Quotes by Daniel Defoe

“I cannot believe that God ever design'd the Riches of the World to be useless to the World; that the Gold, the Silver, the Diamonds, and other Species of such Immense Worth and Value, was ever crea...”

“To know Trade then is to know the World: And I may farther observe, That if any one Nation could govern Trade, that Nation would govern the World; could it give Laws to the Commerce, it would give ...”

“Let us see in a few Words what Nature and Providence has done for us; nay, what they have done for us exclusive of the rest of the World. The Bounty of Heaven has stor'd us with the Principles of C...”

“The art of war, which I take to be the highest perfection of human knowledge.”

“Self-destruction is the effect of cowardice in the highest extreme.”

“Women, in my observation, have little or no difference in them, but as they are or are not distinguished by education.”

“The grand contention's plainly to be seen,To get some men put out, and some put in.”

“Wherever 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.”

“From this amphibious ill-born mob beganThat vain, ill-natured thing, an Englishman.”

“The royal refugee our breed restoresWith foreign courtiers and with foreign whores,And carefully repeopled us again,Throughout his lazy, long, lascivious reign.”

“That heterogeneous thing, an Englishman.”

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

“Great families of yesterday we show,And lords whose parents were the Lord knows who.”

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