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Daniel Defoe Quotes

1660–1731 England

Daniel Defoe (13 September 1660 - 24 April 1731), was an English writer, journalist and spy, who gained enduring fame for his novel Robinson Crusoe.

England
Essayists
Journalists
Novelists
Satirists

Also known as: Defoe, Daniel, Robinson Crusoe

Random Daniel Defoe quote

57 quotes

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

The True-Born Englishman (1701)

But English gratitude is always such
To hate the hand which doth oblige too much.

The True-Born Englishman (1701)

Wise men affirm it is the English way
Never to grumble till they come to pay.

Thus Trade is the Foundation of Wealth, and Wealth of Power.

A Plan of the English Commerce (1728)

To-day we love what to-morrow we hate; to-day we seek what to-morrow we shun; to-day we desire what to-morrow we fear, nay, even tremble at the apprehensions of.

Robinson Crusoe (1719)

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.

The Education of Women (1719)

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 Life and Adventures of Mrs. Christian Davies (1741)

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

The True-Born Englishman (1701)

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

Hymn to the Pillory (1703)

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.

Robinson Crusoe (1719)

For Englishmen are ne'er contented long.

The True-Born Englishman (1701)

...abused prosperity is oftentimes made the very means of our greatest adversity...

All men would be tyrants if they could.

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.

Robinson Crusoe (1719)

All the reproaches and ill names we bestow on the sex, as fickle, weak, and inconstant, are owing to the want of education.

The Education of Women (1719)

I have taught my little master to know his letters and spell a little, as well as I could, out of my Bible; for they have given him neither horn-book nor primmer.

The Family Instructor (1718)

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

The True-Born Englishman (1701)

The royal refugee our breed restores
With foreign courtiers and with foreign whores,
And carefully repeopled us again,
Throughout his lazy, long, lascivious reign.

The True-Born Englishman (1701)

Now I saw, though too late, the folly of beginning a work before we count the cost, and before we judge rightly of our own strength to go through with it.

Robinson Crusoe (1719)

In a word, the nature and experience of things dictated to me, upon just reflection, that all the good things of this world are no farther good to us than they are for our use; and that, whatever we may heap up to give others, we enjoy just as much as we can use, and no more.

Robinson Crusoe (1719)

Attribution

Quotes and notes from Wikiquote: Daniel Defoe (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.