Defoe Quotes & Sayings

There was soot and orphans everywhere, and gaslit cobbled streets full of fog and sinister gentlemen out for a night of illicit murder. It was a strict and unforgiving society; looking at a piano, eating too much butter, dancing with elan
the sour-faced Queen Victoria forbade all these things. And, it was also raining in the London of themdays
dirty grey slabs of rain that left everywhere shining and slippery. — Gideon Defoe

Call upon me in the Day of Trouble, and I will deliver, and thou shalt glorify me ... Wait on the Lord, and be of good Cheer, and he shall strengthen thy Heart; wait, I say, on the Lord:' It is impossible to express the Comfort this gave me. In Answer, I thankfully laid down the Book, and was no more sad, at least, not on that Occasion. — Daniel Defoe

And thus I left the island, the 19th of December, as I found by the ship's account, in the year 1686, after I had been upon it eight-and-twenty years, two months, and nineteen days; — Daniel Defoe

No shoots, says Friday, no yet, me shoot now, me no kill; me stay, give you one more laugh. — Daniel Defoe

But it was impossible to make any impression upon the middling people and the working labouring poor. Their fears were predominant over all their passions, and they threw away their money in a most distracted manner upon those whimsies. — Daniel Defoe

People know what they're getting with me. It's part and parcel of football that people want to see new faces, but all I can do is play games, score goals and prove I can do it. My record is there for everyone to see. — Jermain Defoe

So possible is it for us to roll ourselves up in wickedness, till we grow invulnerable by conscience; and that sentinel, once dozed, sleeps fast, not to be awakened while the tide of pleasure continues to flow or till something dark and dreadful brings us to ourselves again. — Daniel Defoe

When you get up in the morning and know you're doing something you love, feel fit and look after yourself, it's just a great thing to do. — Jermain Defoe

walked about a furlong — Daniel Defoe

Was called Robinson Kreutznaer; but, by the usual corruption of words in England, we are now called - nay we call ourselves and write our name - Crusoe; and so my companions — Daniel Defoe

That temperance, moderation, quietness, health, society, all agreeable diversions, and all desirable pleasures, were the blessings attending the middle station of life; that — Daniel Defoe

Avery fine city; the four principal streets are the fairest for breadth, and the finest built that I have ever seen in one city together? In a word,'tis the cleanest and beautifullest, and best built city in Britain, London excepted. — Daniel Defoe

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

For sudden Joys, like Griefs, confound at first. — Daniel Defoe

Another plague year would reconcile all these differences; a close conversing with death, or with diseases that threaten death, would scum off the gall from our tempers, remove the animosities among us, and bring us to see with differing eyes than those which we looked on things with before. — Daniel Defoe

Well then," said I, "if God does not forsake me, of what ill consequence can it be, or what matters it, though the world should all forsake me, seeing on the other hand, if I had all the world, and should lose the favour and blessing of God, there would be no comparison in the loss? — Daniel Defoe

Alas the Church of England! What with Popery on one hand, and schismatics on the other, how has she been crucified between two thieves! — Daniel Defoe

I rather wished for their ruin, than studied to avoid it. — Daniel Defoe

And here I must take the liberty, whatever I have to reproach myself with in my after conduct, to turn to my fellow-creatures, the young ladies of this country, and speak to them by way of precaution. If you have any regard to your future happiness, any view of living comfortably with a husband, any hope of preserving your fortunes, or restoring them after any disaster, never, ladies, marry a fool; any husband rather than a fool. — Daniel Defoe

How strange a checker-work of Providence is the life of man! — Daniel Defoe

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

I spent eighteen days entirely in widening and deepening my cave, — Daniel Defoe

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

I don't think I could ever describe myself as unlucky because people would look at me, playing football for a living, and say: 'Are you winding me up?' — Jermain Defoe

As I had once done thus in my breaking away from my Parents, so I could not be content now, but I must go and leave the happy View I had of being a rich and thriving Man in my new Plantation, only to pursue a rash and immoderate Desire of rising faster than the Nature of the Thing admitted; and thus I cast my self down again into the deepest Gulph of human Misery that ever Man fell into, or perhaps could be consistent with Life and a State of Health in the World. — Daniel Defoe

