Daniel Defoe Quotes

From this amphibious ill-born mob began
That vain, ill-natured thing, an Englishman.

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

That heterogeneous thing, an Englishman.

Wise men affirm it is the English way
Never to grumble till they come to pay.

Next, bring some lawyers to thy bar,
By innuendo they might all stand there;
There let them expiate that guilt,
And pay for all that blood their tongues have spilt.
These are the mountebanks of state,
Who by the sleight of tongues can crimes create,
And dress up trifles in the robes of fate,
The mastiffs of a Government,
To worry and run down the innocent.

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.

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

For Englishmen are ne'er contented long.

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

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.

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.

Self-destruction is the effect of cowardice in the highest extreme.

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

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.

All evils are to be considered with the good that is in them, and with what worse attends them.