Henry Fielding

“ As an instance of this, let us observe three or four members of any profession met together in a general company, though it be never so large, they make no scruple of engrossing the whole conversation, and turning it to their own profession, without the least consideration of all the other persons present. ”

“ This selfish attention (if I may so call it) in the spectators at our theatres must be evident to all who have ever frequented them. Every joke on a courtier's not paying his debts, is sure to receive a thundering applause from the pit and galleries. ”

“ Another example of the same temper may be seen in the monopolizing particular words, and confining their meaning to their own purposes, as if the rest of the world had in reality no right to their application. ”

“ A word which of all others mankind would least wish to be debarred from the use of, or from appropriating to themselves and their friends.
Now, when the divine, the free-thinker, the citizen, the whig, the tory, &c., pronounce such an individual to be a good man, it is plain that they have all so many different meanings; and he may be a very good man in the opinion of one in the company, who would be a very bad one in that of all the others. ”

“ The gentleman of the house declared he had a very good subject above in the garret. As the gentleman who said this was, I knew, himself as good a subject as any in the kingdom, I could not avoid surprise at his choosing to confine such a person in a cold night, in such a place; but I soon found my mistake, and that this good subject had been hanged the day before for a most heinous felony.
An error of the same kind once happened to me amongst some gentlemen of the army, who all agreed that one Mr. Thunderson was the best man in England. ”