William Penn

It is a profitable Wisdom to know when we have done enough: Much time and Pains are spared, in not flattering our selves against Probabilities.

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

The country life is to be preferred, for there we see the works of God; but in cities little else but the works of men. And the one makes a better subject for contemplation than the other.

Any government is free to the people under it (whatever be the frame) where the law rules, and the people are a party to those laws, and more than this is tyranny, oligarchy, or confusion.

To be a man’s own fool is bad enough, but the vain man is everybody’s.

It were endless to dispute upon everything that is disputable.

When a man laughs at his troubles he loses a great many friends. They never forgive the loss of their prerogative.

Half a man’s wisdom goes with his courage.

It’s not the adversity, but how you face it.

We had the sky up there, and we used to lay on our backs and look up at them, and discuss whether they was made or just happened.

Can you really explain to a fish what it’s like to walk on land? One day on land is worth a thousand years of talking about it, and one day running a business has exactly the same kind of value.

Understanding is a two-way street.

In every society some men are born to rule, and some to advise.

Cultivate the habit of being grateful for every good thing that comes to you, and to give thanks continuously. And because all things have contributed to your advancement, you should include all things in your gratitude.

I would rather be attacked than unnoticed. For the worst thing you can do to an author is to be silent as to his works. An assault upon a town is a bad thing; but starving it is still worse.

Money is indeed the most important thing in the world; and all sound and successful personal and national morality should have this fact for its basis.

What sort of philosophers are we, who know absolutely nothing about the origin and destiny of cats?

Knowledge and human power are synonymous.

In a serious struggle there is no worse cruelty than to be magnanimous at an inopportune time.

He that hath wife and children hath given hostages to fortune; for they are impediments to great enterprises, either of virtue or mischief.

Never lose an opportunity of seeing anything that is beautiful; for beauty is God’s handwriting – a wayside sacrament. Welcome it in every fair face, in every fair sky, in every fair flower, and thank God for it as a cup of blessing.