William Penn Quotes
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To be a man's own fool is bad enough, but the vain man is everybody's.
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Where charity keeps pace with gain, industry is blessed.
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Inquiry is human; blind obedience brutal. Truth never loses by the one but often suffers by the other.
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There is a troublesome humor some men have, that if they may not lead, they will not follow; but had rather a thing were never done, than not done their own way, tho' other ways very desirable.
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But make not more business necessary than is so; and rather lessen than augment work for thyself.
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For as men in battle are continually in the way of shot, so we, in this world, are ever within the reach of Temptation.
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Sense shines with double lustre when set in humility.
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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.
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Neither great nor good things were ever attained without loss and hardships. Those that would reap and not labour, must faint with the wind, and perish in disappointments; but an hair of my head shall not fall, without the providence of my Father that is over all.
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Force may subdue, but love gains, and he that forgives first wins the laurel.
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Death is but crossing the world, as friends do the seas; they live in one another still.
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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.
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If thy debtor be honest and capable, thou hast thy money again, if not with increase, with praise; if he prove insolvent, don't ruin him to get that which it will not ruin thee to lose, for thou art but a steward.
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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.
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Humility and knowledge in poor clothes excel pride and ignorance in costly attire.
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Oppression makes a poor country.
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A wise neuter joins with neither, but uses both as his honest interest leads him.
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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.
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Peace can only be secured by justice; never by force of arms.
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A private Life is to be preferrd; the Honour and Gain of publick Posts, bearing no proportion with the Comfort of it.
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The way, like the cross, is spiritual: that is an inward submission of the soul to the will of God, as it is manifested by the light of Christ in the consciences of men, though it be contrary to their own inclinations.
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If thou rise with an Appetite, thou art sure never to sit down without one.
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Children, Fear God; that is to say, have an holy awe upon your minds to avoid that which is evil, and a strict care to embrace and do that which is good.
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Death is only a horizon, and a horizon is only the limit of your sight. Open your eyes to see more clearly.