Daniel Defoe Quotes - Page 2

Never, ladies, marry a fool. Any husband rather than a fool. With some other husband you may be unhappy, but with a fool you will be miserable.

Redemption from sin is greater then redemption from affliction.

'Tis no sin to cheat the devil.

Pride, the first peer and president of Hell.

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

She is always married too soon, who gets a bad husband, and she is never married too late, who gets a good one.

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.

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.

And of all plagues with which mankind are curst, Ecclesiastic tyranny's the worst.

He that Opposes his own Judgment against the Current of the Times, ought to be back'd with unanswerable Truths; and he that has that Truth on his Side, is a Fool, as well as a Coward, if he is afraid to own it, because of the Currency or Multitude of other Mens Opinions.

Things as certain as death and taxes, can be more firmly believed.

Law is but a heathen word for power.

Vice came in always at the door of necessity, not at the door of inclination.

Why then should women be denied the benefits of instruction? If knowledge and understanding had been useless additions to the sex, God almighty would never have given them capacities.

For sudden Joys, like Griefs, confound at first.

I am giving an account of what was, not of what ought or ought not to be.

A rich man is an honest man--no thanks to him; for he would be a double knave, to cheat mankind when he had no need of it: he has no occasion to press upon his integrity, nor so much as to touch upon the borders of dishonesty.

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.

Business neglected is business lost.

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

So possible is it for us to roll ourselves up in wickedness, till we grow invulnerable by conscience; and that sentinel, once dozed, sleeps fast, not to be awakened while the tide of pleasure continues to flow or till something dark and dreadful brings us to ourselves again.

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

No man of common sense will value a woman the less, for not giving herself up at the first attack, or for not accepting his proposal without enquiring into his person or character; on the contrary, he must think her the weakest of all creatures in the world, as the rate of men now goes; in short, he must have a very contemptible opinion of her capacities, nay, even of her understanding, that having but one cast for her life, shall cast that life away at once, and make matrimony like death, be a leap in the dark.

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.

Tis very strange men should be so fond of being wickeder than they are.