57 quotes
From this amphibious ill-born mob began
That vain, ill-natured thing, an Englishman.
The True-Born Englishman (1701)
Norwegian pirates, buccaneering Danes,
Whose red-haired offspring ev’rywhere remains
The True-born Englishman (1701)
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.
The True-Born Englishman (1701)
For justice is the end of government.
The True-Born Englishman (1701)
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.
Robinson Crusoe (1719)
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.
The True-Born Englishman (1701)
Like Eden Fruitful, like Arabia Gay,
So blest, they scarcely know for what to pray;
England in native Glory ever springs;
A Country fitted for the View of Kings.
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.
An Essay upon Publick Credit (1710)
There are some secret springs in the affections which, when they are set a-going by some object in view, or, though not in view, yet rendered present to the mind by the power of imagination, that motion carries out the soul, by its impetuosity, to such violent, eager embracings of the object, that the absence of it is insupportable.
Robinson Crusoe (1719)
To know Trade then is to know the World: And I may farther observe, That if any one Nation could govern Trade, that Nation would govern the World; could it give Laws to the Commerce, it would give Laws to the People, and the whole World would be its Dependents and Subjects.
The Advantages of Peace and Commerce; With Some Remarks on the East-India Trade (1729)
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.
Robinson Crusoe (1719)
We must distinguish between a man of polite learning and a meer schollar: the first is a gentleman and what a gentleman should be; the last is a meer bookcase, a bundle of letters, a head stufft with the jargon of languages, a man that understands every body but is understood by no body.
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.
Robinson Crusoe (1719)
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.
Robinson Crusoe (1719)
Not discouraged by the Severity of the Cold, by the Surface over-grown with Briars and Thorns, by the early Opposition of the Natives, a Race of People fierce and false, untractable, treacherous, irreconcilable, bloody and merciless, even to the most horrible, and almost inexpressible Cruelties, who would rarely make Peace, and more rarely keep their Agreements when made.
A Plan of the English Commerce (1728)
I cannot believe that God ever design'd the Riches of the World to be useless to the World; that the Gold, the Silver, the Diamonds, and other Species of such Immense Worth and Value, was ever created in the Bowels of the Mountains, and the most hidden Parts of the World to lye buried there, and remain unprofitable, till they come to be melted down again in the General Conflagration.
Often massacred and butcher’d, and sometimes quite driven away by the Fury of the Savages, often starv’d out and famished, and either the whole Body of Planters wasted, and perishing with Cold and Want, and as often being reduc’d to Extremities, forc’d to abandon the Country in the utmost Distress, and return starving home.
A Plan of the English Commerce (1728)