Quotes by "Daniel Defoe"

It is never too late to be wise.

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

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.

Nothing’s so partial as the laws of fate, Erecting blockheads to suppress the great. Sir Francis Drake the Spanish plate-fleet won; He had been a pirate if he had got none. Sir Walter Raleigh strove, but missed the plate, And therefore died a traitor to the State. Endeavour bears a value more or less, Just as ’tis recommended by success: The lucky coxcomb ev’ry man will prize, And prosp’rous actions always pass for wise.

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

Necessity makes an honest man a knave.

The soul is placed in the body like a rough diamond, and must be polished, or the luster of it will never appear.

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

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