Daniel Defoe (1660–1731) was an English novelist, journalist, and writer in many genres. Defoe was a man of remarkably varied interests; he was also a political activist, merchant, convict, and spy.
As the author of more than 500 pamphlets and journals, Defoe is considered a forefather of British journalism. He was a politically controversial journalist; he was twice imprisoned, once for The Shortest Way with the Dissenters (1702.) His reputation among the most prolific writers in the English language rests on his eternally popular novels Robinson Crusoe (1719,) Moll Flanders (1722,) Colonel Jack (1722,) and Roxana (1724.)
Defoe established what is today called “faction,” writing that blurs history and story. Both Robinson Crusoe and Moll Flanders were initially published with just the names of their narrators on the cover and were sold as memoirs. His A Tour Through the Whole Isles of Great Britain (1724) is considered one of the beginnings of travel writing and The Complete English Tradesman (1726) is one of the first books on economics.
Defoe died in hiding from creditors in Ropemaker’s Alley, Moorfields.
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Nature has left this tincture in the blood, That all men would be tyrants if they could.
—Daniel Defoe
All the good things of this world are no further good than as they are of use; and whatever we may heap up to give to others, we enjoy only as much as we can make useful to ourselves and others, and no more.
—Daniel Defoe
And lords, whose parents were the Lord knows who.
—Daniel Defoe
Topics: Aristocracy
All our discontents spring from the want of thankfulness for what we have.
—Daniel Defoe
Topics: Contentment
He that opposes his own judgment against the consent of the times ought to be backed with unanswerable truths; and he that has truth on his side is a fool, as well as a coward, if he is afraid to own it because of other men’s opinions.
—Daniel Defoe
Topics: Truth
Self-destruction is the effect of cowardice in the highest extreme.
—Daniel Defoe
Topics: Self-Discovery
The height of human wisdom is to bring our tempers down to our circumstances, and to make a calm within, under the weight of the greatest storm without.
—Daniel Defoe
Topics: Wisdom
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