William Penn quotes:

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

The tallest Trees are most in the Power of the Winds, and Ambitious Men of the Blasts of Fortune.

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.

True silence is the rest of the mind, and is to the spirit what sleep is to the body, nourishment and refreshment.

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.

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

Much reading is an oppression of the mind, and extinguishes the natural candle, which is the reason of so many senseless scholars in the world.

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

Humility and knowledge in poor clothes excel pride and ignorance in costly attire.

Only trust thyself, and another shall not betray thee.

Rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God.

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

Patience and Diligence, like faith, remove mountains.

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.

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

The secret of happiness is to count your blessings while others are adding up their troubles.

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.

Between a man and his wife nothing ought to rule but love. Authority is for children and servants, yet not without sweetness.

To be like Christ is to be a Christian.

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

Less judgment than wit is more sail than ballast.

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

For death is no more than a turning of us over from time to eternity.

Passion is a sort of fever in the mind, which ever leaves us weaker than it found us.

Excess in apparel is another costly folly. The very trimming of the vain world would clothe all the naked ones.

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

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

Less judgment than wit is more sail than ballast. Yet it must be confessed that wit given an edge to sense, and recommends it extremely.

He who is taught to live upon little owes more to his father's wisdom than he who has a great deal left him does to his father's care.

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

Inquiry is human; blind obedience brutal. Truth never loses by the one but often suffers by the other.

The receipts of cookery are swelled to a volume; but a good stomach excels them all.

The country life is to be preferred, for there we see the works of God; but in cities little else but the works of men. And the one makes a better subject for contemplation than the other.

No pain, no palm; no thorns, no throne; no gall, no glory; no cross, no crown.

Death is but crossing the world, as friends do the seas; they live in one another still.

The only fountain in the wilderness of life, where man drinks of water totally unmixed with bitterness, is that which gushes for him in the calm and shady recess of domestic life.

Drunkenness, spoils health, dismounts the mind, and unmans the man.

There can be no friendship where there is no freedom. Friendship loves a free air, and will not be fenced up in straight and narrow enclosures.

There can be no Friendship where there is no Freedom. Friendship loves a free Air, and will not be penned up in straight and narrow Enclosures. It will speak freely, and act so too; and take nothing ill where no ill is meant; nay, where it is, 'twill easily forgive, and forget too, upon small Acknowledgments.

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

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

A good End cannot sanctify evil Means; nor must we ever do Evil, that Good may come of it.

False-dealing travels a short road, and surely detected.

Children, Fear God; that is to say, have an holy awe upon your minds to avoid that which is evil, and a strict care to embrace and do that which is good.

Avoid flatterers, for they are thieves in disguise.

True godliness does not turn men out of the world, but enables them to live better in it and excites their endeavors to mend it.

A jealous man only sees his own spectrum when he looks upon other men, and gives his character in theirs.

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

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

I expect to pass through this world but once. Any good therefore that I can do ... let me do it now.

It is the difference betwixt lust and love that this is fixed, that volatile. Love grows, lust wastes by enjoyment.

Love grows, lust wastes by enjoyment.

The humble, meek, merciful, and just are everywhere of one religion; and when death has taken off the mask they will know one another, though the diverse liveries they wear here make them strangers.

Death cannot kill what never dies.

A Garden, an Elaboratory, a Work - house, Improvements and Breeding, are pleasant and Profitable Diversions to the Idle and Ingenious: For here they miss Ill Company, and converse with Nature and Art; whose Variety are equally grateful and instructing; and preserve a good Constitution of Body and Mind.

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

He that does good for good's sake seeks neither paradise nor reward, but he is sure of both in the end.

Perfect love casteth out fear.

Love labour: for if thou dost not want it for food, thou mayest for physique. It is wholesome for the body, and good for the mind. It prevents the fruits of idleness, which many times come of nothing to do, and leads many to do what is worse than nothing.

The wisdom of nations lies in their proverbs, which are brief and pithy.

The wisdom of nations lies in their proverbs, which are brief and pithy. Collect and learn them; they are notable measures of directions for human life; you have much in little; they save time in speaking; and upon occasion may be the fullest and safest answer.

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

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

Rarely promise, but, if lawful, constantly perform.

It is a severe rebuke upon us, that God makes us so many allowances, and we make so few to our neighbour.

Love is indeed heaven upon earth; since heaven above would not bo heaven without it; for where there is not love, there is fear; but, "Perfect love casteth out fear."

Is it reasonable to take it ill, that anybody desires of us that which is their own? All we have is the Almighty's; and shall not God have his own when he calls for it?

There is a truth and beauty in rhetoric; but it oftener serves ill turns than good ones.

Men being born with a title to perfect freedom and uncontrolled enjoyment of all the rights and privileges of the law of nature... no one can be put out of his estate and subjected to the political view of another, without his consent.

Passion is the mob of the man, that commits a riot upon his reason.

In all debates, let truth be thy aim, not victory, or an unjust interest.

I expect to pass through life but once. If therefore there be any kindness I can show...let me do it now.

We are told truly that meekness and modesty are the rich and charming garments of the soul. The less showy our outward attire is, the more distinctly and brilliantly does the beauty of these inner garments shine.

