William Penn

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

Never marry but for love; but see that thou lovest what is lovely.

I desire to gain your Love and Friendship by a kind, Just and Peaceful Life.

A wise neuter joins with neither, but uses both as his honest interest leads him.

In marriage do thou be wise: prefer the person before money, virtue before beauty, the mind before the body; then thou hast a wife, a friend, a companion, a second self.

To delay justice, is injustice.

The eye is easily frightened.

Security will produce danger.

You show your worth by what you seek! – Rumi

He’s a man of great common sense and good taste – meaning thereby a man without originality or moral courage.

There isn’t a single human characteristic that can be safely labeled as American.

Though wisdom cannot be gotten for gold, still less can be gotten without it.

The difficult task of knowing another soul is not for young gentlemen whose consciousness is chiefly made up of their own wishes.

Make a good use of the present.

Goodness is the only investment which never fails.

Republics abound in young civilians who believe that the laws make the city, that grave modifications of the policy and modes of living and employments of the population, that commerce, education and religion may be voted in or out; and that any measure, though it were absurd, may be imposed on a people if only you can get sufficient voices to make it a law. But the wise know that foolish legislation is a rope of sand which perishes in the twisting; that the State must follow and not lead the character and progress of the citizen; that the form of government which prevails is the expression of what cultivation exists in the population which permits it. The law is only a memorandum.

But what we call our despair is often only the painful eagerness of unfed hope.

Talk about slavery! It is not the peculiar institution of the South. It exists wherever men are bought and sold, wherever a man allows himself to be made a mere thing or a tool, and surrenders his inalienable rights of reason and conscience. Indeed, this slavery is more complete than that which enslaves the body alone… I never yet met with, or heard of, a judge who was not a slave of this kind, and so the finest and most unfailing weapon of injustice. He fetches a slightly higher price than the black men only because he is a more valuable slave.

In the best, the friendliest and simplest relations flattery or praise is necessary, just as grease is necessary to keep wheels turning.

All great masters are chiefly distinguished by the power of adding a second, a third, and perhaps a fourth step in a continuous line. Many a man had taken the first step. With every additional step you enhance immensely the value of your first.

Conscientious people are apt to see their duty in that which is the most painful course.