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

More quotes by Daniel Defoe

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Wit is the Fruitful Womb where Thoughts conceive.
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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.
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[The Devil's] laws are easy, and his gentle sway, Makes it exceeding pleasant to obey .
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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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No shoots, says Friday, no yet, me shoot now, me no kill me stay, give you one more laugh.
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I had been tricked once by that Cheat called love, but the Game was over.
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Pleasure is a thief to business.
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Nature has left this tincture in the blood, That all men would be tyrants if they could.
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And of all plagues with which mankind are curst, Ecclesiastic tyranny's the worst.
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I saw the Cloud, though I did not foresee the Storm.
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For sudden Joys, like Griefs, confound at first.
Daniel Defoe
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Wit, like the Belly, if it be not fed, Will starve the Members, and distract the Head.
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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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
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He that is rich is wise.
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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It is never too late to be wise.
Daniel Defoe
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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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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.
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The soul is placed in the body like a rough diamond, and must be polished, or the luster of it will never appear.
Daniel Defoe