If thy debtor be honest and capable, thou hast thy money again, if not with increase, with praise; if he prove insolvent, don't ruin him to get that which it will not ruin thee to lose, for thou art but a steward.

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

They that love beyond the world cannot be separated by it. Death cannot kill what never dies.

God is better served in resisting a temptation to evil than in many formal prayers.

Tis no sin to be tempted, but to be overcome.

True Godliness doesn't turn men out of the world, but enables them to live better in it, and excites their endeavors to mend it. ...We have nothing that we can call our own; no, not our selves: for we are all but Tenants, and at Will, too, of the great Lord of our selves, and the rest of this great farm, the World that we live upon.

Never give out while there is hope; but hope not beyond reason, for that shows more desire than judgement.

Knowledge is the treasure of a wise man.

Knowledge is the treasure, but judgment is the treasurer of the one who is wise.

Levity of behavior, always a weakness, is far more unbecoming in a woman than a man.

The unspoken word never defeats one. What one does not say does not have to be explained.

Content not thyself that thou art virtuous in the general; for one link being wanting, the chain is defective.

Hasty resolutions are of the nature of vows, and to be equally avoided.

Never marry but for love; but see that thou lov'st what is lovely.

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

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

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

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

He that lives to live forever, never fears dying.

...death is only a horizon, and a horizon is only the limit of your sight. Open your eyes to see more clearly...

[I]t is impossible that any people of government should ever prosper, where men render not unto God, that which is God's, as well as to Caesar, that which is Caesar's.

[Tho]ugh death be a dark passage; it leads to immortality, and that is recompense enough for suffering of it. And yet faith lights us, even through the grave....And this is the comfort of the good, and the grave cannot hold them, and they live as they die. For death is no more than a turning of us over from time to eternity.

A good end cannot sanctify evil means; nor must we ever do evil, that good may come of it... It is as great presumption to send our passions upon God's errands, as to palliate them with God's name... We are too ready to retailiate, rather than forgive, or gain by love and information. And yet we could hurt no man that we believe loves us. Let us try then what Love will do: for if men did once see we love them, we should soon find they would not harm us. Force may subdue, but Love gains: and he that forgives first, wins the laurel.

A good end sanctify evil means; not must we ever do evil, that good might come of it. We are ready to retaliate, rather than forgive or gain by love and information . . . Force may subdue, but love gains. And one that forgives first wins the laurel.

A man in business must put up many affronts if he loves his own quiet.

A man, like a watch, is to be valued for his manner of going.

A private Life is to be preferrd; the Honour and Gain of publick Posts, bearing no proportion with the Comfort of it.

A vain man is a nauseous creature: he is so full of himself that he has no room for anything else, be it never so good or deserving.

Above all things endeavor to breed them up the love of virtue, and that holy plain way of it which we have lived in, that the world in no part of it get into my family. I had rather they we're homely than finely bred as to outward behavior; yet I love sweetness mixed with gravity, and cheerfulness tempered with sobriety.

All excess is ill, but drunkenness is of the worst sort. It spoils health, dismounts the mind, and unmans men. It reveals secrets, is quarrelsome, lascivious, impudent, dangerous and mad. In fine, he that is drunk is not a man: because he is so long void of Reason, that distinguishes a Man from a Beast.

Always remember to bound thy thoughts to the present occasion.

Anything less than full justice is cruelty.

Be rather bountiful, than expensive.

Be sure that religion cannot be right that a man is the worse for having.

Between a Man and his Wife nothing ought to rule but Love. Believe nothing against another but on good authority; and never report what may hurt another, unless it be a greater hurt to some other to conceal it.

But make not more business necessary than is so; and rather lessen than augment work for thyself.

By liberty of conscience, we understand not only a mere liberty of the mind, in believing or disbelieving this or that principle or doctrine; but the exercise of ourselves in a visible way of worship, upon our believing it to be indispensably required at our hands, that if we neglect it for fear of favor of any mortal man, we sin and incur divine wrath.

Charity is ... a universal remedy against discord, and an holy cement for mankind.

Choose a friend as thou dost a wife, till death separate you.

Choose thy clothes by thine own eyes, not another's.

Clear therefore thy head, and rally, and manage thy thoughts rightly, and thou wilt save time, and see and do thy business well; for thy judgment will be distinct, thy mind free, and the faculties strong and regular.

Covetousness is the greatest of monsters, as well as the root of all evil.

Cunning to wise, is as an Ape to a Man.

Death cannot kill that which does not die.

Death is but crossing the world, as friends do the seas; they live in one another still. For they must needs be present, that love and live in that which is omnipresent. In this divine glass, they see face to face; and their converse is free as well as pure. This is the comfort of friends, that though they may be said to die, yet their friendship and society are, in the best sense, ever present, because immortal.

Death then, being the way and condition of life, we cannot love to live if we cannot bear to die.

Did we believe a final Reckoning and Judgment; or did we think enough of what we do believe, we would allow more Love in Religion than we do; since Religion it self is nothing else but Love to God and Man. Love is indeed Heaven upon Earth; since Heaven above would not be Heaven without it: For where there is not Love; there is Fear: But perfect Love casts out Fear. Love is above all; and when it prevails in us all, we shall all be Lovely, and in Love with God and one with another.