William Penn

To hazard much to get much has more of avarice than wisdom.

God is better served in resisting a Temptation to Evil, than in many formal Prayers.

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

It is admirable to consider how many Millions of People come into, and go out of the World, Ignorant of themselves, and of the World they have lived in.

If it be an evil to judge rashly or untruly any single man, how much a greater sin it is to condemn a whole people.

Where Example keeps pace with Authority, Power hardly fails to be obey’d.

The function of vice is to keep virtue within reasonable bounds.

His honest, patronizing pride in the good-will and respect of everybody about him was a safeguard even against foolish romance, still more against a lower kind of folly.

Whatever the human law may be, neither an individual nor a nation can commit the least act of injustice against the obscurest individual without having to pay the penalty for it.

If all you can do is crawl, start crawling.

People of great position are servants times three, servants of their country, servants of fame, and servants of business.

The power which resides in man is new in nature, and none but he knows what that is which he can do, nor does he know until he has tried.

Old age is the most unexpected of all the things that can happen to a man.

You should read history and look at ostracism, persecution, martyrdom, and that kind of thing. They always happen to the best men, you know.

The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation. What is called resignation is confirmed desperation. From the desperate city you go into the desperate country, and have to console yourself with the bravery of minks and muskrats. A stereotyped but unconscious despair is concealed even under what are called the games and amusements of mankind. There is no play in them, for this comes after work. But it is a characteristic of wisdom not to do desperate things.

Since time is the one immaterial object which we cannot influence – neither speed up nor slow down, add to nor diminish – it is an imponderably valuable gift.

Necessity is the mother of taking chances.

We must rekindle the fire of idealism in our society, for nothing suffocates the promise of America more than unbounded cynicism and indifference.

Usually the modest person passes for someone reserved, the silent for a sullen person.

You’ve got a big, big problem if you get caught up in what people say. If you’re gonna live for what people say, you might as well lay down and forget it. Because it doesn’t work that way.

Sometimes too much to drink is barely enough.