Welcome to our collection of quotes (with shareable picture quotes) by William Penn. We hope you enjoy pondering them and that you will share them widely.
Wikipedia Summary for William Penn
William Penn (14 October 1644 – 30 July 1718) was an English writer and religious thinker belonging to the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), and founder of the Province of Pennsylvania, a North American colony of England. He was an early advocate of democracy and religious freedom, notable for his good relations and successful treaties with the Lenape Native Americans. Under his direction, the city of Philadelphia was planned and developed. Philadelphia was planned out to be grid-like with its streets and be very easy to navigate, unlike London where Penn was from. The streets are named with numbers and tree names. He chose to use the names of trees for the cross streets because Pennsylvania means "Penn's Woods".
In 1681, King Charles II handed over a large piece of his North American land holdings along the North Atlantic Ocean coast to Penn to pay the debts the king had owed to Penn's father, the admiral and politician Sir William Penn. This land included the present-day states of Pennsylvania and Delaware. Penn immediately set sail and took his first step on American soil, sailing up the Delaware Bay and Delaware River, (past earlier Swedish and Dutch riverfront colonies) in New Castle (now in Delaware) in 1682. On this occasion, the colonists pledged allegiance to Penn as their new proprietor, and the first Pennsylvania General Assembly was held. Afterward, Penn journeyed further north up the Delaware River and founded Philadelphia, on the west bank. However, Penn's Quaker government was not viewed favorably by the previous Dutch, Swedish colonists, and also earlier English settlers in what is now Delaware, but claimed for half a century by the neighboring Province of Maryland's proprietor family, the Calverts and Lord Baltimore.
These earlier colonists had no historical allegiance to a "Pennsylvania", so they almost immediately began petitioning for their own representative assembly. 23 years later in 1704, they achieved their goal when the three southernmost counties of provincial Pennsylvania along the western coast of the Delaware, were permitted to split off and become the new semi-autonomous colony of Lower Delaware. As the most prominent, prosperous and influential settlement in the new colony, New Castle, the original Swedish colony town became the capital.
As one of the earlier supporters of colonial unification, Penn wrote and urged for a union of all the English colonies in what was to become the United States of America. The democratic principles that he set forth in the Pennsylvania Frame of Government served as an inspiration for the members of the convention framing the new Constitution of the United States in Philadelphia in 1787.
As a pacifist Quaker, Penn considered the problems of war and peace deeply. He developed a forward-looking project and thoughts for a "United States of Europe" through the creation of a European Assembly made of deputies who could discuss and adjudicate controversies peacefully. He is therefore considered the first thinker to suggest the creation of a European Parliament and what would become the modern European Union in the late 20th century.
A man of deep religious convictions, Penn wrote numerous works in which he exhorted believers to adhere to the spirit of Primitive Christianity. He was imprisoned several times in the Tower of London due to his faith, and his book No Cross, No Crown (1669), which he wrote while in prison, has become a Christian classic of theological literature.
True silence is the rest of the mind; it is to the spirit what sleep is to the body, nourishment and refreshment.
Any good therefore that I can do, or any kindness that I can show to any fellow creature, let me do it now. Let me not defer or neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again.
A reasonable opinion must ever be in danger where reason is not judge.
If there is any kindness I can show, or any good thing I can do to any fellow being, let me do it now, and not deter or neglect it, as I shall not pass this way again.
Believe nothing against another, but upon good authority; nor report what may hurt another, unless it be a greater hurt to others to conceal it.
A private Life is to be preferred; the Honor and Gain of public Posts, bearing no proportion with the Comfort of it.
Knowledge is the treasure, but judgment is the treasurer of a wise man.
Friendship is the union of spirits, a marriage of hearts, and the bond thereof virtue.
Method goes far to prevent trouble in business: for it makes the task easy, hinders confusion, saves abundance of time, and instructs those that have business depending, both what to do and what to hope.
Nothing does reason more right, than the coolness of those that offer it: For Truth often suffers more by the heat of its defenders, than from the arguments of its opposers.
A vain man is a nauseous creature: he is so full of himself that he has no room for anything else, be it never so good or deserving.
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.
It would go a long way to caution and direct people in their use of the world that they would better studied and known in the creation of it. For how could man find the confidence to abuse it, while they should see the Great Creator stare them in the face, in all and every part thereof?
Let us then try what Love will do: For if Men do once see we love them, we should soon find they would not harm us.
It is admirable to consider how many millions of people come into, and go out of the world, ignorant of themselves and of the world they have lived in.
It is a cruel folly to offer up to ostentation so many lives of creatures, as to make up the state of our treats.
Some men do as much begrudge others a good name, as they want one themselves: and perhaps that is the reason of it.
Nor must we always be neutral where our neighbors are concerned: for tho' meddling is a fault, helping is a duty.
A wise neuter joins with neither, but uses both as his honest interest leads him.
We are too careless of posterity; not considering that as they are, so the next generation will be.
A private Life is to be preferrd; the Honour and Gain of publick Posts, bearing no proportion with the Comfort of it.
