Daniel Defoe was an English trader, writer, journalist, pamphleteer and spy. He is most famous for his novel Robinson Crusoe, published in 1719, which is claimed to be second only to the Bible in its number of translations. He has been seen as one of the earliest proponents of the English novel, and helped to popularise the form in Britain with others such as Aphra Behn and Samuel Richardson. Defoe wrote many political tracts and was often in trouble with the authorities, and spent a period in prison. Intellectuals and political leaders paid attention to his fresh ideas and sometimes consulted with him. Defoe was a prolific and versatile writer, producing more than three hundred works—books, pamphlets, and journals—on diverse topics, including politics, crime, religion, marriage, psychology, and the supernatural. He was also a pioneer of business journalism and economic journalism. May these Daniel Defoe Quotes On Success inspire you to take action so that you may live your dreams.
1. “All the good things of the world are no further good to us than as they are of use; and of all we may heap up we enjoy only as much as we can use, and no more.” Daniel Defoe
2. “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.” Daniel Defoe
3. “Expect nothing and you’ll always be surprised.” Daniel Defoe
4. “Actions receive their tincture from the times, And as they change are virtues made or crimes.” Daniel Defoe
5. “Friends are good, – good, if well chosen.” Daniel Defoe
6. “I am giving an account of what was, not of what ought or ought not to be.” Daniel Defoe
7. “Fear of danger is ten thousand times more terrifying than danger itself.” Daniel Defoe
8. “It is never too late to be wise.” Daniel Defoe
9. “Wit is the fruitful womb where thoughts conceive.” Daniel Defoe
10. “As covetousness is the root of all evil, so poverty is the worst of all snares.” Daniel Defoe
11. “Pride, the first peer and president of hell.” Daniel Defoe
12. “The height of human wisdom is to bring our tempers down to our circumstances, and to make a calm within, under the weight of the greatest storm without.” Daniel Defoe
13. “Today we love what tomorrow we hate, today we seek what tomorrow we shun, today we desire what tomorrow we fear, nay, even tremble at the apprehensions of.” Daniel Defoe
14. “Justice is always violent to the party offending, for every man is innocent in his own eyes.” Daniel Defoe
15. “Redemption from sin is greater then redemption from affliction.” Daniel Defoe
16. “Necessity makes an honest man a knave.” Daniel Defoe
17. “All evils are to be considered with the good that is in them, and with what worse attends them.” Daniel Defoe
18. “For sudden joys, like griefs, confound at first.” Daniel Defoe
19. “Misfortunes seldom come alone.” Daniel Defoe
20. “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
21. “Self-destruction is the effect of cowardice in the highest extreme.” Daniel Defoe
22. “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
23. “I know not what to call this, nor will I urge that it is a secret, overruling decree, that hurries us on to be the instruments of our own destruction, even though it be before us, and that we rush upon it with our eyes open.” Daniel Defoe
24. “Nature has left this tincture in the blood, That all men would be tyrants if they could.” Daniel Defoe
25. “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.” Daniel Defoe
26. “Vice came in always at the door of necessity, not at the door of inclination.” Daniel Defoe
27. “Business neglected is business lost.” Daniel Defoe
28. “Pleasure is a thief to business.” Daniel Defoe
29. “All of our discontents for what we want appear to me to spring from want of thankfulness for what we have.” Daniel Defoe
30. “Abused prosperity is oftentimes made the very means of our greatest adversity.” Daniel Defoe
31. “He that opposes his own judgment against the consent of the times ought to be backed with unanswerable truths; and he that has truth on his side is a fool as well as a coward if he is afraid to own it because of other men’s opinions.” Daniel Defoe
32. “Those people cannot enjoy comfortably what God has given them because they see and covet what He has not given them.” Daniel Defoe
33. “This grieved me heartily; and now I saw, though too late, the folly of beginning a work before we count the cost, and before we judge rightly of our own strength to go through with it.” Daniel Defoe
34. “It is men of desperate fortunes on the one hand, or of aspiring, superior fortunes on the other, who go abroad upon adventures, to rise by enterprise, and make themselves famous in undertakings of nature out of the common road.” Daniel Defoe
35. “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.” Daniel Defoe
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