William Penn

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.

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

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

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

If there be three distinct and separate Persons, then three distinct and separate Substances. . . . And since the Father is God, the Son is God, and the Spirit is God . . . then unless the Father, Son and Spirit are three distinct Nothings, they must be three distinct Substances, and consequently three distinct Gods.

You are now fixed at the mercy of no governor that comes to make his fortune great; you shall be governed by laws of your own making and live a free, and if you will, a sober and industrious life. I shall not usurp the right of any, or oppress his person. God has furnished me with a better resolution and has given me his grace to keep it.

The education of the will is the object of our existence.

Nothing is more costly, nothing is more sterile, than vengeance.

Conscience is thoroughly well-bred and soon leaves off talking to those who do not wish to hear it.

The reserve of modern assertions is sometimes pushed to extremes, in which the fear of being contradicted leads the writer to strip himself of almost all sense and meaning.

Who you are speaks so loudly I can’t hear what you’re saying.

This world is but a canvas to our imagination.

Tomorrow is an old deceiver, and his cheat never grows stale.

It is possible to be free and loving no matter what your circumstances.

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

There are three wants which never can be satisfied: that of the rich, who wants something more; that of the sick, who wants something different; and that of the traveler, who says, Anywhere but here.

Man is the only animal of which I am thoroughly and cravenly afraid of.

It is your concern when your neighbor’s wall is on fire.

In art, the hand can never execute anything higher than the heart can imagine.

For so many people, TV and movies may be the only way they understand people who aren’t like them. It becomes important for the world to see different images of each other, so that we can develop empathy and understanding.

Winning is not a sometime thing; it’s an all the time thing. You don’t win once in a while… you don’t do things right once in a while… you do them right all the time. Winning is habit.