Daniel Defoe Quotes (43 quotes) | Quotes of famous people

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La vie et les aventures de Robinson Crusoe

Daniel Defoe

Moll Flanders

Daniel Defoe

The Shortest Way with the Dissenters

Daniel Defoe

Roxana: The Fortunate Mistress

Daniel Defoe

Daniel Defoe: 43 quotes 13 likes

Famous Daniel Defoe Quotes

“It is better to have a lion at the head of an army of sheep than a sheep at the head of an army of lions.”

Daniel Defoe

The Life and Adventures of http://books.google.com/books?id=IZ9CAAAAYAAJ&q=%22better+to+have+a+Lyon+at+the+Head%22+%22an+Army+of+Sheep+than+a+Sheep+at+the+Head%22+%22an+Army+of+Lyons%22&pg=PA33#v=onepage Mrs. Christian Davies (1741)

“From this amphibious ill-born mob began
That vain, ill-natured thing, an Englishman.”

Daniel Defoe

Pt. I, l. 132.
The True-Born Englishman http://www.luminarium.org/editions/trueborn.htm (1701)

“Expect nothing and you'll always be surprised”

Daniel Defoe

“The soul is placed in the body like a rough diamond; and must be polished, or the lustre of it will never appear. And ’tis manifest, that as the rational soul distinguishes us from brutes; so education carries on the distinction, and makes some less brutish than others.”

Daniel Defoe

The Education of Women (1719)

“It is never too late to be wise.”

Daniel Defoe La vie et les aventures de Robinson Crusoe

Source: Robinson Crusoe (1719), Ch. 12, A Cave Retreat.

“Fear of danger is ten thousand times more terrifying than danger itself.”

Daniel Defoe La vie et les aventures de Robinson Crusoe

Variant: Fear of danger is ten thousand times more terrifying than danger itself.
Source: Robinson Crusoe (1719), Ch. 11, Finds Print of Man's Foot on the Sand.

Daniel Defoe Quotes about men

“Tis very strange Men should be so fond of being thought wickeder than they are.”

Daniel Defoe

A System of Magick (1726).

“He that hath truth on his side is a fool as well as a coward if he is afraid to own it because fo other mens's opinions.”

Daniel Defoe

“Hail, hieroglyphic State machine,
Contrived to punish fancy in;
Men that are men in thee can feel no pain,
And all thy insignificance disdain!”

Daniel Defoe

Hymn to the Pillory (1703).

“The best of men cannot suspend their fate:
The good die early, and the bad die late.”

Daniel Defoe

Character of the Late Dr. S. Annesley (1715).

“For I cannot think that God Almighty ever made them so delicate, so glorious creatures; and furnished them with such charms, so agreeable and so delightful to mankind; with souls capable of the same accomplishments with men: and all, to be only Stewards of our Houses, Cooks, and Slaves.”

Daniel Defoe

The Education of Women (1719)

“I have since often observed, how incongruous and irrational the common temper of mankind is, especially of youth, to that reason which ought to guide them in such cases - viz. they are not ashamed to sin, and yet are ashamed to repent. Not ashamed of the action for which they ought justly to be esteemed fools, but are ashamed of the returning, which can only make them be esteemed wise men.”

Daniel Defoe

Source: Robinson Crusoe (1719), Ch. 1, Start in Life.

Daniel Defoe Quotes about God

“Those people cannot enjoy comfortably what God has given them because they see and covet what He has not given them. All of our discontents for what we want appear to me to spring from want of thankfulness for what we have.”

Daniel Defoe La vie et les aventures de Robinson Crusoe

Source: Robinson Crusoe (1719), Ch. 9, A Boat.
Context: I learned to look more upon the bright side of my condition, and less upon the dark side, and to consider what I enjoyed rather than what I wanted; and this gave me sometimes such secret comforts, that I cannot express them; and which I take notice of here, to put those discontented people in mind of it, who cannot enjoy comfortably what God has given them, because they see and covet something that He has not given them. All our discontents about what we want appeared to me to spring from the want of thankfulness for what we have.

