William Penn

In all debates let truth be thy aim; not victory or an unjust interest; and endeavor to gain rather than to expose thy antagonist.

If it be an evil to judge rashly or untruly any single man, how much a greater sin it is to condemn a whole people.

If thou wouldn’t conquer thy weakness thou must not gratify it.

Liberty without obedience is confusion, and obedience without liberty is slavery.

Friends are true Twins in Soul; they Sympathize in every thing, and have the Love and Aversion. One is not happy without the other, nor can either of them be miserable alone. As if they could change Bodies, they take their turns in Pain as well as in Pleasure; relieving one another in their most adverse Conditions.What one enjoys, the other cannot Want. Like the Primitive Christians, they have all things in common, and no Property but in one another.

It were endless to dispute upon everything that is disputable.

Our chief want in life is somebody who shall make us do what we can.

Other men are lenses through which we read our own minds. Each man seeks those of different quality from his own, and such as are good of their kind; that is, he seeks other men, and the rest.

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.

Compound for sins they are inclined to by damning those they have no mind to.

Our deeds determine us, as much as we determine our deeds.

Tobacco and opium have broad backs, and will cheerfully carry the load of armies, if you choose to make them pay high for such joy as they give and such harm as they do.

It is a mistake to look too far ahead. Only one link in the chain of destiny can be handled at a time.

There isn’t a single human characteristic that can be safely labeled as American.

Life does not cease to be funny when people die any more than it ceases to be serious when people laugh.

Out of intense complexities intense simplicities emerge.

Everyone has his day and some days last longer than others.

Life becomes easier when you learn to accept an apology you never got.

Character is just another word for having a perfectly disciplined and educated will.

To have done anything just for money is to have been truly idle.

Technique is noticed most markedly in the case of those who have not mastered it.