William Penn Quotes

Humility and knowledge in poor clothes excel pride and ignorance in costly attire.

Right is right, even if everyone is against it, and wrong is wrong, even if everyone is for it.

The secret of happiness is to count your blessings while others are adding up their troubles.

Time is what we want most, but what we use worst.

Men must be governed by God or they will be ruled by tyrants.

Knowledge is the treasure, but judgment the treasurer, of a wise man.

True silence is the rest of the mind, and is to the spirit what sleep is to the body, nourishment and refreshment.

No pain, no palm; no thorns, no throne; no gall, no glory; no cross, no crown.

They that love beyond the world cannot be separated by it. Death cannot kill what never dies.

Death is only a horizon, and a horizon is only the limit of your sight. Open your eyes to see more clearly.

No man is fit to command another that cannot command himself.

If it be an evil to judge rashly or untruly any single man, how much a greater sin it is to condemn a whole people.

A true friend freely, advises justly, assists readily, adventures boldly, takes all patiently, defends courageously, and continues a friend unchangeably.

O Lord, help me not to despise or oppose what I do not understand.

The adventure of the Christian life begins when we dare to do what we would never tackle without Christ.

The country life is to be preferred, for there we see the works of God; but in cities little else but the works of men. And the one makes a better subject for contemplation than the other.

The jealous are troublesome to others, but a torment to themselves.

If thou wouldst rule well, thou must rule for God, and to do that, thou must be ruled by him. Those who will not be governed by God will be ruled by tyrants.

In marriage do thou be wise: prefer the person before money, virtue before beauty, the mind before the body; then thou hast a wife, a friend, a companion, a second self.

The wisdom of nations lies in their proverbs, which are brief and pithy.

The only fountain in the wilderness of life, where man drinks of water totally unmixed with bitterness, is that which gushes for him in the calm and shady recess of domestic life.

We are inclined to call things by the wrong names. We call prosperity 'happiness', and adversity 'misery' eventhough adversity is the school of wisdom and often the way to eternal happiness.

A good End cannot sanctify evil Means; nor must we ever do Evil, that Good may come of it.

Patience and Diligence, like faith, remove mountains.

It were happy if we studied nature more in natural things; and acted according to nature, whose rules are few, plain, and most reasonable.

Let us see what love can do.

Passion is a sort of fever in the mind, which ever leaves us weaker than it found us.

Covetousness is the greatest of monsters, as well as the root of all evil.

Peace can only be secured by justice; never by force of arms.

Justice is the insurance which we have on our lives and property. Obedience is the premium which we pay for it.

If we would mend the World, we should mend Ourselves; and teach our Children to be, not what we are, but what they should be.

There can be no friendship where there is no freedom. Friendship loves a free air, and will not be fenced up in straight and narrow enclosures.

Avoid flatterers, for they are thieves in disguise.

Much reading is an oppression of the mind, and extinguishes the natural candle, which is the reason of so many senseless scholars in the world.

Death cannot kill what never dies.

My prison shall be my grave before I will budge a jot; for I owe my conscience to no mortal man.

For death is no more than a turning of us over from time to eternity.

In all debates, let truth be thy aim, not victory, or an unjust interest.

Force may subdue, but love gains, and he that forgives first wins the laurel.

Some are so very studious of learning what was done by the ancients that they know not how to live with the moderns.

Always remember to bound thy thoughts to the present occasion.

Those who live to live forever, never fear dying.

For nothing reaches the heart but what is from the heart, or pierces the conscience but what comes from a living conscience

Charity is ... a universal remedy against discord, and an holy cement for mankind.

Avoid popularity; it has many snares, and no real benefit.

Truth often suffers more by the heat of its defenders than the arguments of its opposers.

Friendship is the union of spirits, a marriage of hearts, and the bond thereof virtue

There can be no Friendship where there is no Freedom.

Never give out while there is hope; but hope not beyond reason, for that shows more desire than judgement.

He that does good for good's sake seeks neither paradise nor reward, but he is sure of both in the end.