Daniel Defoe cytaty

„Wszelkie niezadowolenie z tego, czego nam brak, płynie z braku wdzięczności za to, co posiadamy.”

„Jest bowiem w człowieku dziwna jakaś ciekawość i chęć badania rzeczy nieznanych.”

„Jest w tym pewna pociecha, gdy przyczyni się do naszej zguby nie łotr, lecz człowiek uczciwy.”

„W Polsce próżność ona płynąca ze szlachetnego urodzenia doprowadzona bywa do tak przeogromnej ekstrawagancji, iż samo już imię szlachcica oraz tytuł starosty, wojewody lub kasztelana przynosi mu wyższość nad wszystkimi wasalami jako też i prostym ludem; większą nieporównanie od tej, jaką cieszy się król lub cesarz, władzę nad nimi bardziej absolutną i możność większego ich unieszczęśliwiania niźli nieszczęście poddanych grand seigniora lub chana Tatarów, tak iż depcą lud uboższy jakoby psów, a także często ich mordują, kiedy zaś to uczynią, nikomu z owego postępku nie muszą zdawać sprawy (…).”

„Osamotnienie mojego sławnego na całym świecie bohatera powinno przypominać czytelnikom o osamotnieniu duchowym, jakiego wszyscy doświadczamy nawet wówczas, gdy prowadzimy aktywne życie w środku zatłoczonego miasta.”

„Te, co przyjmują oświadczyny, wyprzedzają o krok te, którym się nikt nie oświadczył, a o dwa kroki te, które gotowe są zgodzić się na wszystko, zanim ktokolwiek zrobi im jakąś propozycję.”

„Oszukać diabła to nie grzech.”

„Kto posiada kota, nie musi się obawiać samotności.”

„Ciemność jest sojusznikiem tych, którzy zamierzają uciekać.”

„Kto ugina się pod ciężarem, ten zwiększa tylko jego ciężar.”

„Rozum ludzi początkiem jest wszelkiej substancji.”

„Wenecja i Polska to dwa kraje szczególne, w których pojęcie szlachectwa z urodzenia doprowadzono w tym czasie do najwyższej, a najbardziej śmiesznej krańcowości.”

“It is never too late to be wise.”

“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.”

“Expect nothing and you'll always be surprised”

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

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

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

“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.”

“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.”

“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.”

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

“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.”

“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 :…”

“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.”

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

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

“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.”

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

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

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

“Misfortunes seldom come alone.”

“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.”

“My man Friday.”

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

“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.”

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

“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.”

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

“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.”

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