DANIEL DEFOE (1660?-1731) AN ENGLISH NOVELIST AND JOURNALIST, WHO IS WIDELY REMEMBERED FOR ROBINSON CRUSOE (1719) AND MOLL FLANDERS (1722). BESIDES BEING A BRILLIANT JOURNALIST, NOVELIST, AND SOCIAL THINKER, DEFOE WAS A PROLIFIC AUTHOR, PRODUCING MORE THAN 500 BOOKS, PAMPHLETS, AND TRACTS.
“The soul is placed in the body like a rough diamond, and must be polished, or the luster of it will never appear.”
“Thus 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.”
“All evils are to be considered with the good that is in them, and with what worse attends them.”
“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.”
“The best of men cannot suspend their fate:
The good die early, and the bad die late.”
“All our discontents about what we want appeared to spring from the want of thankfulness for what we have.”
“And of all the plagues with which mankind are cursed, Ecclesiastic tyranny's the worst.”
“Tis very strange Men should be so fond of being thought more wicked than they are.”
“It is never too late to be wise.”
“I have since often observed, how incongruous and irrational the common temper of mankind is, especially of youth ... that 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 only can make them be esteemed wise men.”
“Nature has left this tincture in the blood,
That all men would be tyrants if they could.”
“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 : ...”
“Man is a short-sighted creature, sees but a very little way before him; and as his passions are none of his best friends, so his particular affections are generally his worst counselors.”
“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.”
“Redemption from sin is greater then redemption from affliction.”
“Wait on the Lord, and be of good cheer, and he shall strengthen thy heart; wait, I say, on the Lord.”
“If you have regard to your future happiness, any view of living comfortably with a husband, any hope of preserving your fortunes or restoring them after any disaster, never, ladies, marry a fool. Any husband rather than a fool. With some other husband you may be unhappy, but with a fool you will be miserable.”
“So possible is it for us to roll ourselves up in wickedness, till we grow invulnerable by conscience; and that sentinel, once dozed, sleeps fast, not to be awakened while the tide of pleasure continues to flow or till something dark and dreadful brings us to ourselves again.”
“If a young women once thinks herself handsome, she never doubts the truth of any man that tells her he is in love with her; for if she believes herself charming charming enough to captive him, 'tis natural to expect the effects of it.”
“I had been tricked once by that Cheat called love, but the Game was over...”
“But, he says again, if God much strong, much might as the Devil, why God no kill the Devil, so make him no more do wicked?
I was strangely surprised at his question, [...] And at first I could not tell what to say, so I pretended not to hear him...”
“It is as reasonable to represent one kind of imprisonment by another as it is to represent anything that really exists by that which exists not.”
“How mercifully can our Creator treat His creatures, even in those conditions in which they seemed to be overwhelmed in destruction! How can He sweeten the bitterest providences, and give us cause to praise Him for dungeons and prisons! What a table was here spread for me in a wilderness where I saw nothing at first but to perish for hunger!”
“How frequently, in the course of our lives, the evil which in itself we seek most to shun, and which, when we are fallen into, is the most dreadful to us, is oftentimes the very means or door of our deliverance, by which alone we can be raised again from the affliction we are fallen into ...”
“The soul is placed in the body like a rough diamond, and must be polished, or the luster of it will never appear.”
~ Daniel Defoe, The Education of Women (1719)
“Thus 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, Robinson Crusoe
“All evils are to be considered with the good that is in them, and with what worse attends them.”
~ Daniel Defoe, Robinson Crusoe
“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 Mrs. Christian Davies (1741)
“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)
“All our discontents about what we want appeared to spring from the want of thankfulness for what we have.”
~ Daniel Defoe, Robinson Crusoe
“And of all the plagues with which mankind are cursed, Ecclesiastic tyranny's the worst.”
~ Daniel Defoe, The True-Born Englishman (1701)
“Tis very strange Men should be so fond of being thought more wicked than they are.”
~ Daniel Defoe, A System Of Magick
“It is never too late to be wise.”
~ Daniel Defoe, Robinson Crusoe
“I have since often observed, how incongruous and irrational the common temper of mankind is, especially of youth ... that 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 only can make them be esteemed wise men.”
~ Daniel Defoe, Robinson Crusoe
“Nature has left this tincture in the blood,
That all men would be tyrants if they could.”
~ Daniel Defoe, The History of the Kentish Petition
“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, Robinson Crusoe
“Man is a short-sighted creature, sees but a very little way before him; and as his passions are none of his best friends, so his particular affections are generally his worst counselors.”
~ Daniel Defoe, The Life and Adventures of Robinson Crusoe
“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, Robinson Crusoe
“Redemption from sin is greater then redemption from affliction.”
~ Daniel Defoe, Robinson Crusoe
“Wait on the Lord, and be of good cheer, and he shall strengthen thy heart; wait, I say, on the Lord.”
~ Daniel Defoe, Robinson Crusoe
“If you have regard to your future happiness, any view of living comfortably with a husband, any hope of preserving your fortunes or restoring them after any disaster, never, ladies, marry a fool. Any husband rather than a fool. With some other husband you may be unhappy, but with a fool you will be miserable.”
~ Daniel Defoe, Roxana
“So possible is it for us to roll ourselves up in wickedness, till we grow invulnerable by conscience; and that sentinel, once dozed, sleeps fast, not to be awakened while the tide of pleasure continues to flow or till something dark and dreadful brings us to ourselves again.”
~ Daniel Defoe, Roxana
“If a young women once thinks herself handsome, she never doubts the truth of any man that tells her he is in love with her; for if she believes herself charming charming enough to captive him, 'tis natural to expect the effects of it.”
~ Daniel Defoe, Moll Flanders
“I had been tricked once by that Cheat called love, but the Game was over...”
~ Daniel Defoe, Moll Flanders
“But, he says again, if God much strong, much might as the Devil, why God no kill the Devil, so make him no more do wicked?
I was strangely surprised at his question, [...] And at first I could not tell what to say, so I pretended not to hear him...”
~ Daniel Defoe, Robinson Crusoe
“It is as reasonable to represent one kind of imprisonment by another as it is to represent anything that really exists by that which exists not.”
~ Daniel Defoe, Robinson Crusoe
“How mercifully can our Creator treat His creatures, even in those conditions in which they seemed to be overwhelmed in destruction! How can He sweeten the bitterest providences, and give us cause to praise Him for dungeons and prisons! What a table was here spread for me in a wilderness where I saw nothing at first but to perish for hunger!”
~ Daniel Defoe, Robinson Crusoe
“How frequently, in the course of our lives, the evil which in itself we seek most to shun, and which, when we are fallen into, is the most dreadful to us, is oftentimes the very means or door of our deliverance, by which alone we can be raised again from the affliction we are fallen into ...”
~ Daniel Defoe, Robinson Crusoe
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