William Penn

Death then, being the way and condition of life, we cannot love to live if we cannot bear to die.

No man is fit to command another that cannot command himself.

Friendship . . . is an Union of Spirits, a Marriage of Hearts, and the Bond thereof Vertue.

To be innocent is to be not guilty; but to be virtuous is to overcome our evil inclinations.

Wear none of thine own Chains; but keep free, whilst thou art free.

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.

Life contains but two tragedies. One is not to get your heart’s desire; the other is to get it.

If your compassion does not include yourself, it is incomplete.

You either get tired fighting for peace, or you die.

He was like a cock who thought the sun had risen to hear him crow.

When you’re first figuring yourself out, you care so much about what people think of you.

Necessity is the mother of taking chances.

Youth is wasted on the young.

Men have become the tools of their trade.

Most of the shadows of life are caused by standing in our own sunshine.

The only man I know who behaves sensibly is my tailor; he takes my measurements anew each time he sees me. The rest go on with their old measurements and expect me to fit them.

Work with some men is as besetting a sin as idleness.

I cannot forgive a scholar his homeless despondency.

I think that there is nothing, not even crime, more opposed to poetry, to philosophy, ay, to life itself than this incessant business.

The ship of heaven guides itself and will not accept a wooden rudder.

He who praises everybody, praises nobody.