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. — Daniel Defoe

For I cannot think that GOD Almighty ever made them [women] 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

I understand it's difficult but you've got to think about yourself, you know, and not just follow the crowd. — Jermain Defoe

Redemption from sin is greater then redemption from affliction. — Daniel Defoe

Don't look so worried. I've sailed the seven seas, and I've never had an unsuccessful adventure yet!"
"Really? You've sailed all seven seas?" asked Darwin admiringly.
"Every last one!"
"What are the seven seas? I've always wondered."
"Aaarrr. Well, let's see ... " said the Pirate Captain, scratching his craggy forehead. "There's the North Sea. And that other one, the one near Mozambique. And ... what's that one in Hyde Park?"
"The Serpentine?"
"That's the one. How many's that then? Three. Um. There's the sea with all the rocks in it ... I think they call it Sea Number Four. Then that would leave ... uh ... Grumpy and Sneezy ... "
Darwin was starting to look a little less impressed.
"Would you look at that big seagull!" said the Pirate Captain, quickly ducking into a beach hut. — Gideon Defoe

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

You want to play in the best stadiums against the best players - your Real Madrid's and Barcelona's - you want to play those teams. — Jermain Defoe

Thus I liv'd mighty comfortably, my Mind being entirely composed by resigning to the Will of God, and throwing my self wholly upon the Disposal of his Providence. This made my Life better than sociable, for when I began to regret the want of Conversation, I would ask my self whether thus conversing mutually with my own Thoughts, and, as I hope I may say, with even God himself by Ejaculations, was not better than the utmost Enjoyment of humane Society in the World. — Daniel Defoe

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 ... — Daniel Defoe

I am a bit of a control freak. If I get married, my wife isn't going out. No way. She's staying at home. She's not going out to clubs without me. I've already decided the rules, whoever she is. — Jermain Defoe

To win a major tournament you have to face the top teams at some point, but if you avoid those at the beginning then you can win games and build confidence. I think the key is just to get off to a good start. — Jermain Defoe

For me, there's nothing that beats playing. When I'm not playing, I'll watch games on the television, watch stuff on You Tube, everything. I just live for football, love watching great players. — Jermain Defoe

Call on me in the day of trouble, and I will deliver, and thou shalt glorify me. — Daniel Defoe

Defoe was level and anyone who says otherwise is picking hairs — John Motson

I don't know about anyone else, but if I had problems or issues, maybe I wouldn't feel as comfortable talking about them in a group. — Jermain Defoe

The Captain was wearing his best blousey shirt, his beard was gleaming in the early morning light and he'd polished all his gold teeth. As he strode manfully towards the shore, the only thing that could have make him look even more heroic that he already did would have been the theme to Flash Gordon playing in the background, but it was a hundred and seventy years too early for that. — Gideon Defoe

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

As this is ordinarily the fate of young heads, so reflection upon the folly of it, is as ordinarily the exercise of more years, or of the dear-bought experience of time ... — Daniel Defoe

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

But, he says again, if God much strong, much might as the Devil, why God no kill the Devil, so make him no more do wicked?
I was strangely surprised at his question, [ ... ] And at first I could not tell what to say, so I pretended not to hear him ... — Daniel Defoe

Wit, like the Belly, if it be not fed, Will starve the Members, and distract the Head. — Daniel Defoe

In the first ages they were wise men; in the middle age, madmen; in these latter ages, cunning men: in the earliest time they were honest; in the
middle time, rogues; in these last times, fools: at first they dealt with nature; then with the Devil; and now not with the Devil, or with nature either: in the first ages the magicians were wiser than the people; in the second age, wickeder than the people; and in our age, the people are both wiser and wickeder than the magicians. — Daniel Defoe

When you are young, nothing is more important than football, but as you get older, you get married, have kids and lose people. Then you realise your family is more important. This comes with age. — Jermain Defoe

I added, that whoever the woman was that had an estate, and would give it up to be the slave of a great man, that woman was a fool, and must be fit for nothing but a beggar; that it was my opinion a woman was as fit to govern and enjoy her own estate without a man as a man was without a woman; and that, if she had a mind to gratify herself as to sexes, she might entertain a man as a man does a mistress; that while she was thus single she was her own, and if she gave away that power she merited to be as miserable as it was possible that any creature could be. — Daniel Defoe

