Daniel Defoe Quotes

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.

Courage means going against majority opinion in the name of the truth.

All I can say is what I believe.

If there is one thing I fear less than everything else, it is, I believe, persecution for my opinions. There are a good many points about which I may be diffident, but when it comes to questions of Truth and intellectual independence, there is no holding me - I can envisage no finer end than to sacrifice oneself for a conviction.

You can't argue with the truth.

I would rather be in minority and be right, than in the majority and wrong.

Write words you’re willing to burn at the stake for. Write words you’d believe in even if the rest of the world didn’t.

Unethical conduct is actually the conduct of destruction and fear; lies are told because one is afraid of the consequences should one tell the truth; thus, the liar is inevitably a coward, the coward is inevitably a liar.

If the truth is worth telling, it is worth making a fool of yourself to tell it.

The courage of one's opinions is always a form of calculating cowardice in the eyes of the "other side.

I think we need to grow in our self-assurance that is not scared of being challenged, that the truth we uphold can stand up to the closest possible scrutiny.

To say that a man lieth, is as much to say, as that he is brave towards God, and a coward towards men.

One honest voice is louder than a crowd.

There is but one coward on earth, and that is the coward that dare not know.

Anyone who wants to be truly free must be willing to stand alone in the truth.

What I seek to accomplish is simply to serve with my feeble capacity truth and justice, at the risk of pleasing no one.

He that is warm for truth, and fearless in its defense, performs one of the duties of a good man; he strenghtens his own conviction, and guards others from delusion; but steadiness of belief, and boldness of profession, are yet only part of the form of godliness.

I will not avoid doing what I think is right, though it should draw on me the whole artillery that falsehood and malice can invent, or the credulity a deluded population can swallow.

To lay down one's life for the truth.

Courage doesn't always involve physical heroism in the face of death. It doesn't always require giant leaps worthy of celebration. Sometimes, courage is the willingness to speak the truth about what you see and to own what you say.

A coward is less than a man. He does not deserve to be a member of a society of men and women

Age may have one side, but assuredly Youth has the other. There is nothing more certain than that both are right, except perhaps that both are wrong.

Are we willing to do for the truth what others are willing to do for a lie?

I hate cowardice; I will have nothing to do with cowards or political nonsense.

Stand up for Truth regardless of who steps on it.