“Wherever God erects a house of prayer,
The Devil always builds a chapel there;
And 'twill be found, upon examination,
The latter has the largest congregation.”

Daniel Defoe

Pt. I, l. 1. Compare: "Where God hath a temple, the Devil will have a chapel", Robert Burton, Anatomy of Melancholy, part iii, section 4, Memb. 1, Subsect. 1.
The True-Born Englishman http://www.luminarium.org/editions/trueborn.htm (1701)

“I learned to look more upon the bright side of my condition, and less upon the dark side, and to consider what I enjoyed rather than what I wanted; and this gave me sometimes such secret comforts, that I cannot express them; and which I take notice of here, to put those discontented people in mind of it, who cannot enjoy comfortably what God has given them, because they see and covet something that He has not given them. All our discontents about what we want appeared to me to spring from the want of thankfulness for what we have.”

Daniel Defoe

Source: Robinson Crusoe (1719), Ch. 9, A Boat.

Daniel Defoe Quotes

“I saw the Cloud, though I did not foresee the Storm.”

Daniel Defoe book Moll Flanders

Source: Moll Flanders

“Great families of yesterday we show,
And lords whose parents were the Lord knows who.”

Daniel Defoe

Pt. I, l. 374.
The True-Born Englishman http://www.luminarium.org/editions/trueborn.htm (1701)

Family , Parent

“We never see the true state of our condition till it is illustrated to us by its contraries, nor know how to value what we enjoy, but by the want of it.”

Daniel Defoe La vie et les aventures de Robinson Crusoe

Source: Robinson Crusoe (1719), Ch. 10, Tames Goats.

“I hear much of people's calling out to punish the guilty, but very few are concerned to clear the innocent.”

Daniel Defoe

People

“Today we love what tomorrow we hate,
today we seek what tomorrow we shun,
today we desire what tomorrow we fear,
nay, even tremble at the apprehensions of.”

Daniel Defoe

Love , Hate , Fear

“Thus fear of danger is ten thousand times more terrifying than danger itself when apparent to the eyes; and we find the burden of anxiety greater, by much, than the evil which we are anxious about :…”

Daniel Defoe La vie et les aventures de Robinson Crusoe

Source: Robinson Crusoe

Fear , Evil , Time

“Redemption from sin is greater then redemption from affliction.”

Daniel Defoe La vie et les aventures de Robinson Crusoe

Source: Robinson Crusoe

Affliction

“All our discontents about what we want appeared to me to spring from the want of thankfulness for what we have.”

Daniel Defoe La vie et les aventures de Robinson Crusoe

Source: Robinson Crusoe

Spring , Appearance

“And I add this part here, to hint to whoever shall read it, that whenever they come to a true Sense of things, they will find Deliverance from Sin a much greater Blessing than Deliverance from Affliction.”

Daniel Defoe La vie et les aventures de Robinson Crusoe

Source: Robinson Crusoe (1719), Ch. 6, Ill and Conscience-stricken.

Affliction , Reading , Sense , Parting

“I am giving an account of what was, not of what ought or ought not to be.”

Daniel Defoe book Moll Flanders

Source: Moll Flanders

“For sudden Joys, like Griefs, confound at first.”

Daniel Defoe La vie et les aventures de Robinson Crusoe

Source: Robinson Crusoe

Joy

“Misfortunes seldom come alone.”

Daniel Defoe book Roxana: The Fortunate Mistress

Roxana

“Wealth, howsoever got, in England makes
Lords of mechanics, gentlemen of rakes;
Antiquity and birth are needless here;
‘Tis impudence and money makes a peer.”

Daniel Defoe

Pt. I, l. 360-363.
The True-Born Englishman http://www.luminarium.org/editions/trueborn.htm (1701)

Money , Birth , Wealth

“My man Friday.”

Daniel Defoe

First appears in Ch. 14, A Dream Realized.
Robinson Crusoe (1719)

“And of all plagues with which mankind are cursed,
Ecclesiastic tyranny's the worst.”

