William Penn Quotes
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If we are but sure the end is right, we are too apt to gallop over all bounds to compass it; not considering the lawful ends may be very unlawfully attained.
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Religion is the fear of God, and its demonstration good works; and faith is the root of both: For without faith we cannot please God; nor can we fear what we do not believe.
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It is safer to learn than teach; and who conceals his opinion has nothing to answer for.
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Dislike what deserves it, but never hate: for that is of the nature of malice; which is almost ever to persons, not things, and is one of the blackest qualities sin begets in the soul.
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Covetousness is the greatest of monsters, as well as the root of all evil.
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I have sometimes thought that people are, in a sort, happy, that nothing can put out of countenance with themselves, though they neither have nor merit other people's.
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To have religion upon authority, and not upon conviction, is like a finger-watch, to be set forwards or backwards, as he pleases that has it in keeping.
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If thou wouldst be happy, bring thy mind to thy condition, and have an indifferency for more than what is sufficient.
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The Remedy often proves worse than the Disease.
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No religion is better than an unnatural one.
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It is a cruel folly to offer up to ostentation so many lives of creatures, as to make up the state of our treats.
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'Tis no sin to be tempted, but to be overcome.
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Clear therefore thy head, and rally, and manage thy thoughts rightly, and thou wilt save time, and see and do thy business well; for thy judgment will be distinct, thy mind free, and the faculties strong and regular.
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Passion is a sort of fever in the mind, which ever leaves us weaker than it found us.
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Governments, like clocks, go from the motion men give them, and as governments are made and moved by men, so by them they are ruined too. Wherefore governments rather depend upon men, than men upon governments. Let men be good, and the government cannot be bad; if it be ill, they will cure it. But if men be bad, let the government be never so good, they will endeavour to warp and spoil it to their turn.
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A true friend freely, advises justly, assists readily, adventures boldly, takes all patiently, defends courageously, and continues a friend unchangeably.
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Men not living to what they know, cannot blame God, that they know no more.
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Excess in apparel is another costly folly. The very trimming of the vain world would clothe all the naked ones.
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All excess is ill; but drunkenness is of the worst sort. It spoils health, dismounts the mind, and unmans men. It reveals secrets, is quarrelsome, lascivious, impudent, dangerous, and mad.
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They that love beyond the world cannot be separated by it. Death cannot kill what never dies.
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Unless virtue guide us our choice must be wrong.
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Though our Savior's passion is over, his compassion is not.
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To be innocent is to be not guilty; but to be virtuous is to overcome our evil inclinations.
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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.