William Penn

William Penn

18 quotes

English writer and religious thinker William Penn has a gift for language that makes complex ideas feel instantly clear. Beyond his amicable relations and successful treaties with the Lenape native peoples who had resided in present-day Pennsylvania before European colonisation there, William Penn proved equally skilled at capturing ideas in a sentence or two. 23 of William Penn's sharpest quotes live here, spanning themes of Wisdom, Truth, Time, Knowledge, and Trust. A favorite of many readers: "Knowledge is the treasure of a wise man."

“Let the people think they govern and they will be governed.”

— William Penn

Government

All Quotes by William Penn

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

— William Penn

Death

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

— William Penn

Time

“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.”

— William Penn

Truth

“Let the people think they govern and they will be governed.”

— William Penn

Government

“Some are so very studious of learning what was done by the ancients that they know not how to live with the moderns.”

— William Penn

Learning

“The tallest Trees are most in the Power of the Winds, and Ambitious Men of the Blasts of Fortune.”

— William Penn

Power

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

— William Penn

Friendship

“He who is taught to live upon little owes more to his father's wisdom than he who has a great deal left him does to his father's care.”

— William Penn

Wisdom

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

— William Penn

Trust

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

— William Penn

Health

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

— William Penn

Knowledge

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

— William Penn

Faith

“In marriage do thou be wise: prefer the person before money, virtue before beauty, the mind before the body then thou hast a wife, a friend, a companion, a second self.”

— William Penn

Beauty

“Knowledge is the treasure of a wise man.”

— William Penn

Knowledge

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

— William Penn

God

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

— William Penn

Jealousy

“Rarely promise, but, if lawful, constantly perform.”

— William Penn

Wisdom

“Truth often suffers more by the heat of its defenders than the arguments of its opposers.”

— William Penn

Truth