Daniel Defoe

Pt. II, l. 299.
The True-Born Englishman http://www.luminarium.org/editions/trueborn.htm (1701)

“He told me I might judge of the happiness of this state by this one thing - viz. that this was the state of life which all other people envied; that kings have frequently lamented the miserable consequence of being born to great things, and wished they had been placed in the middle of the two extremes, between the mean and the great; that the wise man gave his testimony to this, as the standard of felicity, when he prayed to have neither poverty nor riches. He bade me observe it, and I should always find that the calamities of life were shared among the upper and lower part of mankind; but that the middle station had the fewest disasters.”

Daniel Defoe

Source: Robinson Crusoe (1719), Ch. 1, Start in Life.

Life , People , Envy , Parting

“A woman well bred and well taught, furnished with the additional accomplishments of knowledge and behaviour, is a creature without comparison. Her society is the emblem of sublimer enjoyments, her person is angelic, and her conversation heavenly. She is all softness and sweetness, peace, love, wit, and delight. She is every way suitable to the sublimest wish, and the man that has such a one to his portion, has nothing to do but to rejoice in her, and be thankful.”

Daniel Defoe

The Education of Women (1719)

Love , Peace , Angels , Way

“Alas the Church of England! What with Popery on one hand, and schismatics on the other, how has she been crucified between two thieves!”

Daniel Defoe book The Shortest Way with the Dissenters

The Shortest Way with the Dissenters (1702).

“Reason, it is true, is DICTATOR in the Society of Mankind; from her there ought to lie no Appeal; But here we want a Pope in our Philosophy, to be the infallible Judge of what is or is not Reason.”

Daniel Defoe

An Essay upon Publick Credit (1710).

Lie

“I have often thought of it as one of the most barbarous customs in the world, considering us as a civilized and a Christian country, that we deny the advantages of learning to women. We reproach the sex every day with folly and impertinence; while I am confident, had they the advantages of education equal to us, they would be guilty of less than ourselves.”

Daniel Defoe

The Education of Women (1719)

Women , World , Education , Sex

“When kings the sword of justice first lay down,
They are no kings, though they possess the crown.
Titles are shadows, crowns are empty things,
The good of subjects is the end of kings.”

Daniel Defoe

Pt. II, l. 313.
The True-Born Englishman http://www.luminarium.org/editions/trueborn.htm (1701)

Justice

“All men would be tyrants if they could.”

Daniel Defoe

Jure divino: a satyre, Introduction, l. 2 (1706).

For Men , Men

“We loved the doctrine for the teacher's sake.”

Daniel Defoe

The Character of the Late Dr. S. Annesly (1697).

Love , Teachers

“It happened one day, about noon, going towards my boat, I was exceedingly surprised with the print of a man's naked foot on the shore, which was very plain to be seen on the sand.”

Daniel Defoe

Source: Robinson Crusoe (1719), Ch. 11, Finds Print of Man's Foot on the Sand.

“In their religion they are so uneven,
That each man goes his own byway to heaven.”

Daniel Defoe

Pt. II, l. 104.
The True-Born Englishman http://www.luminarium.org/editions/trueborn.htm (1701)

Religion

“A woman well bred and well taught, furnished with the additional accomplishments of knowledge and behaviour, is a creature without comparison.”

Daniel Defoe

Her society is the emblem of sublimer enjoyments, her person is angelic, and her conversation heavenly. She is all softness and sweetness, peace, love, wit, and delight. She is every way suitable to the sublimest wish, and the man that has such a one to his portion, has nothing to do but to rejoice in her, and be thankful.
The Education of Women (1719)

Knowledge

“All evils are to be considered with the good that is in them, and with what worse attends them.”

Daniel Defoe

Source: Robinson Crusoe (1719), Ch. 5, First Weeks on the Island.

Evil

“What is one man's safety is another man's destruction.”

Daniel Defoe

Source: Robinson Crusoe (1719), Ch. 13, Wreck of a Spanish Ship.