Self-destruction is the effect of cowardice in the highest extreme.

What are the sorrows of other men to us, and what their joy?

Great families of yesterday we show, And lords, whose parents were the Lord knows who.

Expect nothing and you'll always be surprised

The soul is placed in the body like a rough diamond, and must be polished, or the luster of it will never appear.

I am giving an account of what was, not of what ought or ought not to be.

I was born in the Year 1632, in the City of York, of a good Family, tho' not of that Country, my Father being a Foreigner of Bremen, who settled first at Hull; He got a good Estate by Merchandise, and leaving off his Trade, lived afterward at York, from whence he had married my Mother, whose Relations were named Robinson, a very good Family in that Country, and from whom I was called Robinson Kreutznaer; but by the usual Corruption of Words in England, we are now called, nay we call ourselves, and write our Name Crusoe, and so my Companions always call'd me.