189 Quotes by Daniel Defoe

Diligence and Application have their due Encouragement, even in the remotest Parts of the World, and that no Case can be so low, so despicable, or so empty of Prospect, but that an unwearied Industry will go a great way to deliver us from it, will in time raise the meanest Creature to appear again in the World, and give him a new Case for his Life.

When kings the sword of justice first lay down,They are no kings, though they possess the crown.Titles are shadows, crowns are empty things,The good of subjects is the end of kings.

In the first place , I was removed from all the wickedness of the world here. I had neither the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, or the pride of life. I had nothing to covet; for I had all that I was now capable of enjoying.

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

I had great Reason to consider it as a Determination of Heaven, that in this desolate Place, and in this desolate Manner I should end my life; the Tears would run plentifully down my Face when I made these Reflections, and sometimes I would expostulate with myself, Why Providence should thus compleately ruine its Creatures, and render them so absolutely miserable, so without Help abandon'd, so entirely depress'd, that it could be hardly rational to be thankful for such a Life.

Ahora miraba el mundo como algo remoto, con lo que yo no tenía nada que ver y de lo que nada esperaba, y de hecho nada deseaba: en pocas palabras, no tenía nada que ver con ese mundo, y difícilmente algún día tendría que ver algo con él; por tanto, pensé que así debía de verse después de la muerte.

Pero cuando enfermé y los temores de la muerte se presentaron a mis ojos; cuando mis ánimos cedieron ante la fuerza de tan grave mal y mi resistencia se agotó con la fiebre, la conciencia tanto tiempo dormida empezó a despertarse y a hacerme reproches sobre mi pasada vida, por lo cual había provocado a la justicia de Dios para que me abatiera con tan duros golpes, siendo mi empecinada maldad la causa de su severo castigo.

It is as reasonable to represent one kind of imprisonment by another as it is to represent anything that really exists by that which exists not.

...in the course of our lives, the evil which in itself we seek most to shun, and which, when we are fallen into, is the most dreadful to us, is oftentimes the very means or door of our deliverance, by which alone we can be raised again from the affliction we are fallen into...