William Penn

Men being born with a title to perfect freedom and uncontrolled enjoyment of all the rights and privileges of the law of nature . . . no one can be put out of his estate and subjected to the political view of another, without his consent.

Death is but crossing the world, as friends do the seas; they live in one another still.

Love is indeed Heaven upon Earth; since Heaven above would not be Heaven without it: For where there is not Love; there is Fear: But perfect Love casts out Fear. And yet we naturally fear most to offend what we most Love. What we Love, we’ll Hear; what we Love, we’ll Trust; and what we Love, we’ll serve, ay, and suffer for too. If you love me (says our Blessed Redeemer) keep my Commandments. Why? Why then he’ll Love us; then we shall be his Friends; then he’ll send us the Comforter; then whatsoever we ask, we shall receive; and then where he is we shall be also, and that for ever. Behold the Fruits of Love; the Power, Vertue, Benefit and Beauty of Love! Love is above all; and when it prevails in us all, we shall all be Lovely, and in Love with God and one with another.

Tis admirable to consider, how Powerful the Kings are, yet they move by the Breath of their People.

To hazard much to get much has more of avarice than wisdom.

The truest end of life is to know that life never ends.

Let freedom reign. The sun never set on so glorious a human achievement.

Do something every day that you don’t want to do. This is the golden rule for acquiring the habit of doing your duty without pain.

Half the vices which the world condemns most loudly have seeds of good in them and require moderated use rather than total abstinence.

The desire to conquer is itself a sort of subjection.

Worrying is like paying on a debt that may never come due.

Beautiful credit! The foundation of modern society. Who shall say that this is not the golden age of mutual trust, of unlimited reliance upon human promises? That is a peculiar condition of society which enables a whole nation to instantly recognize point and meaning in the familiar newspaper anecdote, which puts into the mouth of a distinguished speculator in lands and mines this remark: – I wasn’t worth a cent two years ago, and now I owe two millions of dollars.

The profoundest thought or passion sleeps as in a mine, until an equal mind and heart finds and publishes it.

How could a man be satisfied with a decision between such alternatives and under such circumstances? No more than he can be satisfied with his hat, which he’s chosen from among such shapes as the resources of the age offer him, wearing it at best with a resignation which is chiefly supported by comparison.

The end may justify the means as long as there is something that justifies the end.

Man is God’s highest present development. He is the latest thing in God.

There are only two forces that can carry light to all the corners of the globe… the sun in the heavens and the Associated Press down here.

I decided that it was not wisdom that enabled poets to write their poetry, but a kind of instinct or inspiration, such as you find in seers and prophets who deliver all their sublime messages without knowing in the least what they mean.

Nature arms each man with some faculty which enables him to do easily some feat impossible to any other.

Every man’s work, whether it be literature, or music or pictures or architecture or anything else, is always a portrait of himself.

I believe in Michelangelo, Velasquez, and Rembrandt; in the might of design, the mystery of color, the redemption of all things by Beauty everlasting, and the message of Art that has made these hands blessed. Amen. Amen.