William Penn

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.

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.

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

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

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.

Some men do as much begrudge others a good name, as they want one themselves: and perhaps that is the reason of it.

Man has imagined a heaven, and has left entirely out of it the supremest of all his delights…sexual intercourse!…His heaven is like himself: strange, interesting, astonishing, grotesque. I give you my word, it has not a single feature in it that he actually values.

I don’t like needing anyone for anything.

In eternity there is indeed something true and sublime. But all these times and places and occasions are now and here. God himself culminates in the present moment and will never be more divine in the lapse of the ages. Time is but a stream I go a-fishing in. I drink at it, but when I drink I see the sandy bottom and detect how shallow it is. Its thin current slides away but eternity remains.

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

All mankind love a lover.

The first thing a great person does, is make us realize the insignificance of circumstance.

Patience – the gift of being able to see past the emotion.

He who waits to do a great deal of good at once, will never do anything.

A strenuous soul hates cheap success.

I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.

If you have nothing to say, say nothing.

Any 20 year-old who isn’t a liberal doesn’t have a heart, and any 40 year-old who isn’t a conservative doesn’t have a brain.

It is a mistake to look too far ahead. Only one link in the chain of destiny can be handled at a time.

There isn’t a single human characteristic that can be safely labeled as American.

The thought of two thousand people crunching celery at the same time horrified me.