William Penn

To do evil that good may come of it is for bunglers in politics as well as mortals.

Men must be governed by God or they will be ruled by tyrants.

To be like Christ is to be a Christian.

The public must and will be served.

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

Sense never fails to give them that have it, Words enough to make them understood. It too often happens in some conversations, as in Apothecary Shops, that those Pots that are Empty, or have Things of small Value in them, are as gaudily Dress’d as those that are full of precious Drugs. They that soar too high, often fall hard, making a low and level Dwelling preferable. The tallest Trees are most in the Power of the Winds, and Ambitious Men of the Blasts of Fortune. Buildings have need of a good Foundation, that lie so much exposed to the Weather.

We have reached a point today where labor-saving devices are good only when they do not throw the worker out of his job.

A broad margin of leisure is as beautiful in a man’s life as in a book. Haste makes waste, no less in life than in housekeeping. Keep the time, observe the hours of the universe, not of the cars.

The best part of beauty is that which no picture can express.

Such is the state of life, that none are happy but by the anticipation of change: the change itself is nothing; when we have made it, the next wish is to change again.

Those who would mend the world must first mend themselves.

Opposition may become sweet to a man when he has christened it persecution.

Injustice in the end produces independence.

Speech is power: speech is to persuade, to convert, to compel. It is to bring another out of his bad sense into your good sense.

But the effect of her being on those around her was incalculably diffusive: for the growing good of the world is partly dependent on unhistoric acts; and that things are not so ill with you and me as they might have been, is half owing to the number who lived faithfully a hidden life, and rest in unvisited tombs.

Solitary trees, if they grow at all, grow strong.

The safest course is to do nothing against one’s conscience. With this secret, we can enjoy life and have no fear from death.

Studies serve for delight, for ornaments, and for ability.

Far too many executives have become more concerned with the four P’s – pay, perks, power and prestige – rather than making profits for shareholders.

The happiest conversation is that of which nothing is distinctly remembered but a general effect of pleasing impression.

There is no life I know to compare with pure imagination. Living there, you’ll be free if you truly wish to be.