Top 200 William Penn Quotes (2025 Update)

1. “Time is what we want most, but what we use worst.”

— William Penn

Featured in: Time Quotes, Life Is Short Quotes

2. “Right is right, even if everyone is against it, and wrong is wrong, even if everyone is for it.”

— William Penn

Featured in: Integrity Quotes, Quotes for Better Decisions, Justice Quotes, Quotes About War, Principles And Laws

3. “No pain, no palm; no thorns, no throne; no gall, no glory; no cross, no crown.”

— William Penn

Featured in: Life is Hard Quotes, Suffering Quotes, Sacrifice Quotes

4. “I expect to pass through life but once. If therefore, there be any kindness I can show, or any good thing I can do to any fellow being, let me do it now, and not defer or neglect it, as I shall not pass this way again.”

— William Penn

5. “Knowledge is the treasure of a wise man.”

— William Penn

Featured in: Wise Quotes

6. “The secret of happiness is to count your blessings while others are adding up their troubles.”

— William Penn

7. “I shall pass through life but once. Let me show kindness now, as I shall not pass this way again.”

— William Penn

8. “The truest end of life is to know the life that never ends.”

— William Penn

9. “Patience and Diligence, like faith, remove mountains.”

— William Penn

10. “Men must be governed by God or they will be ruled by tyrants.”

— William Penn

11. “Let us see what love can do.”

— William Penn

12. “The adventure of the Christian life begins when we dare to do what we would never tackle without Christ.”

— William Penn

Featured in: Adventure Quotes

13. “True silence is the rest of the mind, and is to the spirit what sleep is to the body, nourishment and refreshment.”

— William Penn

14. “Silence is Wisdom where Speaking is Folly.”

— William Penn

15. “No man is fit to command another that cannot command himself.”

— William Penn

16. “In the rush and noise of life, as you have intervals, step home within yourselves and be still. Wait upon God, and feel His good presence; this will carry you evenly through your day’s business.”

— William Penn

17. “Humility and knowledge in poor clothes excel pride and ignorance in costly attire.”

— William Penn

18. “In all debates, let truth be thy aim, not victory, or an unjust interest.”

— William Penn

19. “Inquiry is human; blind obedience brutal. Truth never loses by the one but often suffers by the other.”

— William Penn

20. “The jealous are troublesome to others, but a torment to themselves.”

— William Penn

21. “Next to God, thy parents.”

— William Penn

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

— William Penn

23. “Death cannot kill what never dies.”

— William Penn

24. “For death is no more than a turning of us over from time to eternity.”

— William Penn

25. “Rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God.”

— William Penn

26. “We need to stop arguing about Christ and start living like Christ.”

— William Penn

27. “A true friend freely, advises justly, assists readily, adventures boldly, takes all patiently, defends courageously, and continues a friend unchangeably.”

— William Penn

28. “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.”

— William Penn

29. “The best recreation is to do good.”

— William Penn

30. “Speak properly, and in as few words as you can, but always plainly; for the end of speech is not ostentation, but to be understood.”

— William Penn

31. “Death is but crossing the world, as friends do the seas; they live in one another still.”

— William Penn

32. “People are more afraid of the laws of Man than of God, because their punishment seems to be nearest.”

— William Penn

33. “There can be no friendship where there is no freedom. Friendship loves a free air, and will not be fenced up in straight and narrow enclosures.”

— William Penn

34. “If thou thinkest twice before thou speakest once, thou wilt speak twice the better for it.”

— William Penn

35. “Only trust thyself, and another shall not betray thee.”

— William Penn

36. “The way, like the cross, is spiritual: that is an inward submission of the soul to the will of God, as it is manifested by the light of Christ in the consciences of men, though it be contrary to their own inclinations.”

— William Penn

37. “O Lord, help me not to despise or oppose what I do not understand.”

— William Penn

38. “It is wise not to seek a secret, and honest not to reveal one.”

— William Penn

39. “It is the difference betwixt lust and love that this is fixed, that volatile. Love grows, lust wastes by enjoyment.”

— William Penn

40. “A man, like a watch, is to be valued for his manner of going.”

— William Penn

41. “Where thou art Obliged to speak, be sure speak the Truth: For Equivocation is half way to Lying, as Lying, the whole way to Hell.”

— William Penn

42. “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.”

— William Penn

43. “Avoid flatterers, for they are thieves in disguise.”

— William Penn

44. “Peace can only be secured by justice; never by force of arms.”

— William Penn

45. “He that does good for good’s sake seeks neither paradise nor reward, but he is sure of both in the end.”

— William Penn

46. “Oppression makes a poor country.”

— William Penn

Featured in: Country Quotes

47. “It is safer to learn than teach; and who conceals his opinion has nothing to answer for.”

— William Penn

48. “Nothing shows our weakness more than to be so sharp-sighted at spying other men’s faults, and so purblind about our own.”

— William Penn

49. “Where judgment has wit to express it, there’s the best orator.”

— William Penn

50. “If men be good, government cannot be bad.”

— William Penn