Joseph Andrews

The only source of the true Ridiculous (as it appears to me) is affectation

A comic writer should of all others be the least excused for deviating from nature, since it may not be always so easy for a serious poet to meet with the great and the admirable; but life every where furnishes an accurate observer with the ridiculous.

I describe not men, but manners; not an individual, but a species.

Some folks rail against other folks, because other folks have what some folks would be glad of.

To whom nothing is given, of him can nothing be required.

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

I am content; that is a blessing greater than riches; and he to whom that is given need ask no more.

I have found it; I have discovered the cause of all the misfortunes which befell him. A public school, Joseph, was the cause of all the calamaties which he afterwards suffered. Public schools are the nurseries of all vice and immorality.