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Quote by Daniel Defoe

Work

A Second Volume of the Writings of the Author of The True-born Englishman: Some Whereof Never Before Printed. Corrected and Enlarged by the Author

A collection of writings by the same author as 'The True-born Englishman,' this second volume offers new material that has not been published before. It has been revised and expanded by the author, showcasing his continued engagement with his literary endeavors. more

Author

Daniel Defoe
Daniel Defoe

Daniel Defoe, an English writer born on September 13, 1660, and died on April 24, 1731. His works covered a wide range of genres, including adventure novels, political satire, and philosophical thinking, with his most famous work being 'Robinson Crusoe'. Defoe's works have had a profound impact on literature. more

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“A woman well bred and well taught, furnished with the additional accomplishments of knowledge and behaviour, is a creature without comparison. Her society is the emblem of sublimer enjoyments, her person is angelic, and her conversation heavenly. She is all softness and sweetness, peace, love, wit, and delight. She is every way suitable to the sublimest wish, and the man that has such a one to his portion, has nothing to do but to rejoice in her, and be thankful.”

“As for women that do not think their own safety worth their thought, that impatient of their present state, resolve as they call it to take the first good Christian that comes; that runs into matrimony, as a horse rushes into battle; I can say nothing to them, but this, that they are a sort of ladies that are to be pray'd for among the rest of distemper'd people; and to me they look like people that venture their whole estates in a lottery where there is a hundred thousand blanks to one prize.”

“No man of common sense will value a woman the less, for not giving herself up at the first attack, or for not accepting his proposal without enquiring into his person or character; on the contrary, he must think her the weakest of all creatures in the world, as the rate of men now goes; in short, he must have a very contemptible opinion of her capacities, nay, even of her understanding, that having but one cast for her life, shall cast that life away at once, and make matrimony like death, be a leap in the dark.”

“So possible is it for us to roll ourselves up in wickedness, till we grow invulnerable by conscience; and that sentinel, once dozed, sleeps fast, not to be awakened while the tide of pleasure continues to flow or till something dark and dreadful brings us to ourselves again.”

“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.”