Wherefore, brethren, let us be careful neither to out-go our guide, nor yet loiter behind him; since he that makes haste, may miss his way, and he that stays behind, lose his guide.
Men not living to what they know, cannot blame God, that they know no more.
They that censure, should practice. Or else let them have the first stone, and the last too.
The smaller the drink, the clearer the head, and the cooler the blood.
Content not thyself that thou art virtuous in the general; for one link being wanting, the chain is defective.
Is it reasonable to take it ill, that anybody desires of us that which is their own? All we have is the Almighty's; and shall not God have his own when he calls for it?
It is the amends of a short and troublesome life, that doing good and suffering ill entitles man to a longer and better.
Disappointments that aren't a result of our own foolishness are a testing of our faith or a correction from heaven, and it is our own fault if these disappointments don't work for our own good.
For disappointments, that come not by our own folly, they are the trials or corrections of Heaven: and it is our own fault, if they prove not our advantage.
Covetousness is the greatest of monsters, as well as the root of all evil.
Children, Fear God; that is to say, have an holy awe upon your minds to avoid that which is evil, and a strict care to embrace and do that which is good.
That plenty should produce either covetousness or prodigality is a perversion of providence; and yet the generality of men are the worse for their riches.
Tis the glory of a man to vail to truth; as it is the mark of a good nature to be easily entreated.
Not to be provok'd is best: But if mov'd, never correct till the fume is spent; for every stroke our fury strikes, is sure to hit our selves at last.
Inquiry is human; blind obedience brutal. Truth never loses by the one but often suffers by the other.
Five things are requisite to a good officer -- ability, clean hands, despatch, patience, and impartiality.
We are inclined to call things by the wrong names. We call prosperity 'happiness', and adversity 'misery' eventhough adversity is the school of wisdom and often the way to eternal happiness.
What man in his right mind would conspire his own hurt? Men are beside themselves when they transgress against their convictions.
It is a coal from God's altar must kindle our fire; and without fire, true fire, no acceptable sacrifice.
It is the difference betwixt lust and love that this is fixed, that volatile. Love grows, lust wastes by enjoyment.
He that has more Knowledge than Judgment, is made for another Man's use more than his own.
The wisdom of nations lies in their proverbs, which are brief and pithy.
Longer Version:
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.
Death is but crossing the world, as friends do the seas; they live in one another still.
Longer Version:
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.
Never give out while there is hope; but hope not beyond reason, for that shows more desire than judgement.
God is better served in resisting a temptation to evil than in many formal prayers.
Excess in apparel is another costly folly. The very trimming of the vain world would clothe all the naked ones.
No people can be truly happy... if abridged of the freedom of their consciences.
Levity of behavior, always a weakness, is far more unbecoming in a woman than a man.
God sends us the poor to try us.... And he that refuses them a little out of the great deal that God has given lays up poverty in store for his own posterity.
We are told truly that meekness and modesty are the rich and charming garments of the soul. The less showy our outward attire is, the more distinctly and brilliantly does the beauty of these inner garments shine.
The humble, meek, merciful, and just are everywhere of one religion; and when death has taken off the mask they will know one another, though the diverse liveries they wear here make them strangers.
Hasty resolutions are of the nature of vows, and to be equally avoided.
Man, being made reasonable, and so a thinking creature, there is nothing more worthy of his being than the right direction and employment of his thoughts; since upon this depends both his usefulness to the public, and his own present and future benefit in all respects.
It is a severe rebuke upon us, that God makes us so many allowances, and we make so few to our neighbour.
If thy debtor be honest and capable, thou hast thy money again, if not with increase, with praise; if he prove insolvent, don't ruin him to get that which it will not ruin thee to lose, for thou art but a steward.
The unspoken word never defeats one. What one does not say does not have to be explained.
The only fountain in the wilderness of life, where man drinks of water totally unmixed with bitterness, is that which gushes for him in the calm and shady recess of domestic life.
She is but half a wife that is not, nor is capable of being, a friend.
Justice is justly represented blind, because she sees no difference in the parties concerned. She has but one scale and weight, for rich and poor, great and small.
The secret of happiness is to count your blessings while others are adding up their troubles.
A jealous man only sees his own spectrum when he looks upon other men, and gives his character in theirs.
Truth often suffers more by the heat of its defenders than the arguments of its opposers.
It were happy if we studied nature more in natural things; and acted according to nature, whose rules are few, plain, and most reasonable.
No pain, no palm; no thorns, no throne; no gall, no glory; no cross, no crown.
They that love beyond the world
cannot be separated by it.
Death cannot kill what never dies.
A true friend unbosoms freely, advises justly, assists readily, adventures boldly, takes all patiently, defends courageously, and continues a friend unchangeably.
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.
We are apt to love praise, but not deserve it. But if we would deserve it, we must love virtue more than that.
Love grows. Lust wastes by Enjoyment, and the Reason is, that one springs from an Union of Souls, and the other from an Union of Sense.
Quotes by William Penn are featured in:
Friendship Quotes
Hope Quotes
Humility Quotes
Simplicity Quotes
War Quotes
Short Love Quotes