William Penn

Death then, being the way and condition of life, we cannot love to live if we cannot bear to die.

Eat therefore to live, and do not live to eat.

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.

Those who would mend the world must first mend themselves.

To do evil that good may come of it is for bunglers in politics as well as mortals.

Hasty resolutions are of the nature of vows, and to be equally avoided

Philosophy when superficially studied, excites doubt, when thoroughly explored, it dispels it.

How vain it is to sit down to write when you have not stood up to live.

We learn geology the morning after the earthquake.

Everyone has been made for some particular work, and the desire for that work has been put in every heart.

Confidence is contagious. So is lack of confidence.

If a man walks in the woods for love of them half of each day, he is in danger of being regarded as a loafer. But if he spends his days as a speculator, shearing off those woods and making the earth bald before her time, he is deemed an industrious and enterprising citizen.

People of great position are servants times three, servants of their country, servants of fame, and servants of business.

No poems can please for long or live that are written by water drinkers.

Seize the day, put no trust in tomorrow. [Carpe diem, quam minimum credula postero.Lat.]

He that gives good advice builds with one hand; he that gives good counsel and example builds with both.

To me the sole hope of human salvation lies in teaching Man to regard himself as an experiment in the realization of God, to regard his hands as God’s hand, his brain as God’s brain, his purpose as God’s purpose. He must regard God as a helpless Longing, which longed him into existence by its desperate need for an executive organ.

Truth is neither alive nor dead; it just aggravates itself all the time.

Forgive him, for he believes that the customs of his tribe are the laws of nature!

There can be no friendship without confidence, and no confidence without integrity.

Sincerity is the highest complement you can pay.