Top 98 Quotes & Sayings by Daniel Defoe

Explore popular quotes and sayings by an English journalist Daniel Defoe.

Last updated on November 21, 2024.

Daniel Defoe was an English writer, trader, journalist, pamphleteer and spy. He is most famous for his novel Robinson Crusoe, published in 1719, which is claimed to be second only to the Bible in its number of translations. He has been seen as one of the earliest proponents of the English novel, and helped to popularise the form in Britain with others such as Aphra Behn and Samuel Richardson. Defoe wrote many political tracts, was often in trouble with the authorities, and spent a period in prison. Intellectuals and political leaders paid attention to his fresh ideas and sometimes consulted him.

English - Journalist | 1660 - 1731

Source: Wikipedia

An Englishman will fairly drink as much As will maintain two families of Dutch.

Daniel Defoe

He that is rich is wise.

Daniel Defoe

Vice came in always at the door of necessity, not at the door of inclination.

Daniel Defoe

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

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.

Daniel Defoe

Nature has left this tincture in the blood, That all men would be tyrants if they could.

Daniel Defoe

Necessity makes an honest man a knave.

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.

Daniel Defoe

'Tis no sin to cheat the devil.

Daniel Defoe

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

Pride the first peer and president of hell.

Daniel Defoe

All men would be tyrants if they could.

Daniel Defoe

As covetousness is the root of all evil, so poverty is the worst of all snares.

Daniel Defoe

Justice is always violent to the party offending, for every man is innocent in his own eyes.

Daniel Defoe

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

Daniel Defoe

In trouble to be troubled, Is to have your trouble doubled.

Daniel Defoe

I had been tricked once by that Cheat called love, but the Game was over.

Daniel Defoe

Pride, the first peer and president of Hell.

Daniel Defoe

Friends are good,--good, if well chosen.

Daniel Defoe

He that Opposes his own Judgment against the Current of the Times, ought to be back'd with unanswerable Truths; and he that has that Truth on his Side, is a Fool, as well as a Coward, if he is afraid to own it, because of the Currency or Multitude of other Mens Opinions.

Daniel Defoe

Why then should women be denied the benefits of instruction? If knowledge and understanding had been useless additions to the sex, God almighty would never have given them capacities.

Daniel Defoe

Expect nothing and you'll always be surprised

Daniel Defoe

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

Daniel Defoe

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

Daniel Defoe

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

It happen'd one Day about Noon going towards my Boat, I was exceedingly surpriz'd with the Print of a Man's naked Foot on the Shore.

Daniel Defoe

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.

Daniel Defoe

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

He that is rich is wise, And all men learned poverty despise.

Daniel Defoe

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

Wit is the Fruitful Womb where Thoughts conceive.

Daniel Defoe

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

Daniel Defoe

It put me upon reflecting how little repining there would be among mankind at any condition of life, if people would rather compare their condition with those that were worse, in order to be thankful, than be always comparing them with those which are better, to assist their murmurings and complaining.

Daniel Defoe

Justice is always Violence to the Party offending, for every Man is Innocent in his own Eyes.

Daniel Defoe

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.

Daniel Defoe

For I cannot think that GOD Almighty ever made them [women] so delicate, so glorious creatures; and furnished them with such charms, so agreeable and so delightful to mankind; with souls capable of the same accomplishments with men: and all, to be only Stewards of our Houses, Cooks, and Slaves.

Daniel Defoe

The height of human wisdom is to bring our tempers down to our circumstances, and to make a calm within, under the weight of the greatest storm without.

Daniel Defoe

Tis very strange men should be so fond of being wickeder than they are.

Daniel Defoe

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

Daniel Defoe

Wherever God erects a house of prayer the Devil always builds a chapel there; And 't will be found, upon examination, the latter has the largest congregation.

Daniel Defoe

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

Daniel Defoe

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

As for women that do not think their own safety worth their thought, that impatient of their present state, resolve as they call it to take the first good Christian that comes; that runs into matrimony, as a horse rushes into battle; I can say nothing to them, but this, that they are a sort of ladies that are to be pray'd for among the rest of distemper'd people; and to me they look like people that venture their whole estates in a lottery where there is a hundred thousand blanks to one prize.

Daniel Defoe

No man of common sense will value a woman the less, for not giving herself up at the first attack, or for not accepting his proposal without enquiring into his person or character; on the contrary, he must think her the weakest of all creatures in the world, as the rate of men now goes; in short, he must have a very contemptible opinion of her capacities, nay, even of her understanding, that having but one cast for her life, shall cast that life away at once, and make matrimony like death, be a leap in the dark.

Daniel Defoe

Business neglected is business lost.

Daniel Defoe

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.

Daniel Defoe

Not the man in the moon, not the groaning-board, not the speaking of friar Bacon's brazen- head, not the inspiration of mother Shipton, or the miracles of Dr. Faustus, things as certain as death and taxes, can be more firmly believed.

Daniel Defoe

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.

Daniel Defoe

It is never too late to be wise.

Daniel Defoe

Though I don't like the crew, I won't sink the ship. In fact, in time of storm I'll do my best to save it. You see, we are all in this craft and must sink or swim together.

Daniel Defoe

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

A rich man is an honest man--no thanks to him; for he would be a double knave, to cheat mankind when he had no need of it: he has no occasion to press upon his integrity, nor so much as to touch upon the borders of dishonesty.

Daniel Defoe

No shoots, says Friday, no yet, me shoot now, me no kill; me stay, give you one more laugh.

Daniel Defoe

Law is but a heathen word for power.

Daniel Defoe

She is always married too soon, who gets a bad husband, and she is never married too late, who gets a good one.

Daniel Defoe

Redemption from sin is greater then redemption from affliction.

Daniel Defoe

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

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