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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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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
Death
Believed
Friars
Mother
Speaking
Brazen
Certain
Miracle
Groaning
Things
Taxes
Bacon
Men
Moon
Firmly
Inspiration
Board
Head
Miracles
Friar
Law
Boards
Faustus

More quotes by Daniel Defoe

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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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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
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Pride, the first peer and president of Hell.
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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.
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Wit is the Fruitful Womb where Thoughts conceive.
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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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.
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I had dropped a good design, which I had once bent my thoughts upon, and that was to try if I could not make some of my barley into malt, and then try to brew myself some beer.
Daniel Defoe
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A rich man is an honest man--no thanks to him for he would be a double knave, to cheat mankind when he had no need of it: he has no occasion to press upon his integrity, nor so much as to touch upon the borders of dishonesty.
Daniel Defoe
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Pleasure is a thief to business.
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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For sudden Joys, like Griefs, confound at first.
Daniel Defoe
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As covetousness is the root of all evil, so poverty is the worst of all snares.
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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It happen'd one Day about Noon going towards my Boat, I was exceedingly surpriz'd with the Print of a Man's naked Foot on the Shore.
Daniel Defoe
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Things as certain as death and taxes, can be more firmly believed.
Daniel Defoe
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[The Devil's] laws are easy, and his gentle sway, Makes it exceeding pleasant to obey .
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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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.
Daniel Defoe
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In trouble to be troubled, Is to have your trouble doubled.
Daniel Defoe