William Penn

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.

Equivocation is half-way to lying, and lying the whole way to hell.

Private men, in fine, are so much their own, that, paying common dues, they are sovereigns of all the rest. Yet the public must and will be served; and they that do it well, deserve public marks of honour and respect. To do so, men must have public minds, as well as salaries; or they will serve private ends at the public cost. Government can never be well administered, but where those intrusted make conscience of well discharging their places.

Have wholesome, but not costly Food, and be rather cleanly than dainty in ordering it.

Excess in Apparel is another costly Folly. The very Trimming of the vain World would cloath all the naked one.

Liberty without obedience is confusion, and obedience without liberty is slavery.

This ain’t fun. But you watch me, I’ll get it done.

I was not a messiah, but an ordinary man who had become a leader because of extraordinary circumstances.

When you do the wrong thing, knowing it is wrong, you do so because you haven’t developed the habit of effectively controlling or neutralizing strong inner urges that tempt you, or because you have established the wrong habit and don’t know how to eliminate them effectively.

The rain comes and what bends will rise. It is a purposeful journey.

A little learning is a dangerous thing, but we must take that risk because a little is as much as our biggest heads can hold.

Hurricanes are named after people, baby, and I hope you know that falling in love with me will be so much more treacherous than boarding up the windows and waiting for me to pass.

It’s not given to people to judge what’s right or wrong. People have eternally been mistaken and will be mistaken, and in nothing more than in what they consider right and wrong.

The pest of society are the egotist, they are dull and bright, sacred and profane, course and fine. It is a disease that like the flu falls on all constitutions.

The characteristic of genuine heroism is its persistency. All men have wandering impulses, fits and starts of generosity. But when you have resolved to be great, abide by yourself, and do not weakly try to reconcile yourself with the world. The heroic cannot be the common, nor the common the heroic.

Certainly virtue is like precious odors, most fragrant when they are incensed, or crushed: for prosperity does best discover vice, but adversity does best discover virtue.

Must be out-of-doors enough to get experience of wholesome reality, as a ballast to thought and sentiment. Health requires this relaxation, this aimless life.

My method is to take the utmost trouble to find the right thing to say, and then to say it with the utmost levity.

Shallow men believe in luck. Strong men believe in cause and effect.

It seems to me we can never give up longing and wishing while we are thoroughly alive. There are certain things we feel to be beautiful and good, and we must hunger after them.

Tis the old secret of the gods that they come in low disguises.