Quotes from Daniel Defoe

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

No man commits evil for the sake of it; even the Devil himself has some farther design in sinning, than barely the wicked part of it.

What are the sorrows of other men to us, and what their joy?

In their religion they are so uneven, That each man goes his own byway to heaven.

Wealth, howsoever got, in England makes lords of mechanics, gentlemen of rakes; Antiquity and birth are needless here; 'Tis impudence and money makes a peer.

Now, said I aloud, My dear Father's Words are come to pass: God's Justice has overtaken me, and I have none to help or hear me: I rejected the Voice of Providence.

All the good things of the world are no further good to us than as they are of use; and of all we may heap up we enjoy only as much as we can use, and no more.

I had dropped a good design, which I had once bent my thoughts upon, and that was to try if I could not make some of my barley into malt, and then try to brew myself some beer.

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

Law is but a heathen word for power.

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.

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.

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

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

He that is rich is wise.

'Tis no sin to cheat the devil.

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.

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

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.

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

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

Reason, it is true, is DICTATOR 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.

Middle age is youth without its levity, And age without decay.

Whenever God erects a house of prayer The devil always builds a chapel there; And 'twill be found, upon examination, The latter has the largest congregation.