William Penn

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.

It were better to be of no church, than to be bitter for any.

Hasty resolutions are of the nature of vows, and to be equally avoided

Never marry but for love; but see that thou lovest what is lovely.

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.

Our best thoughts come from others.

Character building begins in our infancy and continues until death.

There’s nothing you can know that isn’t known.

Money is indeed the most important thing in the world; and all sound and successful personal and national morality should have this fact for its basis.

The method of nature: who could ever analyze it?

There is no despair so absolute as that which comes with the first moments of our first great sorrow, when we have not yet known what it is to have suffered and be healed, to have despaired and have recovered hope.

The most dangerous people are those who have passion but lack wisdom.

Nature is full of genius, full of the divinity; so that not a snowflake escapes its fashioning hand.

Man is God’s highest present development. He is the latest thing in God.

That kind of life is most happy which affords us most opportunities of gaining our own esteem.

God’s first creature, which was light.

A crime persevered in a thousand centuries ceases to be a crime, and becomes a virtue. This is the law of custom, and custom supersedes all other forms of law.

The wisdom of nations lies in their proverbs, which are brief and pithy. Collect and learn them; they are notable measures of directions for human life; you have much in little; they save time in speaking; and upon occasion may be the fullest and safest answer.

Croesus said to Cambyses; That peace was better than war; because in peace the sons did bury their fathers, but in wars the fathers did bury their sons.

The worst sin toward our fellow creatures is not to hate them, but to be indifferent to them: that’s the essence of inhumanity.