Apr 22, 1707 - Oct 8, 1754
English writer
Share this author:
Commend a fool for his wit, or a rogue for his honesty and he will receive you into his favour.
Where the law ends tyranny begins.
What's vice today may be virtue, tomorrow.
A rich man without charity is a rogue; and perhaps it would be no difficult matter to prove that he is also a fool.
The hounds all join in glorious cry, / The huntsman winds his horn: / And a-hunting we will go.
Nothing more aggravates ill success than the near approach of good.
No one hath seen beauty in its highest lustre who hath never seen it in distress.
Now in reality, the world has paid too great a compliment to critics, and has imagined them to be men of much greater profundity than they really are.
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.
Neither great poverty nor great riches will hear reason
Conscience - the only incorruptible thing about us.
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-humored, but he is rich, rich, rich, rich, rich -that one word contradicts everything you can say against him.
All nature wears one universal grin.
When I'm not thanked at all, I'm thanked enough.
Dancing begets warmth, which is the parent of wantonness. It is, Sir, the great grandfather of cuckoldom.
Make money your god, and it will plague you like the devil.
Scarcely one person in a thousand is capable of tasting the happiness of others.
Public schools are the nurseries of all vice and immorality.
It hath been often said, that it is not death, but dying, which is terrible.
Adversity is the trial of principle. Without it, a man hardly knows whether he is honest or not.
We are as liable to be corrupted by books, as by companions.
Fashion is the science of appearance, and it inspires one with the desire to seem rather than to be.
A good face they say, is a letter of recommendation. O Nature, Nature, why art thou so dishonest, as ever to send men with these false recommendations into the World!
LOVE: A word properly applied to our delight in particular kinds of food; sometimes metaphorically spoken of the favorite objects of all our appetites.
A truly elegant taste is generally accompanied with excellency of heart.
It is not from nature, but from education and habits, that our wants are chiefly derived.
Now, in reality, the world have paid too great a compliment to critics, and have imagined them to be men of much greater profundity then they really are.
The prudence of the best heads is often defeated by the tenderness of the best of hearts.
Great joy, especially after a sudden change of circumstances, is apt to be silent, and dwells rather in the heart than on the tongue.
A truly elegant taste is generally accompanied with excellency of heart. -Henry Fielding.