as I see occasion, of which I am myself a better judge than any pitiful critic…”

“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.”

“It is a trite but true observation, that examples work more forcibly on the mind than precepts.”

“It hath been often said, that it is not death, but dying which is terrible.”

“Men who pay for what they eat will insist on gratifying their palates”

“When I'm not thanked at all, I'm thanked enough;
I've done my duty, and I've done no more.”

“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.”

“Petition me no petitions, sir, to-day;
Let other hours be set apart for business.
Today it is our pleasure to be drunk;
And this our queen shall be as drunk as we.”

“Enough is equal to a feast.”

“Dancing begets warmth, which is the parent of wantonness. It is, Sir, the great grandfather of cuckoldom.”

“Every physician almost hath his favorite disease.”

“These are called the pious frauds of friendship.”