William Penn Quotes
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A wise neuter joins with neither, but uses both as his honest interest leads him.
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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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But make not more business necessary than is so; and rather lessen than augment work for thyself.
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Oppression makes a poor country.
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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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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. In fine, he that is drunk is not a man: because he is so long void of Reason, that distinguishes a Man from a Beast.
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Less judgment than wit is more sail than ballast.
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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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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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They have a right to censure that have a heart to help.
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Force may subdue, but love gains, and he that forgives first wins the laurel.
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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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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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Force may make hypocrites, but it can never make converts.
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Above all things endeavor to breed them up the love of virtue, and that holy plain way of it which we have lived in, that the world in no part of it get into my family. I had rather they we're homely than finely bred as to outward behavior; yet I love sweetness mixed with gravity, and cheerfulness tempered with sobriety.
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Truth never lost ground by enquiry.
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Peace can only be secured by justice; never by force of arms.
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True silence is the rest of the mind, and is to the spirit what sleep is to the body, nourishment and refreshment.
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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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If thou rise with an Appetite, thou art sure never to sit down without one.
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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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They that soar too high, often fall hard.