Moll Flanders Quotes

“I saw the Cloud, though I did not foresee the Storm.”
― Daniel Defoe, Moll Flanders

“I am giving an account of what was, not of what ought or ought not to be.”
― Daniel Defoe, Moll Flanders

“I had been tricked once by that Cheat called love, but the Game was over...”
― Daniel Defoe, Moll Flanders

“He look'd a little disorder'd, when he said this, but I did not apprehend any thing from it at that time, believing as it us'd to be said, that they who do those things never talk of them; or that they who talk of such things never do them.”
― Daniel Defoe, Moll Flanders

“If a young women once thinks herself handsome, she never doubts the truth of any man that tells her he is in love with her; for if she believes herself charming charming enough to captive him, 'tis natural to expect the effects of it.”
― Daniel Defoe, Moll Flanders

“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.”
― Daniel Defoe, Moll Flanders

“I rather wished for their ruin, than studied to avoid it.”
― Daniel Defoe, Moll Flanders

“She is always Married too soon, who gets a bad Husband, and she is never Married too late, who gets a good one.”
― Daniel Defoe, Moll Flanders

“Where love is the case, the doctor's an ass”
― Daniel Defoe, Moll Flanders

“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, Moll Flanders

“Never poor vain creature was so wrapt up with every part of the story as I was, not considering what was before me, and how near my ruin was at the door; indeed, I think I rather wished for that ruin than studied to avoid it.”
― Daniel Defoe, Moll Flanders

“Thus the Government of our Virtue was broken and I exchang'd the Place of Friend for that unmusical harsh-sounding Title of Whore.”
― Daniel Defoe, Moll Flanders

“Thus you see having committed a Crime once, is a sad Handle to the committing of it again; whereas all the Regret, and Reflections wear off when the Temptation renews it self; had I not yielded to see him again, the Corrupt desire in him had worn off, and 'tis very probable he had never fallen into it, with any Body else, as I really believe he had not done before.”
― Daniel Defoe, Moll Flanders

“That as my sister-in-law at Colchester had said, beauty, wit, manners, sense, good humour, good behaviour, education, virtue, piety, or any other qualification, whether of body or mind, had no power to recommend; that money only made a woman agreeable; that men chose mistresses indeed by the gust of their affection, and it was requisite
to a whore to be handsome, well-shaped, have a good mien and a graceful behaviour; but that for a wife, no deformity would shock the fancy, no ill qualities the judgment; the money was the thing; the portion was
neither crooked nor monstrous, but the money was always agreeable, whatever the wife was.”
― Daniel Defoe, Moll Flanders

“It is true that the original of this story is put into new words, and the style of the famous lady we here speak of is a little altered; particularly she is made to tell her own tale in modester words that she told it at first, the copy which came first to hand having been written in language more like one still in Newgate than one grown penitent and humble, as she afterwards pretends to be.”
― Daniel Defoe, Moll Flanders

“A woman's ne'er so ruined but she can Revenge herself on her undoer, Man.”
― Daniel Defoe, Moll Flanders

“...she thought herself very ill used, yet she had no power to resent it”
― Daniel Defoe, Moll Flanders

“Farbigkeit und dieselbe Anziehungskraft herrschen kann wie in einem Bericht von Schandtaten. Wenn diese Annahme einigen Grund haben soll, so muß mir auch verstattet”
― Daniel Defoe, Moll Flanders

“they do not relish the repentance as much as they do the crime,”
― Daniel Defoe, Moll Flanders

“yet there would always be some difference seen between five-and-twenty and two-and-forty.”
― Daniel Defoe, Moll Flanders

“I made no more resistance to him, but let him do just what he pleased, and as often as he pleased; and thus I finished my own destruction at once, for from this day, being forsaken of my virtue and my modesty, I had nothing of value left to recommend me, either to God's blessing or man's assistance.”
― Daniel Defoe, Moll Flanders

“So certainly does interest banish all matters of affection, and so naturally do men give up honour and justice, humanity, and even Christianity, to secure themselves.”
― Daniel Defoe, Moll Flanders

“All possible care, however, has been taken to give no lewd ideas, no immodest turns in the new dressing up of this story; no, not to the worst parts of her expressions. To this purpose some of the vicious part of her life, which could not be modestly told, is quite left out, and several other parts are very much shortened.”
― Daniel Defoe, Moll Flanders

“If I swing by the string, I shall hear the bell ring, And then there's an end of poor Jenny”
― Daniel Defoe, Moll Flanders

“Das kann ich, sagte ich einfältiges Kind.”
― Daniel Defoe, Moll Flanders

“the just reflections of conscience oftentimes snatch a man, especially a man of sense, from the arms of a mistress, as it did him at last, though on another occasion.”
― Daniel Defoe, Moll Flanders

“Kötü kocaya düşen kadın mutlaka çok erken evlenmiştir. İyi koca bulan kadınsa asla çok geç evlenmiş sayılmaz.”
― Daniel Defoe, Moll Flanders

“Daniel Defoe—arguably the most prolific writer in the English language and considered by many the father of the novel and the founder of modern journalism—”
― Daniel Defoe, Moll Flanders

“In short, they robbed together, lay together, were taken together, and at last were hanged together.”
― Daniel Defoe, Moll Flanders

“(...) deixar-se abater pela desgraça é redobrar seu peso, e quem acha ela lhe custará a vida de fato há de morrer.”
― Daniel Defoe, Moll Flanders