"Expect nothing and you'll always be surprised"
— Daniel Defoe

"Fear of danger is ten thousand times more terrifying than danger itself."
— Daniel Defoe

"I hear much of people's calling out to punish the guilty, but very few are concerned to clear the innocent."
— Daniel Defoe

"Tis very strange men should be so fond of being wickeder than they are. "
— Daniel Defoe

"He that hath truth on his side is a fool as well as a coward if he is afraid to own it because fo other mens's opinions."
— Daniel Defoe

"And of all the plagues with which mankind are cursed, Ecclesiastic tyranny's the worst."
— Daniel Defoe

"And I add this part here, to hint to whoever shall read it, that whenever they come to a true Sense of things, they will find Deliverance from Sin a much greater Blessing than Deliverance from Affliction."
— Daniel Defoe (Robinson Crusoe)

"For sudden Joys, like Griefs, confound at first. "
— Daniel Defoe (Robinson Crusoe)

""quel guillochis oeuvre par la providence que la vie de l'homme! par combien de voies secretes et contraires les circonstances diverses ne precipitent-elles pas nos affections! aujourd'hui nous aimons ce que demain nous hairons,aujourd'hui nous recherchons ce que nous fuirons demain,aujourd'hui nous desirons ce que demain nous fera peur...""
— Daniel Defoe (Robinson Crusoe.)

"em un mot la nature et l'experience m'appirent,apres mure reflexion,que toutes les bonnes choses de l'univers ne sont bonnes pour nous que suivont l'usage que nous en faisons,et qu'on n'en jouit qu'autant qu'on s'en sert ou qu'on les amasse pour les donner aux autres,et pas plus "
— Daniel Defoe (Robinson Crusoe.)

"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

"la crainte du danger est dix mille fois plus effrayante que le danger lui-meme,et nous trouvons le poids de l'anxiete plus lourd de beaucoup que le mal que nous redoutans."
— Daniel Defoe (Robinson Crusoe.)

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

"How infinitely good that Providence is which has provided, in its government of mankind, such narrow bounds to his sight and knowledge of things; and though he walks in the midst of so many thousand dangers, the sight of which, if discovered to him, would distract his mind and sink his spirits, he is kept serene and calm by having the events of things hid from his eyes, and knowing nothing of the dangers which surround him!"
— Daniel Defoe

"'Tis very strange Men should be so fond of being thought more wicked than they are."
— Daniel Defoe (A system of magick)

"As for Women that do not think their own Safety worth their Thought, that impatient of their present State, resolve as they call it to take the first good Christian that comes, that run into Matrimony, as a Horse rushes into the Battle, I can say nothing to them, but this, that they are a Sort of Ladies that are to be pray'd for among the rest of distemper'd People..."
— Daniel Defoe (The Fortunes and Misfortunes of the Famous Moll Flanders)

"The best of Men cannot suspend their Fate; The Good die early, and the Bad die late."
— Daniel Defoe