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Daniel Defoe
66 quotes
“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. We reproach the sex every day with folly and impertinence; while I am confident, had they the advantages of education equal to us, they would be guilty of less than ourselves.”
Daniel Defoe (1660–1731) said by 1731 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“All the reproaches and ill names we bestow on the sex, as fickle, weak, and inconstant, are owing to the want of education.”
Daniel Defoe (1660–1731) said by 1731 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The soul is placed in the body like a rough diamond; and must be polished, or the lustre of it will never appear. And ’tis manifest, that as the rational soul distinguishes us from brutes; so education carries on the distinction, and makes some less brutish than others.”
Daniel Defoe (1660–1731) said by 1731 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“A woman well bred and well taught, furnished with the additional accomplishments of knowledge and behaviour, is a creature without comparison. Her society is the emblem of sublimer enjoyments, her person is angelic, and her conversation heavenly. She is all softness and sweetness, peace, love, wit, and delight. She is every way suitable to the sublimest wish, and the man that has such a one to his portion, has nothing to do but to rejoice in her, and be thankful.”
Daniel Defoe (1660–1731) said by 1731 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“For I cannot think that God Almighty ever made them so delicate, so glorious creatures; and furnished them with such charms, so agreeable and so delightful to mankind; with souls capable of the same accomplishments with men: and all, to be only Stewards of our Houses, Cooks, and Slaves.”
Daniel Defoe (1660–1731) said by 1731 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Thus Trade is the Foundation of Wealth, and Wealth of Power.”
Daniel Defoe (1660–1731) said by 1731 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“[T]he Art of War is so well study’d, and so equally known in all Places, that ’tis the longest Purse that conquers now, not the longest Sword. If there is any Country whose People are less martial, less enterprising, and less able for the Field; yet, if they have but more Money than their Neighbours, they shall soon be superior to them in Strength, for Money is Power.”
Daniel Defoe (1660–1731) said by 1731 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“But let us turn our Eyes now and view the Effects of the improving English Genius, the Colonies of New-England and Virginia, despis’d by the Spaniards, as well before we discover’d them, as afterwards; for the same Columbus, which discover’d New-Spain, discoverd all the Northern Coast, but left it again as not worth while to plant and possess it. I say, these barren, cold, poor and uncultivated Climates, the Leavings of the Spaniards, How have we improved upon them to infinite Advantages?”
Daniel Defoe (1660–1731) said by 1731 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Not discouraged by the Severity of the Cold, by the Surface over-grown with Briars and Thorns, by the early Opposition of the Natives, a Race of People fierce and false, untractable, treacherous, irreconcilable, bloody and merciless, even to the most horrible, and almost inexpressible Cruelties, who would rarely make Peace, and more rarely keep their Agreements when made.”
Daniel Defoe (1660–1731) said by 1731 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Often massacred and butcher’d, and sometimes quite driven away by the Fury of the Savages, often starv’d out and famished, and either the whole Body of Planters wasted, and perishing with Cold and Want, and as often being reduc’d to Extremities, forc’d to abandon the Country in the utmost Distress, and return starving home.”
Daniel Defoe (1660–1731) said by 1731 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“But not to weigh the Particulars, and come to reckon by Ounces and Drams, this is certain, and will be granted, that the Product of our improved Colonies raises infinitely more Trade, employs more Hands, and I think, I may say by Consequence, brings in more Wealth to this one particular Nation or People, the English, than all the Mines of New Spain do to the Spaniards.”
Daniel Defoe (1660–1731) said by 1731 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“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 Commerce, fruitful of a vast variety of Things essential to Trade, and which call upon us as it were in the Voice of Nature, bidding us work, and with annex'd Encouragement to do so from the visible apparent Success of Industry. Here the Voice of the World, is plain, like the Answer of an Oracle, thus Dig and Find, Plow and Reap, Fish and Take, Spin and Live; in a word, Trade and Thrive; and this with such extraordinary Circumstances, that it is as if there was a Bar upon the neighbouring Nations, and it had been spoken from Heaven thus: These are for you only, and not for any other Nation; you, my Favourites, of England; you singled out to be great, opulent, powerful, above all your Neighbours, and to be made so by your own Industry and my Bounty.”
Daniel Defoe (1660–1731) first seen 1729 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: An Humble Proposal to the People of England, For the Encrease of their Trade, An Encouragement of their Manufacturers; Whether the present Uncertainty of Affairs issues in Peace or War (1729), p. 9
“He told me I might judge of the happiness of this state by this one thing - viz. that this was the state of life which all other people envied; that kings have frequently lamented the miserable consequence of being born to great things, and wished they had been placed in the middle of the two extremes, between the mean and the great; that the wise man gave his testimony to this, as the standard of felicity, when he prayed to have neither poverty nor riches. He bade me observe it, and I should always find that the calamities of life were shared among the upper and lower part of mankind; but that the middle station had the fewest disasters.”
Daniel Defoe (1660–1731) said by 1731 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“As the Consumption of Provisions increase, more Lands are cultivated; waste Grounds are inclosed, Woods are grubb’d up, Forrests and common Lands are till’d, and improv’d; by this more Farmers are brought together, more Farm-houses and Cottages are built, and more Trades are called upon to supply the necessary Demands of Husbandry: In a Word, as Land is employ’d, the People increase of Course, and thus Trade sets all the Wheels of Improvement in Motion; for from the Original of Business to this Day it appears, that the Prosperity of a Nation rises and falls, just as Trade is supported or decay’d.”
Daniel Defoe (1660–1731) said by 1731 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“But never to be discouraged, how have they by the meer Force of indefatigable Application, planted, inhabited, cultivated those inhospitable Climates, those suppos’d barren Countries, those trifling little Spots of Islands, not thought worth looking at by the Spaniards? How have they brought them to be the richest, the most improved, and the most flourishing Colonies in all that Part of the World? So populous, so fortify’d, the People so rich, the Product so great; and which is more than all, so adapted to Commerce, so universally embarked in Trade, that it is at this Time an unresolved Doubt, whether brings the greatest Wealth to Europe, take the Exportations and Consumptions of Manufacture there into the Account of the Return, the Sugars, Tobacco, and other rich Productions of the British and French Colonies; the Fish, the Corn, the Flesh, the Furrs, &c. I say, Which are the greatest in Value, these, or the Gold and Silver of Mexico and Peru?”
Daniel Defoe (1660–1731) said by 1731 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Wherever God erects a house of prayer, The Devil always builds a chapel there; And 't will be found, upon examination, The latter has the largest congregation.”
Daniel Defoe (1660–1731) said by 1731 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source