William Penn

A wise man makes what he learns his own, the other shows he is but a copy or a collection at most.

To be like Christ is to be a Christian.

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

The country life is to be preferred, for there we see the works of God; but in cities little else but the works of men. And the one makes a better subject for contemplation than the other.

Knowledge is the treasure, but judgment is the treasurer of the one who is wise.

Nothing does Reason more Right, than the Coolness of those that offer it: for Truth often suffers more by the heat of its defenders than from the arguments of its opposers.

Man is the only creature who has a nasty mind.

Doubt is not a pleasant condition, but certainty is absurd.

What is life but the angle of vision? A man is measured by the angle at which he looks at objects. What is life but what a man is thinking of all day? This is his fate and his employer. Knowing is the measure of the man. By how much we know, so much we are.

Read not to contradict and confute, not to believe and take for granted, not to find talk and discourse, but to weigh and consider. Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested: that is, some books are to be read only in parts, others to be read, but not curiously, and some few to be read wholly, and with diligence and attention.

The hour of departure has arrived and we go our ways; I to die, and you to live. Which is better? Only God knows.

Harold, like the rest of us, had many impressions which saved him the trouble of distinct ideas.

Appearances matter – and remember to smile.

Adopt the pace of nature, her secret is patience.

Above anything else, I hate to lose.

There is no love sincerer than the love of food.

The squirrel that you kill in jest, dies in earnest.

From a worldly point of view, there is no mistake so great as that of being always right.

Beautiful credit! The foundation of modern society. Who shall say that this is not the golden age of mutual trust, of unlimited reliance upon human promises? That is a peculiar condition of society which enables a whole nation to instantly recognize point and meaning in the familiar newspaper anecdote, which puts into the mouth of a distinguished speculator in lands and mines this remark: – I wasn’t worth a cent two years ago, and now I owe two millions of dollars.

It is better to light a single candle than to curse the darkness.

The momentous thing in human life is the art of winning the soul to good or evil.