Best 210 quotes of William Penn on MyQuotes

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.

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 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 good end cannot sanctify evil means; nor must we ever do evil that good may come of it. We are too ready to retaliate, rather than forgive, or gain by love and information. And yet we could hurt no man that we believe loves us. Let us, then, try what love will do: for if men do once see that 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 cannot sanctify evil Means; nor must we ever do Evil, that Good may come of it.

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

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.

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.

Always remember to bound thy thoughts to the present occasion.

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

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

Anything less than full justice is cruelty.

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

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

Avoid flatterers, for they are thieves in disguise.

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

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

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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 what never dies.

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

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

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.

Disappointments that aren't a result of our own foolishness are a testing of our faith or a correction from heaven, and it is our own fault if these disappointments don't work for our own good.

Dislike what deserves it, but never hate: for that is of the nature of malice; which is almost ever to persons, not things, and is one of the blackest qualities sin begets in the soul.

Do good with what thou hast, or it will do thee no good.

Every stroke our fury strikes is sure to hit ourselves at last.

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

Five things are requisite to a good officer — ability, clean hands, despatch, patience, and impartiality.

For as men in battle are continually in the way of shot, so we, in this world, are ever within the reach of Temptation.

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

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

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

Friendship is the union of spirits.

For nothing reaches the heart but what is from the heart, or pierces the conscience but what comes from a living conscience

For though Death be a dark passage, it leads to immortality, and that is recompence enough for suffering of it.

Friendship is the union of spirits, a marriage of hearts, and the bond thereof virtue

Frugality is good if liberality be joined with it. The first is leaving off superfluous expenses; the last is bestowing them to the benefit of others that need. The first without the last begets covetousness; the last without the first begets prodigality.

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