William Penn

All Excess is ill: But Drunkenness is of the worst Sort. It spoils Health, dismounts the Mind, and unmans Men: It reveals Secrets, is Quarrelsome, Lascivious, Impudent, Dangerous and Mad. In fine, he that is drunk is not a Man: Because he is so long void of Reason, that distinguishes a Man from a Beast.

If thou rise with an Appetite, thou art sure never to sit down without one.

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

Kings in this should imitate God, their mercy should be above their works.

Children, Fear God; that is to say, have an holy awe upon your minds to avoid that which is evil, and a strict care to embrace and do that which is good.

Eat therefore to live, and do not live to eat.

He is rich who is content with the least; for contentment is the wealth of nature.

We live thick and are in each other’s way, and stumble over one another, and I think we thus lose some respect for one another.

I have been brought up and trained to have the utmost contempt for people who get drunk.

The beginning of wisdom is a definition of terms.

Talent for talent’s sake is a bauble and a show. Talent working with joy in the cause of universal truth lifts the possessor to new power as a benefactor.

I finished my first book seventy-six years ago. I offered it to every publisher on the English-speaking earth I had ever heard of. Their refusals were unanimous: and it did not get into print until, fifty years later; publishers would publish anything that had my name on it.

This ain’t fun. But you watch me, I’ll get it done.

Ideas must work through the brains and the arms of good and brave men, or they are no better than dreams.

Tell me who your heroes are and I’ll tell you who you’ll turn out to be.

If man had created man, he would be ashamed of his performance.

We allow our ignorance to prevail upon us and make us think we can survive alone, alone in patches, alone in groups, alone in races, even alone in genders.

Your mind makes a cruel master, but a generous servant.

The possibilities are numerous once we decide to act and not react.

The only thing grief as taught me is to know how shallow it is.

A man’s interest in the world is only an overflow from his interest in himself.