William Penn

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

It is admirable to consider how many Millions of People come into, and go out of the World, Ignorant of themselves, and of the World they have lived in.

Where Example keeps pace with Authority, Power hardly fails to be obey’d.

If thou rise with an Appetite, thou art sure never to sit down without one.

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.

To be like Christ is to be a Christian.

The foolish are like ripples on water, For whatsoever they do is quickly effaced; But the righteous are like carvings upon stone, For their smallest act is durable.

It is no great art to say something briefly when, like Tacitus, one has something to say; when one has nothing to say, however, and none the less writes a whole book and makes truth into a liar – that I call an achievement.

I would advise you Sir, to study algebra, if you are not already an adept in it: your head would be less muddy, and you will leave off tormenting your neighbors about paper and packthread, while we all live together in a world that is bursting with sin and sorrow.

When I was a boy of 14, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be 21, I was astonished at how much the old man had learned in seven years.

This is the comfort of the godly: the grave cannot hold them, and they live as soon as they die. For death is no more than turning us over from time to eternity.

Crime and punishment grow out of one stem. Punishment is a fruit that, unsuspected, ripens with the flower of the pleasure that concealed it.

Be not the slave of your own past – plunge into the sublime seas, dive deep, and swim far, so you shall come back with new self-respect, with new power, and with an advanced experience that shall explain and overlook the old.

It will never rain roses: when we want to have more roses we must plant more trees.

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

I can live for two months on a good compliment.

I never think at all when I write. Nobody can do two things at the same time and do them both well.

Your manuscript is both good and original; but the parts that are good are not original, and the parts that are original are not good.

Property is an intellectual production. The game requires coolness, right reasoning, promptness, and patience in the players.

Nothing in life is to be feared. It is only to be understood.

As long as I can conceive something better than myself I cannot be easy unless I am striving to bring it into existence or clearing the way for it.