William Penn

Men must be governed by God or they will be ruled by tyrants.

For death is no more than turning us over from time to eternity.

It is admirable to consider how many Millions of People come into, and go out of the World, Ignorant of themselves, and of the World they have lived in.

The wisdom of nations lies in their proverbs, which are brief and pithy. Collect and learn them; they are notable measures of directions for human life; you have much in little; they save time in speaking; and upon occasion may be the fullest and safest answer.

We are apt to love praise, but not deserve it. But if we would deserve it, we must love virtue more than that.

He who is taught to live upon little owes more to his father’s wisdom than he who has a great deal left him does to his father’s care.

Words are finite organs of the infinite mind. They cannot cover the dimensions of what is in truth. They break, chop, and impoverish it.

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

To be furious in religion is to be irreligiously religious.

We all really basically have a lot of magic … it’s only those of us that choose to accept it that really understand it.

The minority is sometimes right; the majority always wrong.

In labouring to be concise, I become obscure.

The golden rule is that there are no golden rules.

For every benefit you receive a tax is levied.

As you get older, you realize that no one has all the answers. It turns out that life is an exercise in living with the certainty of uncertainty. – Jason Kilar

I would live to study, and not study to live.

I really do not see much use in exalting the humble and meek; they do not remain humble and meek long when they are exalted.

A man must make his opportunity, as oft as find it.

The only way to avoid being miserable is not to have enough leisure to wonder whether you are happy or not.

If there is any period one would desire to be born in, is it not the age of Revolution; when the old and the new stand side by side, and admit of being compared; when the energies of all men are searched by fear and by hope; when the historic glories of the old can be compensated by the rich possibilities of the new era?

A broad margin of leisure is as beautiful in a man’s life as in a book. Haste makes waste, no less in life than in housekeeping. Keep the time, observe the hours of the universe, not of the cars.