Daniel Defoe

Daniel Defoe was an English writer of the Augustan Age. His most famous work is the novel Robinson Crusoe, published in 1719. It is one of the earliest novels in English at a time marked by the development of prose and the novel as a form of literature.

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• Lifetime: c. 1660 • 24 April 1731
• Main genre: Adventure novels
• Some other works: Moll Flanders (1722), Captain Singleton (1720) and A Journal of the Plague Year (1722)
• Autumn 2026 popularity rank: 328 [new entry] • Trending ►

"It is better to have a lion at the head of an army of sheep, than a sheep at the head of an army of lions."

"It is never too late to be wise."

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