Literary Birthday – 13 September – Daniel Defoe

Daniel Defoe was born on 13 September 1660 (the exact date of his birth is unknown) and died on 24 April 1731.

Daniel Defoe Quotes

1. It is never too late to be wise.
2. I have often thought of it as one of the most barbarous customs in the world, considering us as a civilised and a Christian country, that we deny the advantages of learning to women.
3. Misfortunes seldom come alone.
4. The best of men cannot suspend their fate: The good die early, and the bad die late.
5. All our discontents about what we want appeared to me to spring from the want of thankfulness for what we have.
6. For sudden joys, like griefs, confound at first.
7. Justice is always violent to the party offending, for every man is innocent in his own eyes.
8. I hear much of people’s calling out to punish the guilty, but very few are concerned to clear the innocent.
9. Fear of danger is ten thousand times more terrifying than danger itself.

Daniel Defoe was an English trader, writer, journalist, pamphleteer, and spy. He is best known for his novels Robinson Crusoe and Moll Flanders. Defoe helped popularise the novel in Britain and is sometimes called the father of the English novel. He was also an extremely prolific writer, producing more than 500 books, pamphlets, and journals on subjects including politics, crime, religion, marriage, psychology, and the supernatural. He was a pioneer of economic journalism. His last major work of fiction, Roxana, was published in 1724. Despite failing health, Defoe continued to write and remained active until the end of his life.

Image: Style of Sir Godfrey Kneller, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

by Amanda Patterson
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