Daniel Defoe Quotes

For Englishmen are ne'er contented long.

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.

Reason, it is true, is D<small>ICTATOR</small> 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.

For justice is the end of government.

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.

Hail, hieroglyphic State machine,
Contrived to punish fancy in;
Men that are men in thee can feel no pain,
And all thy insignificance disdain!

What is one man's safety is another man's destruction.

Great families of yesterday we show,
And lords whose parents were the Lord knows who.

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.

A true-bred merchant is the best gentleman in the nation.

The grand contention's plainly to be seen,
To get some men put out, and some put in.

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

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.

Alas the Church of England! What with Popery on one hand, and schismatics on the other, how has she been crucified between two thieves!

We loved the doctrine for the teacher's sake.