Tom Jones

By Henry Fielding

QUOTATION: Thwackum was for doing justice, and leaving mercy to Heaven.
ATTRIBUTION: Henry Fielding (1707–1754), British novelist, dramatist. Tom Jones, bk. 3, ch. 10 (1749).

QUOTATION: When children are doing nothing, they are doing mischief.
ATTRIBUTION: Henry Fielding (1707–1754), British novelist, dramatist. Quoting “a wise old gentleman,” in Tom Jones, bk. 15, ch. 2 (1749).

QUOTATION: 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.
ATTRIBUTION: Henry Fielding (1707–1754), British novelist, dramatist. Tom Jones, bk. 5, ch. 1 (1749).

QUOTATION: His designs were strictly honourable, as the phrase is; that is, to rob a lady of her fortune by way of marriage.
ATTRIBUTION: Henry Fielding (1707–1754), British novelist, dramatist. Mrs. Fitzpatrick, in Tom Jones, bk. 11, ch. 4 (1749).