William Penn

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

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

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

Let the people think they govern and they will be governed.

Speak properly, and in as few words as you can, but always plainly; for the end of speech is not ostentation, but to be understood.

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

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.

If thou wouldst conquer thy weakness, thou must never gratify it.

Sense shines with a double luster when it is set in humility. An able yet humble man is a jewel worth a kingdom.

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

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

They have a right to censure that have a heart to help.

To be like Christ is to be a Christian.

It would be far better to be of no church than to be bitter of any.

Nothing does reason more right, than the coolness of those that offer it: For Truth often suffers more by the heat of its defenders, than from the arguments of its opposers.

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

Between a man and his wife nothing ought to rule but love. Authority is for children and servants, yet not without sweetness.

He that lives to live forever, never fears dying.

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

The tallest Trees are most in the Power of the Winds, and Ambitious Men of the Blasts of Fortune.

Passion is the mob of the man, that commits a riot upon his reason.

Only trust thyself, and another shall not betray thee.

Patience and Diligence, like faith, remove mountains.

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

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

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

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

Knowledge is the treasure of a wise man.

Force may make hypocrites, but it can never make converts.

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.

Love grows. Lust wastes by Enjoyment, and the Reason is, that one springs from an Union of Souls, and the other from an Union of Sense.

Rarely promise, but, if lawful, constantly perform.

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

Kings in this world should imitate God, their mercy should be above their works.

He who is taught to live upon little owes more to his father's wisdom than he who has a great deal left him does to his father's care.

Love is the hardest lesson in Christianity; but, for that reason, it should be most our care to learn it.

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

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

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

Less judgment than wit is more sail than ballast.

Rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God.

Men are generally more careful of the breed of their horses and dogs than of their children.

True godliness does not turn men out of the world, but enables them to live better in it and excites their endeavors to mend it.

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

To be a man's own fool is bad enough, but the vain man is everybody's.

We are apt to love praise, but not deserve it. But if we would deserve it, we must love virtue more than that.