Frases de Daniel Defoe

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“Um grande homem sem religião é um simples animal sem alma.”

“Desejar o melhor, recear o pior e aceitar o que vier.”

“O medo do perigo é mil vezes pior do que o perigo real.”

“Todo o nosso descontentamento por aquilo que nos falta procede da nossa falta de gratidão por aquilo que temos.”

“A verdadeira grandeza consiste em sermos senhores de nós mesmos.”

“A justiça parece sempre violenta a quem a recebe, pois cada pessoa é, aos seus próprios olhos, inocente.”

“Num trabalho honesto", costumava dizer [Bartholomew Roberts], "o que se vê é gente magra, salários baixos e muito trabalho. Neste daqui, o que temos é fartura e saciedade, prazer e alegria, liberdade e poder. E quem não iria fazer o prato da balança pesar para este lado, quando tudo o que se arrisca daqui, na pior das hipóteses, é apenas um olhar ou dois de tristeza, no instante em que se sufoca? Não, meu lema será sempre por uma vida feliz e curta.”

“Não se deve entender como pirata uma pessoa agindo sob constrangimento, mas sim alguém que age livremente. Pois nesse caso, não é o ato em si mesmo que torna alguém culpado, mas sim a sua livre vontade de cometê-lo.”

““Meu verdadeiro nome é bastante conhecido nos arquivos ou registros das prisões de Newgate e Old Bailey, e certos processos de maior ou menor importância relativos à minha conduta pessoal encontram-se ainda pendentes. “”

“A necessidade transforma um homem honesto num velhaco.”

“O prazer é um ladrão para o negócio.”

“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. We reproach the sex every day with folly and impertinence; while I am confident, had they the advantages of education equal to us, they would be guilty of less than ourselves.”

“When kings the sword of justice first lay down,
They are no kings, though they possess the crown.
Titles are shadows, crowns are empty things,
The good of subjects is the end of kings.”

“For I cannot think that God Almighty ever made them so delicate, so glorious creatures; and furnished them with such charms, so agreeable and so delightful to mankind; with souls capable of the same accomplishments with men: and all, to be only Stewards of our Houses, Cooks, and Slaves.”

“All men would be tyrants if they could.”

“I have since often observed, how incongruous and irrational the common temper of mankind is, especially of youth, to that reason which ought to guide them in such cases - viz. they are not ashamed to sin, and yet are ashamed to repent. Not ashamed of the action for which they ought justly to be esteemed fools, but are ashamed of the returning, which can only make them be esteemed wise men.”

“We loved the doctrine for the teacher's sake.”

“It happened one day, about noon, going towards my boat, I was exceedingly surprised with the print of a man's naked foot on the shore, which was very plain to be seen on the sand.”

“In their religion they are so uneven,
That each man goes his own byway to heaven.”

“A woman well bred and well taught, furnished with the additional accomplishments of knowledge and behaviour, is a creature without comparison.”

“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.”

“All evils are to be considered with the good that is in them, and with what worse attends them.”

“What is one man's safety is another man's destruction.”