William Penn

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

Some men do as much begrudge others a good name, as they want one themselves: and perhaps that is the reason of it.

Have wholesome, but not costly Food, and be rather cleanly than dainty in ordering it.

No man is fit to command another that cannot command himself.

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

Fidelity has enfranchised slaves, and adopted servants to be sons.

Hope is a good breakfast, but it is a bad supper.

I’m proof against that word failure. I’ve seen behind it. The only failure a man ought to fear is failure of cleaving to the purpose he sees to be best.

Dare to live the life you have dreamed for yourself. Go forward and make your dreams come true.

We know but a few men, a great many coats and breeches.

When any calamity has been suffered the first thing to be remembered is, how much has been escaped.

You’ll never have a quiet world until you knock the patriotism out of the human race.

Don’t think of retiring from the world until the world will be sorry that you retire. I hate a fellow whom pride or cowardice or laziness drive into a corner, and who does nothing when he is there but sit and growl. Let him come out as I do, and bark.

After a few months’ acquaintance with European coffee, one’s mind weakens, and his faith with it, and he begins to wonder if the rich beverage of home, with its clotted layer of yellow cream on top of it, is not a mere dream after all, and a thing which never existed.

Capitalism has destroyed our belief in any effective power but that of self interest backed by force.

Trust thyself: every heart vibrates to that iron string.

The desire of excessive power caused the angels to fall; the desire of knowledge caused men to fall.

Do not waste your time on Social Questions. What is the matter with the poor is Poverty; what is the matter with the rich is Uselessness.

One gains universal applause who mingles the useful with the agreeable, at once delighting and instructing the reader.

My own experience and development deepen everyday my conviction that our moral progress may be measured by the degree in which we sympathize with individual suffering and individual joy.

Neither have they hearts to stay, nor wit enough to run away.