I afterwards made it a certain Rule with me, That whenever I found those secret Hints, or pressings of my Mind, to doing, or not doing any Thing that presented; or to going this Way, or that Way, I never fail'd to obey the secret Dictate; though I knew no other Reason for it, than that such a Pressure, or such a Hint hung upon my Mind: I — Daniel Defoe

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

Upon the whole, here was an undoubted testimony that there was scarce any condition in the world so miserable but there was something negative or something positive to be thankful for in it; and let this stand as a direction from the experience of the most miserable of all conditions in this world: that we may always find in it something to comfort ourselves from, and to set, in the description of good and evil, on the credit side of the account. — Daniel Defoe

Why then should women be denied the benefits of instruction? If knowledge and understanding had been useless additions to the sex, God almighty would never have given them capacities. — Daniel Defoe

I am doing my job and trying to win a game for my team. I shouldn't be getting racially abused; it's silly. — Jermain Defoe

You don't know what it is to live and laugh and love and run a man through! You've never tasted salty air on your tongue or waved heartily at a mermaid! — Gideon Defoe

I don't do chat-up lines. Girls often tell me I'm cheeky. Being cheeky seems to work OK for me. — Jermain Defoe

Things as certain as death and taxes, can be more firmly believed. — Daniel Defoe

It was about as close as you could get to the platonic ideal of a ham, if Plato had spent more time discussing hams and less time mucking about with triangles. — Gideon Defoe

I had, even in this miserable condition, been comforted with the knowledge of Himself, and the hope of His blessing: which was a felicity more than sufficiently equivalent to all the misery which I had suffered, or could suffer. — Daniel Defoe

And for which the very name of a Spaniard is reckoned to be frightful and terrible, to all people of humanity or of Christian compassion; as if the kingdom of Spain were particularly eminent for the produce of a race of men who were without principles of tenderness, or the common bowels of pity to the miserable, which is reckoned to be a mark of generous temper in the mind. (2) — Daniel Defoe

I feel 21. I've looked after myself and take my football seriously. — Jermain Defoe

Reason, it is true, is DICTATOR in the Society of Mankind; from her there ought to lie no Appeal; But here we want a Pope in our Philosophy, to be the infallible Judge of what is or is not Reason. — Daniel Defoe

For the first time, Smollett adopted a device that Barbara Foley calls "pseudofactual imposture," a strategy of presentation that we associate with the fictions of Behn, Defoe, and Richardson. — Tobias Smollett

Robbie Keane's not the second choice, he's my first choice. But Jermain Defoe is as well. — Martin Jol

Not only a fanatic and an incendiary (two of the insults that dogged Defoe most closely in his lifetime), the author of Robinson Crusoe was also an egregious spiv, and a slave to bling. — Daniel Defoe

I really didn't write it with any intention of being published. If I'd known that was going to happen, I would have written something more sensible, because now I have to dress up as a pirate for book signings ... I would have done a novel about a man who hangs around with a gaggle of models. — Gideon Defoe

I love scoring - even in training. — Jermain Defoe

If I ever score against Spurs, I won't celebrate. Even if it's the best goal in the world, I'll keep it subdued. It's a respect thing. The fans were brilliant towards me; I'll be playing against my friends and I can't forget that. — Jermain Defoe

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 a nature out of the common road. — Daniel Defoe

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

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. — Daniel Defoe

I am giving an account of what was, not of what ought or ought not to be. — Daniel Defoe

To go back and read Swift and Defoe and Samuel Johnson and Smollett and Pope - all those people we had to read in college English courses - to read them now is to have one of the infinite pleasures in life. — David McCullough

I've enjoyed my time in the game, whether it be managing Luton in the top flight, taking Spurs to Wembley or, as director of football, pinpointing players such as Jermain Defoe, Paul Robinson and Robbie Keane with real sell-on value. — David Pleat

