Quotes from William Penn

Justice is the insurance we have on our lives, and obedience is the premium we pay for it.

I expect to pass through this world but once. Any good, therefore, that I can do or any kindness I can show to any fellow creature, let me do it now. Let me not defer or neglect it for I shall not pass this way again.

They that love beyond the world cannot be separated by it. Death is but crossing the world, as friends do the seas; they live in one another still.

Have a care therefore where there is more sail than ballast.

Only trust thyself, and another shall not betray thee.

Knowledge is the treasure of a wise man.

Any government is free to the people under it where the laws rule and the people are a party to the laws.

It were endless to dispute upon everything that is disputable.

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

Patience and Diligence, like faith, remove mountains.

The public must and will be served.

Rarely promise, but, if lawful, constantly perform.

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

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

No Cross, No Crown.

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

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

Between a man and his wife nothing ought to rule but love.

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.

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

It is a reproach to religion and government to suffer so much poverty and excess.

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

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 bad.

Believe nothing against another but on good authority; and never report what may hurt another, unless it be a greater hurt to some other to conceal it.