Quotes by Daniel Defoe

About Daniel Defoe:

Daniel Defoe is notable for being one of the earliest proponents of the novel, as he helped to popularise the form in Britain and with others such as Samuel Richardson, and thus is among the founders of the English novel. He was a prolific and versatile writer, producing more than five hundred books, pamphlets, and journals on various topics, including politics, crime, religion, marriage, psychology, and the supernatural. He was also a pioneer of economic journalism.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

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

Daniel Defoe

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

Daniel Defoe

Diligence and Application have their due Encouragement, even in the remotest Parts of the World, and that no Case can be so low, so despicable, or so empty of Prospect, but that an unwearied Industry will go a great way to deliver us from it, will in...

Daniel Defoe

He look'd a little disorder'd, when he said this, but I did not apprehend any thing from it at that time, believing as it us'd to be said, that they who do those things never talk of them; or that they who talk of such things never do them.

Daniel Defoe

...I should always find, the calamities of life were shared among the upper and lower part of mankind; but that middle station had the fewest disasters, and was not exposed to so many vicissitudes as the higher or lower part of mankind; nay, they wer...

Daniel Defoe

Ahora miraba el mundo como algo remoto, con lo que yo no tenía nada que ver y de lo que nada esperaba, y de hecho nada deseaba: en pocas palabras, no tenía nada que ver con ese mundo, y difícilmente algún día tendría que ver algo con él; por t...

Daniel Defoe

Well then," said I, "if God does not forsake me, of what ill consequence can it be, or what matters it, though the world should all forsake me, seeing on the other hand, if I had all the world, and should lose the favour and blessing of God, there wo...

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

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

Pero cuando enfermé y los temores de la muerte se presentaron a mis ojos; cuando mis ánimos cedieron ante la fuerza de tan grave mal y mi resistencia se agotó con la fiebre, la conciencia tanto tiempo dormida empezó a despertarse y a hacerme repr...

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

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

Daniel Defoe

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

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

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

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

Daniel Defoe

Pride the first peer and president of hell.

Daniel Defoe

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

Daniel Defoe

Necessity makes an honest man a knave.

Daniel Defoe

He that is rich is wise.

Daniel Defoe

Author Bio

  • NameDaniel Defoe
  • DescriptionEnglish trader, writer and journalist
  • AliasesDaniel Foe
  • Born1660
  • DiedApril 24, 1731
  • CountryKingdom Of England; Kingdom Of Great Britain
  • ProfessionWriter; Journalist; Novelist; Prosaist; Opinion Journalist