William Penn

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

Only trust theyself, and another shall noet betray thee

I know no religion that destroys courtesy, civility, and kindness.

It is a profitable Wisdom to know when we have done enough: Much time and Pains are spared, in not flattering our selves against Probabilities.

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.

Do Good with what thou hast, or it will do thee no good.

If you wish me to weep, you must first show grief yourself.

I do not fear death. I had been dead for billions and billions of years before I was born, and had not suffered the slightest inconvenience from it.

In taking revenge, a man is but even with his enemy; but in passing it over, he is superior.

Let us not look east and west for materials of conversation, but rest in presence and unity. A just feeling will fast enough supply fuel for discourse, if speaking be more grateful than silence. When people come to see us, we foolishly prattle, lest we be inhospitable. But things said for conversation are chalk eggs. Don’t say things. What you are stands over you the while, and thunders so that I cannot hear what you say to the contrary. A lady of my acquaintance said, I don’t care so much for what they say as I do for what makes them say it.

To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.

A good head and a good heart are always a formidable combination.

You teach your daughters the diameters of the planets and wonder when you are done that they do not delight in your company.

The older we grow the greater becomes our wonder at how much ignorance one can contain without bursting one’s clothes.

To get a name can happen but to few; it is one of the few things that cannot be brought. It is the free gift of mankind, which must be deserved before it will be granted, and is at last unwillingly bestowed.

Old and new make the warp and woof of every moment. There is no thread that is not a twist of these two strands. By necessity, by proclivity, and by delight, we all quote.

Sir, a man who cannot get to heaven in a green coat, will not find his way thither the sooner in a gray one.

Go into the street, and give one man a lecture on morality, and another a shilling, and see which will respect you most.

No man is fit to command another that cannot command himself.

We are all dependent on one another, every soul of us on earth.

I do then with my friends as I do with my books. I would have them where I can find them, but I seldom use them.