William Penn

Those people who will not be governed by God will be ruled by tyrants.

In marriage do thou be wise: prefer the person before money, virtue before beauty, the mind before the body; then thou hast a wife, a friend, a companion, a second self.

Patience and diligence, like faith, remove mountains.

A good end cannot sanctify evil means; nor must we ever do evil that good may come of it.

Friendship is the next Pleasure we may hope for: And where we find it not at home, or have no home to find it in, we may seek it abroad. It is an Union of Spirits, a Marriage of Hearts, and the Bond thereof Vertue.

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

When people do not respect us we are sharply offended; yet deep down in his private heart no man much respects himself.

Here’s the thing: the world is not going to issue you an engraved invitation to this life.

There is in the act of preparing, the moment you start caring.

It is difficult, if not impossible, for most people to think otherwise than in the fashion of their own period.

A faith is a necessity to a man. Woe to him who believes in nothing.

The most anxious man in a prison is the governor.

Gossip is a sort of smoke that comes from the dirty tobacco-pipes of those who diffuse it: it proves nothing but the bad taste of the smoker.

Life must be filled up, and the man who is not capable of intellectual pleasures must content himself with such as his senses can afford.

Our virtues are dearer to us the more we have had to suffer for them. It is the same with our children. All profound affection entertains a sacrifice. Our thoughts are often worse than we are, just as they are often better.

A verse from the Veda says, ‘What you see, you become.’ In other words, just the experience of perceiving the world makes you what you are. This is a quite literal statement.

Let us, if we must have great actions, make our own so. All action is of infinite elasticity, and the least admits of being inflated with celestial air, until it eclipses the sun and moon.

The reward of one’s duty is the power to fulfill another.

What greater thing is there for two human souls than to feel that they are joined – to strengthen each other – to be at one with each other in silent unspeakable memories.

I think that there is nothing, not even crime, more opposed to poetry, to philosophy, ay, to life itself than this incessant business.

An honest man is always a child.