A near View of Death would soon reconcile Men of good Priciples one to another, and that it is chiefly owing to our easy Scituation in Life, and our putting these Things far from us, that our Breaches are formented, ill Blood continued, Prejudices, Breach of Charity and of Christian Union so much kept and so far carry'd on among us, as it is: Another Plague Year would reconcile all these Differences, a close conversing with Death, or the Diseases that threaten Death, would scum off the Gall from our Tempers, remove the Animosities among us, and bring us to see with differing Eyes, than those which we look'd on Things with before — Daniel Defoe

inclinations prompted me to. But being one day at Hull, where — Daniel Defoe

I had to tell Dad, 'It will be okay and be positive; keep praying and have faith'. I have always known about cancer, but to be around someone who has it and to see what it does in such a short space of time was hard. It makes you think about your life, about what is important. — Jermain Defoe

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

Man is a short-sighted creature, sees but a very little way before him; and as his passions are none of his best friends, so his particular affections are generally his worst counselors. — Daniel Defoe

When you've something to fight for, you get the best out of yourself. — Jermain Defoe

I'm a forward, but I can't be the only forward at a club. Over the years, the clubs who've won titles have had several strikers. — Jermain Defoe

All evils are to be considered with the good that is in them, and with what worse attends them. — Daniel Defoe

Babbage's Three Laws of Difference Engines
First Law: A difference engine must have at least six cogs.
Second Law: A difference engine must be able to operate a loom.
Third law: A difference engine must be able to kill a man, should the mood so take it. — Gideon Defoe

He that is rich is wise, And all men learned poverty despise. — Daniel Defoe

I knew I could play really well in one game, score the winning goal and then, come the next game, I wouldn't play at all or I might come off the bench for the last five minutes. So I was frustrated towards the end of my time at Spurs. I wasn't happy. — Jermain Defoe

As covetousness is the root of all evil, so poverty is the worst of all snares. — Daniel Defoe

The best thing about football is that the rules are so simple. Anyone can play anywhere. — Jermain Defoe

Whatever Party of Men obtain the Reins of Management, and have power to name the Person who shall License the Press, that Party of Men have the whole power of keeping the World in Ignorance, in all matters relating to Religion or Policy, since the Writers of that Party shall have full liberty to impose their Notions upon the World. — Daniel Defoe

And in that one night's wickedness I drowned all my repentance,all my reflections upon my past conduct,and all my resolution for the future. — Daniel Defoe

The role that I play as a lone striker, I enjoy it and particularly playing with great players. — Jermain Defoe

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

We are very fond of some families because they can be traced beyond the Conquest, whereas indeed the farther back, the worse, as being the nearer allied to a race of robbers and thieves. — Daniel Defoe

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

It was now that I began sensibly to feel how much more happy this life I now led was, with all its miserable circumstances, than the wicked, cursed, abominable life I led all the past part of my days; and now I changed both my sorrows and my joys; my very desires altered, my affections changed their gusts, and my delights were perfectly new from what they were at my first coming, or, indeed, for the two years past. — Daniel Defoe

The best of men cannot defend their fate: the good die early, the bad die late. — Daniel Defoe

You can't reduce passion and flair and eating ham to numbers, sir! — Gideon Defoe

Everybody clapped enthusiastically and Dr. Marx popped up from behind the podium, where he had been hiding all along. He was the hairiest man the pirates had ever seen. Several of the crew were actually worried for a moment that the Seaweed That Walked Like a Man had returned from one of their previous adventures to ambush them. His nose was hairy. His forehead was hairy. Even his hands were hairy. And his beard was a great bushy black number, which looked like he had sellotaped a bunch of cats to the bottom of his face and then frightened them with a loud noise. — Gideon Defoe

For now I had five children by him: the only work perhaps that fools are good for. — Daniel Defoe

I could not forbear getting up to the top of a little mountain, and looking out to sea, in hopes of seeing a ship : then fancy that, at a vast distance, I spied a sail, please myself with the hopes of it, and, after looking steadily, till I was almost blind, lose it quite, and sit down and weep like a child, and thus increase my misery by my folly. — Daniel Defoe

Defoe says that there were a hundred thousand country fellows in his time ready to fight to the death against popery, without knowing whether popery was a man or a horse. — William Hazlitt