In reality, the world have payed too great a compliment…

In reality, the world have payed too great a compliment to critics, and have imagined them men of much greater profundity than they really are.

Sourced, The History of Tom Jones
(1749)

Book V, ch. 1

Other Henry Fielding Quotes

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He was, indeed, in a condition, in which, if reason had interposed, though only to advise, she might have received the answer which one Cleostratus gave many years ago to a silly fellow, who asked him, if he was not ashamed to be drunk? “Are not you,” said Cleostratus, “ashamed to admonish a drunken man?”–To say the truth, in a court of justice drunkenness must not be an excuse, yet in a court of conscience it is greatly so. - View Quote Details on He was, indeed, in a condition, in which, if reason…
It is a trite but true observation, that examples work more forcibly on the mind than precepts. - View Quote Details on It is a trite but true observation, that examples work…
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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. - View Quote Details on Sir, money, money, the most charming of all things; money,…
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