Daniel Defoe > Quotes

“It is never too late to be wise.”
― Daniel Defoe, Robinson Crusoe

“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

“Expect nothing and you'll always be surprised”
― Daniel Defoe

“Fear of danger is ten thousand times more terrifying than danger itself.”
― Daniel Defoe

“Thus fear of danger is ten thousand times more terrifying than danger itself.”
― Daniel Defoe, Robinson Crusoe

“I saw the Cloud, though I did not foresee the Storm.”
― Daniel Defoe, Moll Flanders

“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, Robinson Crusoe

“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, Robinson Crusoe

“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, Robinson Crusoe

“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, Robinson Crusoe

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

“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

“All our discontents about what we want appeared to me to spring from the want of thankfulness for what we have.”
― Daniel Defoe, Robinson Crusoe

“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, Robinson Crusoe

“For sudden Joys, like Griefs, confound at first. ”
― Daniel Defoe, Robinson Crusoe

“Redemption from sin is greater then redemption from affliction.”
― Daniel Defoe, Robinson Crusoe

“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, Robinson Crusoe

“...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 were not subjected to so many distempers and uneasinesses either of body or mind, as those were who, by vicious living, luxury, and extravagances on one hand, or by hard labor, want of necessaries, and mean or insufficient diet on the other hand, bring distempers upon themselves by the natural consequences of their way of living; that the middle station of life was calculated for all kind of virtues and all kind of enjoyments; that peace and plenty were the handmaids of a middle fortune; that temperance, moderation, quietness, health, society, all agreeable diversions, and all desirable pleasures, were the blessings attending the middle station of life...”
― Daniel Defoe, Robinson Crusoe

“I am giving an account of what was, not of what ought or ought not to be.”
― Daniel Defoe, Moll Flanders

“He that hath truth on his side is a fool as well as a coward if he is afraid to own it because fo other mens's opinions.”
― Daniel Defoe

“Tis very strange men should be so fond of being wickeder than they are.”
― Daniel Defoe

“All evils are to be considered with the good that is in them, and with what worse attends them.”
― Daniel Defoe, Robinson Crusoe

“I know not what to call this, nor will I urge that it is a secret, overruling decree, that hurries us on to be the instruments of our own destruction, even though it be before us, and that we rush upon it with our eyes open.”
― Daniel Defoe, Robinson Crusoe

“[...] and 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.”
― Daniel Defoe, Robinson Crusoe

“I had been tricked once by that Cheat called love, but the Game was over...”
― Daniel Defoe, Moll Flanders

“...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, Robinson Crusoe

“This grieved me heartily ; and 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.”
― Daniel Defoe, Robinson Crusoe

“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

“But, he says again, if God much strong, much might as the Devil, why God no kill the Devil, so make him no more do wicked?
I was strangely surprised at his question, [...] And at first I could not tell what to say, so I pretended not to hear him...”
― Daniel Defoe, Robinson Crusoe