Quotes by Daniel Defoe

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What saves one, destroys another.

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If you look hard, you will find something comforting in any situation.

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In moments of hesitation, boldly follow the inner voice, if you hear it, even if nothing but this voice advises you to proceed as it dictates.

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All our whining about what we don't have comes from insufficient gratitude for what we do have.

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A good counselor can restore man to life, he instills courage in the weak and awakens in the human mind the capacity to act in the right way.

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The misuse of material possessions is often a sure path to the greatest misfortunes.

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To what absurd decisions fear leads man! Fear cancels the ability to dispose of those means that reason proposes to help us.

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Not infrequently, nostalgia for a lost joy can overshadow all the other pleasures of the world.

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Unhappy people have no friends.

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It's never too late to wake up.

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There's no shame in cheating the devil.

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To be without friends is the worst misfortune after poverty.

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The highest degree of human wisdom lies in the ability to adapt to circumstances and to maintain composure in the face of external threats.

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Fear is a disease that weakens the soul, just as physical afflictions weaken the body. The fear of danger is a thousand times more terrible than the danger itself.

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That's how human nature is made: we never really know what situation we are in until we experience a situation worse than the current one, and we never value the possessions we have until we lose them.

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A thought well expressed sounds good in all languages.

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Man is a less prudent creature, especially when he begins to claim that he is happy, or when he thinks that he can live as his mind dictates.

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Man is not wise enough to be content with what he has.

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Fear the wrath of the long-suffering man.

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The things of the world are worth as much as a man can really use them; no matter how much of them we accumulate to pass on to others, we enjoy only as much as we can really use, no more.

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Even if we knew what we wanted to do, we didn't really know what we were doing.

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Necessity is the spur of talent and the mother of invention.

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I will try my best; I won't sink as long as I can swim, I won't fall as long as I can stand up.

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Alas, the poor man is easily met with his doom; his name appears in a newspaper column, his wife and children are driven from their house... of course, after that it is natural that we try everything to avert the fate, or at least postpone the terrible day as far as possible... but in the end the deadly order arrives .

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It is easy to be alone in a crowd, with so much hurrying and doing business.

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A man is not rich because he is honest, but honest because he is rich.

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If a girl thinks she's pretty, she never doubts when a man says he's in love with her; because if she thinks of herself as charming enough to conquer a man, she finds the consequences of this conquest to be natural.

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I only saw now, even if it was late, how foolish it is to start something before one has reckoned with one's strength.

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Gratitude is not a necessary virtue for all people, people do not always direct their actions accordingly.

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What saves one man destroys another.

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People would complain much less about their problems if they compared themselves to those who were worse off than them. Instead, however, they always compare their situation with those in a better row than them to justify their grumblings and complaints.

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Since then, I have observed several times how inconsistent people are, especially when they are young. He is not ashamed to commit a sin, but he is ashamed to repent.

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The fear of danger is ten times more embarrassing than the danger itself. Worry is a greater burden than actual evil.

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Committing the sin once is only a sad prelude to the repetition of the sin, because all consideration evaporates when the temptation is renewed.

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Even the best man cannot prevent the fulfillment of his destiny: the good die early, the bad die late.

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A person never sees his destiny correctly until he experiences the opposite! And you can only truly appreciate what is already lost.

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Our dissatisfaction born of our deprivations comes from the fact that we are not grateful enough for what we have.

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Drinking is like the devil: if you hang on to someone even a little bit, you will slowly destroy them.