William Penn

Love grows. Lust wastes by Enjoyment, and the Reason is, that one springs from an Union of Souls, and the other from an Union of Sense.

It were endless to dispute upon everything that is disputable.

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

They must first judge themselves, that presume to censure others: And such will not be apt to overshoot the Mark. We are too ready to retaliate, rather than forgive, or gain by Love and Information. And yet we could hurt no Man that we believe loves us. Let us then try what Love will do: For if Men did once see we Love them, we should soon find they would not harm us. Force may subdue, but Love gains: And he that forgives first, wins the [Laurel]. If I am even with my Enemy, the Debt is paid; but if I forgive it, I oblige him for ever.

Private men, in fine, are so much their own, that, paying common dues, they are sovereigns of all the rest. Yet the public must and will be served; and they that do it well, deserve public marks of honour and respect. To do so, men must have public minds, as well as salaries; or they will serve private ends at the public cost. Government can never be well administered, but where those intrusted make conscience of well discharging their places.

Right is right even if everyone is against it and wrong is wrong even if everyone is for it.

You can tell whether a man is clever by his answers. You can tell whether a man is wise by his questions.

The mind is never satisfied with the objects immediately before it, but is always breaking away from the present moment, and losing itself in schemes of future felicity. The natural flights of the human mind are not from pleasure to pleasure, but from hope to hope.

No evil dooms us hopelessly except the evil we love, and desire to continue in, and make no effort to escape from.

Raise your words, not your voice. It is rain that grows flowers, not thunder.

Reality leaves a lot to the imagination.

A graceful and pleasing figure is a perpetual letter of recommendation.

Every man is a consumer and ought to be a producer.

I sit on a man’s back choking him and making him carry me, and yet assure myself and others that i am sorry for him and wish to lighten his load by all means possible….except by getting off his back.

Why do you hasten to remove anything which hurts your eye, while if something affects your soul you postpone the cure until next year?

Sir, you have but two topics, yourself and me. I am sick of both.

Discern of the coming on of years, and think not to do the same things still; for age will not be defied.

As long as I have a want, I have a reason for living. Satisfaction is death.

To inherit property is not to be born – it is to be still-born, rather.

A monarch, when good, is entitled to the consideration which we accord to a pirate who keeps Sunday School between crimes; when bad, he is entitled to none at all.

I trust no one, not even myself.