William Penn

Private men, in fine, are so much their own, that, paying common dues, they are sovereigns of all the rest. Yet the public must and will be served; and they that do it well, deserve public marks of honour and respect. To do so, men must have public minds, as well as salaries; or they will serve private ends at the public cost. Government can never be well administered, but where those intrusted make conscience of well discharging their places.

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

If thou wouldst rule well, thou must rule for God; and to do that, thou must be ruled by him who has given to kings his grace to command themselves and their subjects, and to the people the grace to obey God and their kings.

Right is right even if everyone is against it and wrong is wrong even if everyone is for it.

Rarely promise, but, if lawful, constantly perform.

The truest end of life is to know that life never ends.

Life is one long process of getting tired.

Forgive him, for he believes that the customs of his tribe are the laws of nature!

As the Spanish proverb says, He who would bring home the wealth of the Indies, must carry the wealth of the Indies with him. So it is in travelling; a man must carry knowledge with him, if he would bring home knowledge.

Sorrow is the rust of the soul and activity will cleanse and brighten it.

Lack of money is the root of all evil.

The quality of strength lined with tenderness is an unbeatable combination, as are intelligence and necessity when unblunted by formal education.

The person is a poor judge who by an action can be disgraced more in failing than they can be honored in succeeding.

He has been a doctor a year now and has had two patients, no, three, I think – yes, it was three; I attended their funerals.

The job of the artist is always to deepen the mystery.

No member of society has the right to teach any doctrine contrary to what society holds to be true.

I enjoy convalescence. It is the part that makes the illness worth while.

Of a truth, Knowledge is power, but it is a power reined by scruple, having a conscience of what must be and what may be; whereas Ignorance is a blind giant who, let him but wax unbound, would make it a sport to seize the pillars that hold up the long-wrought fabric of human good, and turn all the places of joy as dark as a buried Babylon.

No man should travel until he has learned the language of the country he visits. Otherwise he voluntarily makes himself a great baby-so helpless and so ridiculous.

Every burned book enlightens the world.

While fools shun one set of faults they run into the opposite one.