I have often thought of it as one of the most barbarous customs in the world, considering us as a civilized and a Christian country, that we deny the advantages of learning to women.
— Daniel Defoe
All our discontents about what we want appeared to spring from the want of thankfulness for what we have.
An Englishman will fairly drink as much As will maintain two families of Dutch.
'Tis no sin to cheat the devil.
Necessity makes an honest man a knave.
Justice is always violent to the party offending, for every man is innocent in his own eyes.
The soul is placed in the body like a rough diamond, and must be polished, or the luster of it will never appear.
Nature has left this tincture in the blood, That all men would be tyrants if they could.
As covetousness is the root of all evil, so poverty is the worst of all snares.
All men would be tyrants if they could.
Vice came in always at the door of necessity, not at the door of inclination.
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.
The best of men cannot suspend their fate: The good die early, and the bad die late.
In trouble to be troubled, Is to have your trouble doubled.
He that is rich is wise.
Pride the first peer and president of hell.