William Penn

If there be three distinct and separate Persons, then three distinct and separate Substances. . . . And since the Father is God, the Son is God, and the Spirit is God . . . then unless the Father, Son and Spirit are three distinct Nothings, they must be three distinct Substances, and consequently three distinct Gods.

No pain, no palm; no thorns, no throne; no gall, no glory; no cross, no crown.

If thou art clean and warm, it is sufficient; for more doth but rob the Poor, and please the Wanton.

Less judgment than wit is more sail than ballast.

Equivocation is half-way to lying, and lying the whole way to hell.

Death is but crossing the world, as friends do the seas; they live in one another still. For they must needs be present, that love and live in that which is omnipresent. In this divine glass, they see face to face; and their converse is free as well as pure. This is the comfort of friends, that though they may be said to die, yet their friendship and society are, in the best sense, ever present, because immortal.

We shall show mercy, but we shall not ask for it.

A great deal of intelligence can be invested in ignorance when the need for illusion is deep.

I was afraid that by observing objects with my eyes and trying to comprehend them with each of my other senses I might blind my soul altogether.

Death is but crossing the world, as friends do the seas; they live in one another still.

The master minds of all nations, in all ages, have sprung in affluent multitude from the mass of the nation, and from the mass of the nation only – not from its privileged classes.

The creation of a thousand forests is in one acorn.

A good head and a good heart are always a formidable combination.

Arguments are like fire-arms which a man may keep at home but should not carry about with him.

The advice that is wanted is commonly not welcome and that which is not wanted, evidently an effrontery.

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

He gains everyone’s approval who mixes the pleasant with the useful.

In skating over thin ice, our safety is in our speed.

Don’t seek, don’t search, don’t ask, don’t knock, don’t demand — relax!

Good sense is both the first principal and the parent source of good writing.

People are always good company when they are doing what they really enjoy.