“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.”
Source: The life and adventures of Robinson Crusoe: who was shipwrecked on an uninhabited island, near the mouth of the great river Oroonoque, where he resided twenty-eight years. With an account of his travels through various parts of the world
“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.”
Source: Delphi Complete Works of Daniel Defoe (Illustrated)
“It put me upon reflecting how little repining there would be among mankind at any condition of life, if people would rather compare their condition with those that were worse, in order to be thankful, than be always comparing them with those which are better, to assist their murmurings and complaining.”
Source: The Life and Adventures of Robinson Crusoe
“This grieved me heartily ; and now I saw, though too late, the folly of beginning a work before we count the cost, and before we judge rightly of our own strength to go through with it.”
Source: Delphi Complete Works of Daniel Defoe (Illustrated)
“I learned to look more upon the bright side of my condition, and less upon the dark side, and to consider what I enjoyed, rather than what I wanted : and this gave me sometimes such secret comforts, that I cannot express them ; 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.”
Source: DANIEL DEFOE Ultimate Collection: 50+ Adventure Classics, Pirate Tales & Historical Novels - Including Biographies, Historical Works, Travel Sketches, Poems & Essays (Illustrated): Robinson Crusoe, The History of the Pirates, Captain Singleton, Memoirs of a Cavalier, A Journal of the Plague Year, Moll Flanders, Roxana, The History of the Devil, The King of Pirates and many more
“These reflections made me very sensible of the goodness of Providence to me, and very thankful for my present condition, with all its hardships and misfortunes ; and this part also I cannot but recommend to the reflection of those who are apt, in their misery, to say, Is any affliction like mine? Let them consider how much worse the cases of some people are, and their case might have been, if Providence had thought fit.”
Source: The life and surprising adventures of Robinson Crusoe: of York, mariner; with a biographical account of Defoe
“The effect of liberty to individuals is that they may do what they please: we ought to see what it will please them to do, before we risk congratulations.”
Source: The Portable Edmund Burke
“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.”
Source: The Life and Adventures of Robinson Crusoe of York, Mariner with an Account of His Travels Round Three Parts of the Globe
“All evils are to be considered with the good that is in them, and with what worse attends them.”
Source: The life and adventures of Robinson Crusoe of York, mariner, written by himself [by D. 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.”
Source: The Life and Surprising Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, of York, Mariner ...: With an Account of His Travels Round Three Parts of the Globe
