William Penn

It were endless to dispute upon everything that is disputable.

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

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

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.

Where God does not govern, tyrants will rule.

The truest end of life is to know that life never ends.

Guard well your spare moments. They are like uncut diamonds. Discard them and their value will never be known. Improve them and they will become the brightest gems in a useful life.

I had rather believe all the Fables in the Legend, and the Talmud, and the Alcoran, than that this universal frame is without a Mind.

There is no thought in any mind, but it quickly tends to convert itself into power.

See, I think you live on earth a certain number of times until you finish what it is that you were meant to do here. And then you go on. I don’t think I’ll be back here. I think I’m done.

As the physically weak man can make himself strong by careful and patient training, so the man of weak thoughts can make them strong by exercising himself in right thinking.

The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable man persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man.

Society is infested by persons who, seeing that the sentiments please, counterfeit the expression of them. These we call sentimentalists – talkers who mistake the description for the thing, saying for having.

Be true to your work, your word, and your friend.

You teach your daughters the diameters of the planets and wonder when you are done that they do not delight in your company.

A physician’s physiology has much the same relation to his power of healing as a cleric’s divinity has to his power of influencing conduct.

Wherever a man goes, men will pursue him and paw him with their dirty institutions, and, if they can, constrain him to belong to their desperate odd-fellow society.

There is no such thing as public opinion. There is only published opinion.

He that has given today may, if he so please, take away tomorrow.

I cannot tell you any spiritual truth that you don’t know already. All I can do is remind you of what you have forgotten.

Gambling promises the poor what property performs for the rich, something for nothing.