Top 200 William Penn Quotes (2025 Update)
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151. “For we put the power in the people.”

— William Penn

152. “Love labor: for if thou dost not want it for food, thou mayest for physic. It is wholesome for thy body and good for thy mind.”

— William Penn

153. “It would be far better to be of no church than to be bitter of any.”

— William Penn

154. “Wit gives an edge to sense, and recommends it extremely.”

— William Penn

155. “If we are but sure the end is right, we are too apt to gallop over all bounds to compass it; not considering the lawful ends may be very unlawfully attained.”

— William Penn

156. “For as men in battle are continually in the way of shot, so we, in this world, are ever within the reach of Temptation.”

— William Penn

157. “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.”

— William Penn

158. “Be sure that religion cannot be right that a man is the worse for having.”

— William Penn

159. “False-dealing travels a short road, and surely detected.”

— William Penn

160. “Never chide with anger, but instruction.”

— William Penn

161. “No religion is better than an unnatural one.”

— William Penn

162. “We have a call to do good, as often as we have the power and occasion.”

— William Penn

163. “To hazard much to get much has more of avarice than wisdom.”

— William Penn

164. “Hasty resolutions are of the nature of vows, and to be equally avoided.”

— William Penn

165. “What man in his right mind would conspire his own hurt? Men are beside themselves when they transgress against their convictions.”

— William Penn

166. “Anything less than full justice is cruelty.”

— William Penn

167. “Content not thyself that thou art virtuous in the general; for one link being wanting, the chain is defective.”

— William Penn

168. “Every stroke our fury strikes is sure to hit ourselves at last.”

— William Penn

169. “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.”

— William Penn

170. “The usefulest truths are the plainest.”

— William Penn

171. “Let us try what love will do.”

— William Penn

172. “Interest has the security, though not the virtue of a principle. As the world goes, it is the surest side; for men daily leave both relations and religion to follow it.”

— William Penn

173. “The Remedy often proves worse than the Disease.”

— William Penn

174. “The Country is both the Philosopher’s Garden and his Library, in which he Reads and Contemplates the Power, Wisdom and Goodness of God.”

— William Penn

175. “Be rather bountiful, than expensive.”

— William Penn

176. “Always remember to bound thy thoughts to the present occasion.”

— William Penn

177. “The receipts of cookery are swelled to a volume; but a good stomach excels them all.”

— William Penn

178. “A man in business must put up many affronts if he loves his own quiet.”

— William Penn

179. “We are too apt to love praise, but not to deserve it.”

— William Penn

180. “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.”

— William Penn

181. “He that lives to forever, never fears dying.”

— William Penn

182. “Drunkenness, spoils health, dismounts the mind, and unmans the man.”

— William Penn

183. “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.”

— William Penn

184. “Were the superfluities of a nation valued, and made a perpetual tax or benevolence, there would be more alms-houses than poor, schools than scholars, and enough to spare for government besides.”

— William Penn

185. “Government seems to me to be a part of religion itself – a thing sacred in its institutions and ends.”

— William Penn

186. “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.”

— William Penn

187. “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.”

— William Penn

188. “It is a cruel folly to offer up to ostentation so many lives of creatures, as to make up the state of our treats.”

— William Penn

189. “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.”

— William Penn

190. “Though our Savior’s passion is over, his compassion is not.”

— William Penn

191. “Experience is a safe guide.”

— William Penn

192. “They that censure, should practice. Or else let them have the first stone, and the last too.”

— William Penn

193. “We are too careless of posterity; not considering that as they are, so the next generation will be.”

— William Penn

194. “If a civil word or two will render a man happy, he must be a wretch indeed who will not tell them to him.”

— William Penn

195. “We are apt to love praise, but not deserve it. But if we would deserve it, we must love virtue more than that.”

— William Penn

196. “Men not living to what they know, cannot blame God, that they know no more.”

— William Penn

197. “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?”

— William Penn

198. “Tis admirable to consider, how Powerful the Kings are, yet they move by the Breath of their People.”

— William Penn

199. “We are apt to be very pert at censuring others, where we will not endure advice.”

— William Penn

200. “If thou wouldn’t conquer thy weakness thou must not gratify it.”

— William Penn