Man is a short sighted creature

Let no wise man flatter himself with the strength of his own judgment, as if he was able to choose any particular station of life for himself. Man is a short-sighted creature, sees but a very little way before him; and as his passions are none of his best friends, so his particular affections are generally his worst counsellors.

The life and adventures of Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe 

Man is a short -sighted creature

Teaching others quote

For attempting to teach others is sometimes the best way of teaching ourselves.

The life and adventures of Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe

Teaching others quote 

Gossips about ghosts and apparitions

Persons of good judgment say, that all the stir people make in the world about ghosts and apparitions, is owing to the strength of imagination, and the powerful operation of fancy in their minds; that there is no such thing as a spirit appearing, or a ghost walking, and the like; that people`s poring affectionately upon the past conversation of their deceased friends so realizes it to them, that they are capable of fancying upon some extraordinary circumstances that they see them, talk to them, and are answered by them, when, in truth, there is nothing but shadow and vapour in the thing; and they really know nothing of the matter. 

The life and adventures of Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe 

Gossips about ghosts and apparitions quote 

Bred in the bone quote

What is bred in the bone will not go out of the flesh.

The life and adventures of Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe 

Bred in the bone quote

Sometimes we are given secret hints of danger

Let no man despise the secret hints and notices of danger, which sometimes are given him when he may think there is no possibility of its being real. That such hints and notices are given us, I believe few that have made any observation of things can deny; that they are certain discoveries of an invisible world, and a converse of spirits, we cannot doubt; and if the tendency of them seems to be to warn us of danger, why should we not suppose they are from some friendly agent, ( whether supreme, or inferior and subordinate, is not the question, ) and that they are given for our good ?

The life and adventures of Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe 

There are some secret moving in the affections

There are some secret moving in the affections, which, when they are set a going by some object in view, or be it some object though not in view, yet rendered present to the mind by the power of imagination, that motion carries out the soul by its impetuosity to such violent eager embracings of the object, that the absence of it is insupportable. 

The life and adventures of Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe 

Safety of one man is destruction of another

What is one man`s safety is another man`s destruction.

The life and adventures of Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe

Safety of one is destruction of another quote

Means of our deliverance

How frequently, in the course of our lives, the evil, which in itself we seek most to shun, and which, when we are fallen into, is the most dreadful to us, is oftentimes the very means or door of our deliverance, by which alone we can be raised again from the affliction we are fallen into.

The life and adventures of Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe 

How little repining there would be …

How little repining there would be among mankind, at any condition of life, if people would rather compare their condition with those that are worse, in order to be thankful, than be always comparing them with those which are better, to assist their murmurings and complainings.

The life and adventures of Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe 

O, what ridiculous resolutions men take …

O, what ridiculous resolutions men take, when possessed with fear ! It deprives them of the use of those means which reason offers for their relief.

The life and adventures of Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe 

How strange a chequer work of …

How strange a chequer-work of Providence is the life of man ! And by what secret different springs are the affections hurried about, as differing circumstances present ! Today we love what tomorrow we hate; today we seek what tomorrow we shun; today we desire what tomorrow we fear; nay, even tremble at the apprehensions of. 

The life and adventures of Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe 

We never see the true state of …

We never see the true state of our condition, till it is illustrated to us by its contraries; nor know how to value what we enjoy, but by the want of it.

The life and adventures of Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe 

As reason is the substance …

As reason is the substance and original of the mathematics, so by stating and squaring everything by reason, and by making the most rational judgment of things, every man may be in time master of every mechanic art. 

The life and adventures of Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe 

There was scarce any condition in the world so miserable, but there was something negative or something positive to be thankful for in it; and let this stand as a direction from the experience of the most miserable of all conditions in this world, that we may always find in it something to comfort ourselves from, and to set, in the description of good and evil, on the credit side of the account.

The life and adventures of Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe

The calamities of life were shared among the …

The calamities of life were shared among the upper and lower part of mankind; but that the middle station had the fewest disasters, and was not exposed to so many vicissitudes as the higher or lower part of mankind; nay, they were not subjected to so many distempers and uneasinesses, either of body or mind, as those were, who by vicious living, luxury, and extravagances, on one hand, or by hard labour, want of necessaries, and mean or insufficient diet, on the other hand, bring distempers upon themselves by the natural consequences of the their way of living; that the middle station of life was calculated for all kind of virtues and all kind of enjoyments; that peace and plenty were the handmaids of a middle fortune; that temperance, moderation, quietness, health, society, all agreeable diversions, and all desirable pleasures, were the blessings attending the middle station of life; that this way men went silently and smoothly through the world, and comfortably out of it, not embarassed with the labours of the hands or of the head, not sold to the life of slavery for daily bread, or harassed with perplexed circumstances, which rob the soul of peace, and the body of rest; not enraged with the passion of envy, or secret burning lust of ambition for great things; but in easy circumstances sliding gently through the world, and sensibly tasting the sweets of living, without the bitter, feeling that they are happy, and learning by every day`s experience to know it more sensibly. 

The life and adventures of Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe 

It was for men of desperate fortunes on …

It was for men of desperate fortunes on one hand, or of aspiring superior fortunes on the other, who went abroad upon adventures, to rise by enterprise, and make themselves famous in undertakings of a nature out of the common road.

The life and adventures of Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe 

A moral lift is …

A moral lift is necessary. The life of nations, like the life of individuals, has its moments of depression; these moments pass, certainly, but no trace of them ought to remain. Man at this day, tends to fall into the stomach: man must be replaced in the heart, man must be replaced in the brain. The brain, – this is the bold sovereign that must be restored !

William Shakespeare by Victor Hugo 

He who is not free is not a …

He who is not free is not a man; he who is not free has no sight, no knowledge, no discernment, no growth, no comprehension, no will, no faith, no love; he has no wife and children, he has only a female with young: he lives not. Freedom is the apple of the eye; freedom is the visual organ of progress. 

William Shakespeare by Victor Hugo 

God creates by …

God creates by intuition; man creates by inspiration, strengthened by observation. This second creation, which is nothing else but divine action carried out by man, is what is called “genius”.

William Shakespeare by Victor Hugo

The theatre is a crucible of …

The theatre is a crucible of civilization. It is a place of human communion. All its phases need to be studied. It is in the theatre that the public soul is formed. 

William Shakespeare by Victor Hugo