Daniel Defoe quotes - page 2

What is one man's safety is another man's destruction. (Daniel Defoe)
Justice is always Violence to the Party offending, for every Man is Innocent in his own Eyes. View quote
Daniel Defoe
I saw the Cloud, though I did not foresee the Storm. View quote
Daniel Defoe
I hear much of people's calling out to punish the guilty, but very few are concerned to clear the innocent. View quote
Daniel Defoe
Redemption from sin is greater then redemption from affliction. View quote
Daniel Defoe
I am giving an account of what was, not of what ought or ought not to be. View quote
Daniel Defoe
As covetousness is the root of all evil, so poverty is the worst of all snares. View quote
Daniel Defoe
For sudden Joys, like Griefs, confound at first. View quote
Daniel Defoe
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. View quote
Daniel Defoe
My man Friday. View quote
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)
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. View quote
Daniel Defoe
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. View quote
Daniel Defoe
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. View quote
Daniel Defoe
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. View quote
Daniel Defoe
From this amphibious ill-born mob began That vain, ill-natured thing, an Englishman. View quote
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. View quote
Daniel Defoe
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. View quote
Daniel Defoe
The soul is placed in the body like a rough diamond, and must be polished, or the luster of it will never appear. View quote
Daniel Defoe
In trouble to be troubled, Is to have your trouble doubled. View quote
Daniel Defoe
Necessity makes an honest man a knave. (Daniel Defoe)
Vice came in always at the door of necessity, not at the door of inclination. View quote
Daniel Defoe
Nature has left this tincture in the blood, That all men would be tyrants if they could. View quote
Daniel Defoe
An Englishman will fairly drink as much As will maintain two families of Dutch. View quote
Daniel Defoe
He that is rich is wise. View quote
Daniel Defoe