William Penn

Truth often suffers more by the heat of its defenders than the arguments of its opposers.

Liberty without obedience is confusion, and obedience without liberty is slavery.

Not to be provok’d is best: But if mov’d, never correct till the Fume is spent; For every Stroke our Fury strikes, is sure to hit our selves at last.

Friendship . . . is an Union of Spirits, a Marriage of Hearts, and the Bond thereof Vertue.

Some men do as much begrudge others a good name, as they want one themselves: and perhaps that is the reason of it.

Force may subdue, but love gains, and he that forgives first wins the laurel.

Common sense is the best distributed thing in the world, for we all think we possess a good share of it.

There are only ten minutes in the life of a pear when it is perfect to eat.

It’s not burn baby burn, but learn, baby, learn, so that you can earn, baby, earn.

You cannot have power for good without having power for evil too. Even mother’s milk nourishes murderers as well as heroes.

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

Play not with paradoxes. That caustic which you handle in order to scorch others may happen to sear your own fingers and make them dead to the quality of things.

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

In labouring to be concise, I become obscure.

Our tastes greatly alter. The lad does not care for the child’s rattle, and the old man does not care for the young man’s whore.

At the same time that we are earnest to explore and learn all things, we require that all things be mysterious and unexplorable, that land and sea be infinitely wild, unsurveyed and unfathomed by us because unfathomable.

If I repent of anything, it is very likely to be my good behavior.

Just write every day of your life. Read intensely. Then see what happens. Most of my friends who are put on that diet have very pleasant careers.

I would rather sit on a pumpkin and have it all to myself, than be crowded on a velvet cushion.

Human life is everywhere a state in which much is to be endured, and little to be enjoyed.

Man is the only animal of which I am thoroughly and cravenly afraid of.