William Penn

It were Happy if we studied Nature more in natural Things; and acted according to Nature; whose rules are few, plain and most reasonable.

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.

You are now fixed at the mercy of no governor that comes to make his fortune great; you shall be governed by laws of your own making and live a free, and if you will, a sober and industrious life. I shall not usurp the right of any, or oppress his person. God has furnished me with a better resolution and has given me his grace to keep it.

Truth often suffers more by the heat of its defenders than the arguments of its opposers.

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

If thou wouldst rule well, thou must rule for God; and to do that, thou must be ruled by him who has given to kings his grace to command themselves and their subjects, and to the people the grace to obey God and their kings.

Always acknowledge a fault. This will throw those in authority off their guard and give you an opportunity to commit more.

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

Say what you have to say and first time you come to a sentence with a grammatical ending; sit down.

When a man is in doubt about this or that in his writing, it will often guide him if he asks himself how it will tell a hundred years hence.

Do not follow where the path may lead. Go, instead, where there is no path and leave a trail.

You must not blame me if I do talk to the clouds.

The only way to have a friend is to be one.

The less you open your heart to others, the more your heart suffers.

If you have an important point to make, don’t try to be subtle or clever. Use the pile driver. Hit the point once. Then come back and hit it again. Then hit it a third time; a tremendous whack.

Think not those faithful who praise all thy words and actions, but those who kindly reprove thy faults.

When you’ve got them by their wallets, their hearts and minds will follow.

The dice of God are always loaded.

The Athanasian Creed is to me light and intelligible reading in comparison with much that now passes for science.

Whoso would be a man must be a nonconformist.

We are made happy when reason can discover no occasion for it. The memory of some past moments is more persuasive than the experience of present ones. There have been visions of such breadth and brightness that these motes were invisible in their light.