All men would be tyrants if they could.
Daniel Defoe

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

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

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

He that is rich is wise.
Daniel Defoe

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.
Daniel Defoe

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

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.
Daniel Defoe

Justice is always violent to the party offending, for every man is innocent in his own eyes.
Daniel Defoe

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


Necessity makes an honest man a knave.
Daniel Defoe

Pride the first peer and president of hell.
Daniel Defoe

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

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

'Tis no sin to cheat the devil.
Daniel Defoe

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