Quotes from Daniel Defoe

I had more care upon my head now than I had in my state of life in the island where I wanted nothing but what I had, and had nothing but what I wanted; whereas I had now a great charge upon me, and my business was how to secure it.  I had not a cave now to hide my money in, or a place where it might lie without lock or key, till it grew mouldy and tarnished before anybody would meddle with it; on the contrary, I knew not where to put it, or whom to trust with it. 

yet all looked deeply concerned; and as we saw it apparently coming on, so every one looked on himself and his family as in the utmost danger. Were it possible to represent those times exactly to those that did not see them, and give the reader due ideas of the horror that everywhere presented itself, it must make just impressions upon their minds, and fill them with surprise. London might well be said to be all in tears.

Never any young adventurer's misfortunes, I believe, began sooner, or continued longer than mine.

In this agony of mind, I made many vows and resolutions that if it would please God to spare my life in this one voyage, if ever I got once my foot upon dry land again, I would go directly home to my father, and never set it into a ship again while I lived; that I would take his advice, and never run myself into such miseries as these any more.

the great Maker of the world, that He does not leave His creatures so absolutely destitute, but that in the worst circumstances they have always something to be thankful for, and sometimes are nearer deliverance than they imagine; nay, are even brought to their deliverance by the means by which they seem to be brought to their destruction.

But as a fool is the worst of husbands to do a woman good, so a fool is the worst husband a woman can do good to.

Ne poznavaju?i opasnost koja mi prijeti, bio sam jednako sretan kao da je zapravo i nije bilo.

yet there would always be some difference seen between five-and-twenty and two-and-forty.

Amulets,39 and I know not what Preparations, to fortify the Body with them against the Plague; as if the Plague was not the Hand of God

We had at this time a great many frightful stories told us of nurses and watchmen who looked after the dying people (that is to say, hired nurses, who attended infected people), using them barbarously, starving them, smothering them, or by other wicked means hastening their end, that is to say, murdering of them.

A man that coveted a retreat in this world might as agreeably spend his time... in Dorchester as in any town I know in England.

I should always find that the calamities of life were shared among the upper and lower part of mankind, but that the middle station had the fewest disasters,...

Some Endeavors were used to suppress the Printing of such Books as terrify'd the People, and to frighten the dispersers of them, some of whom were taken up, but nothing was done in it, as I am inform'd; The Government being unwilling to exasperate the People, who were, as I may say, all out of their Wits already.

they do not relish the repentance as much as they do the crime

So certainly does interest banish all matters of affection, and so naturally do men give up honour and justice, humanity, and even Christianity, to secure themselves.

above all the parishes in London, for a great number of alleys and thoroughfares, very long, into which no carts could come, and where they were obliged to go and fetch the bodies a very long way, which alleys now remain to witness it; such as White's Alley, Cross Keys Court, Swan Alley, Bell Alley, White Horse Alley, and many more.

when, indeed, one would have thought the very city itself was running out of the gates, and that there would be nobody left behind,—you may be sure from that hour all trade, except such as related to immediate subsistence, was, as it were, at a full stop.

Das kann ich, sagte ich einfältiges Kind.

Aber, sprach sie noch immer lächelnd, dieser Verdienst kann dir nicht Nahrung und Kleider schaffen, wer wird denn dem kleinen Fräulein die Kleider kaufen?

We had no such thing as printed newspapers in those days to spread rumours and reports of things, and to improve them by the invention of men, as I have lived to see practised since.

though it is true all the people did not go out of the city of London, yet I may venture to say that in a manner all the horses did; for there was hardly a horse to be bought or hired in the whole city for some weeks.

Si una joven tiene belle­za, nacimiento, educación, ingenio, sentido, modales, modestia y todo ello en forma extremada, pero no tiene dinero, no es na­die y es igual que si lo necesitara todo, porque el dinero es lo único que recomienda ahora a una mujer. Los hombres tienen todo el juego en su mano.

That all plays, bear baitings, 88 games, singing of ballads, buckler play, 89 or such like causes of assemblies of people, be utterly prohibited, and the parties offending severely punished by every alderman in his ward.

Daniel Defoe—arguably the most prolific writer in the English language and considered by many the father of the novel and the founder of modern journalism—