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I know not what to call this, nor will I urge that it is a secret, overruling decree, that hurries us on to be the instruments of our own destruction, even though it be before us, and that we rush upon it with our eyes open.

Daniel Defoe

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Daniel Defoe
Age: 70 †
Born: 1660
Born: September 30
Died: 1731
Died: April 24
Businessperson
Journalist
Novelist
Opinion Journalist
Poet
Prosaist
Publicist
Publisher
Writer
London
England
Daniel Foe
Secret
Decree
Call
Urge
Though
Rush
Upon
Urges
Eye
Instruments
Even
Destruction
Open
Overruling
Eyes
Hurries

More quotes by Daniel Defoe

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Manchester, one of the greatest, if not really the greatest mere village in England.
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Wit, like the Belly, if it be not fed, Will starve the Members, and distract the Head.
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The Dutch must be understood as they really are, the Middle Persons in Trade, the Factors and Brokers of Europe... they buy to sell again, take in to send out again, and the greatest Part of their vast Commerce consists in being supply'd from All Parts of the World, that they may supply All th World Again.
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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.
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No man commits evil for the sake of it even the Devil himself has some farther design in sinning, than barely the wicked part of it.
Daniel Defoe
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Not the man in the moon, not the groaning-board, not the speaking of friar Bacon's brazen- head, not the inspiration of mother Shipton, or the miracles of Dr. Faustus, things as certain as death and taxes, can be more firmly believed.
Daniel Defoe
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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
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He that Opposes his own Judgment against the Current of the Times, ought to be back'd with unanswerable Truths and he that has that Truth on his Side, is a Fool, as well as a Coward, if he is afraid to own it, because of the Currency or Multitude of other Mens Opinions.
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Nature has left this tincture in the blood, That all men would be tyrants if they could.
Daniel Defoe
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It is better to have a lion at the head of an army of sheep, than a sheep at the head of an army of lions.
Daniel Defoe
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Thus fear of danger is ten thousand times more terrifying than danger itself when apparent to the eyes and we find the burden of anxiety greater, by much, than the evil which we are anxious about.
Daniel Defoe
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How strange a checker-work of Providence is the life of man!
Daniel Defoe
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I hear much of people's calling out to punish the guilty, but very few are concerned to clear the innocent.
Daniel Defoe
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And which I take notice of here, to put those discontented people in mind of it, who cannot enjoy comfortably what God has given them, because they see and covet something that he has not given them. All our discontents about what we want appeared to me to spring from the want of thankfulness for what we have.
Daniel Defoe
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Fear of danger is ten thousand times more terrifying than danger itself.
Daniel Defoe
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I had been tricked once by that Cheat called love, but the Game was over.
Daniel Defoe
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I am giving an account of what was, not of what ought or ought not to be.
Daniel Defoe
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Necessity makes an honest man a knave.
Daniel Defoe
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All the good things of the world are no further good to us than as they are of use and of all we may heap up we enjoy only as much as we can use, and no more.
Daniel Defoe
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Justice is always Violence to the Party offending, for every Man is Innocent in his own Eyes.
Daniel Defoe