Quotes By William Penn

Knowledge is the treasure of a wise man.

To be a man's own fool is bad enough, but the vain man is everybody's.

The jealous are troublesome to others, but a torment to themselves.

Rarely promise, but, if lawful, constantly perform.

Justice is the insurance which we have on our lives and property. Obedience is the premium which we pay for it.

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

To be like Christ is to be a Christian.

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

Rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God.

Avoid popularity; it has many snares, and no real benefit.

Time is what we want most, but what we use worst.

A true friend freely, advises justly, assists readily, adventures boldly, takes all patiently, defends courageously, and continues a friend unchangeably.

He that lives to live forever, never fears dying.

It would be far better to be of no church than to be bitter of any.

Less judgment than wit is more sail than ballast.

We are apt to love praise, but not deserve it. But if we would deserve it, we must love virtue more than that.

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.

Love is the hardest lesson in Christianity; but, for that reason, it should be most our care to learn it.

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.

Sense shines with a double luster when it is set in humility. An able yet humble man is a jewel worth a kingdom.

If thou wouldst conquer thy weakness, thou must never gratify it.

O Lord, help me not to despise or oppose what I do not understand.

Some are so very studious of learning what was done by the ancients that they know not how to live with the moderns.

Only trust thyself, and another shall not betray thee.

Let the people think they govern and they will be governed.

Force may make hypocrites, but it can never make converts.

They have a right to censure that have a heart to help.

Speak properly, and in as few words as you can, but always plainly; for the end of speech is not ostentation, but to be understood.

Love grows. Lust wastes by Enjoyment, and the Reason is, that one springs from an Union of Souls, and the other from an Union of Sense.

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