Date: 1743

"Besides, as I never once thought, my Mind was useless to me, and I was an absolute Stranger to all the Pleasures arising from it"

— Fielding, Henry (1707-1754)

Date: 1743

"The Pleasantness of this Vision, therefore, served only, on his awakening, to set forth his present Misery with additional Horrour, and to heighten the dreadful Ideas which now crowded on his Mind"

— Fielding, Henry (1707-1754)

Date: 1747-8

"Reflect upon this; and then wilt thou be able to account for, if not to excuse, a projected crime, which has habit to plead for it, in a breast as stormy, as uncontroulable!"

— Richardson, Samuel (bap. 1689, d. 1761)

Date: 1747-8

"If in look, if in speech, a girl waves way to undue levity, depend upon it, the devil has got one of his cloven feet in her heart already."

— Richardson, Samuel (bap. 1689, d. 1761)

Date: 1747-8

"Yet her charming body is not equally organized. The unequal partners pull two ways; and the divinity within her tears her silken frame."

— Richardson, Samuel (bap. 1689, d. 1761)

Date: 1749

A "Somewhat" may inhabit in the human breast that resembles the "famous Trunkmaker in the Playhouse"

— Fielding, Henry (1707-1754)

Date: 1749

"I might honestly enough have concealed this Wish from the Reader, as it was one of those secret spontaneous Emotions of the Soul, to which the Reason is often a Stranger."

— Fielding, Henry (1707-1754)

Date: 1749

"His Conscience, however, immediately started at this Suggestion, and began to upbraid him with Ingratitude to his Benefactor. To this his Avarice answered, 'That his Conscience should have considered that Matter before, when he deprived poor Jones of his 500 l. That having quie...

— Fielding, Henry (1707-1754)

Date: 1749

"In return to which, Conscience, like a good Lawyer, attempted to distinguish between an absolute Breach of Trust, as here where the Goods were delivered, and a bare Concealment of what was found, as in the former Case. Avarice presently treated this with Ridicule, called it a Distinction without...

— Fielding, Henry (1707-1754)

Date: 1749

"The Passions, like the Managers of a Playhouse, often force Men upon Parts, without consulting, their Judgement, and sometimes without any Regard to their Talents"

— Fielding, Henry (1707-1754)