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William Penn (1644 – 1718)


Quaker who founded the Province of Pennsylvania, the British North American colony that became the U S state of Pennsylvania.
William Penn
Children had rather be making of Tools and Instruments of Play; Shaping, Drawing, Framing, and Building, &c. than getting some Rules of Propriety of Speech by Heart: And those also would follow with more Judgment, and less Trouble and Time. (8)
Penn quotes
Truth often suffers more by the heat of its defenders than from the arguments of its opposers.
Penn
You are now fixed at the mercy of no governor that comes to make his fortune great; you shall be governed by laws of your own making and live a free, and if you will, a sober and industrious life. I shall not usurp the right of any, or oppress his person. God has furnished me with a better resolution and has given me his grace to keep it.




Penn William quotes
They that love beyond the world cannot be separated by it. Death is but crossing the world, as friends do the seas; they live in one another still.
Penn William
Any government is free to the people under it where the laws rule and the people are a party to the laws.
William Penn quotes
It were better to be of no Church, than to be bitter for any.(535)
William Penn
It was the only treaty made by the settlers with the Indians that was never sworn to, and the only one that was never broken.
Penn William quotes
William Penn was the first great hero of American liberty. During the late seventeenth century, when Protestants persecuted Catholics, Catholics persecuted Protestants, and both persecuted Quakers and Jews, Penn established an American sanctuary which protected freedom of conscience.
Penn
Government seems to me to be a part of religion itself— a thing sacred in its institutions and ends.
Penn William
Love is indeed Heaven upon Earth; since Heaven above would not be Heaven without it: For where there is not Love; there is Fear: But perfect Love casts out Fear. And yet we naturally fear most to offend what we most Love. What we Love, we'll Hear; what we Love, we'll Trust; and what we Love, we'll serve, ay, and suffer for too. If you love me (says our Blessed Redeemer) keep my Commandments. Why? Why then he'll Love us; then we shall be his Friends; then he'll send us the Comforter; then whatsover we ask, we shall receive; and then where he is we shall be also, and that for ever. Behold the Fruits of Love; the Power, Vertue, Benefit and Beauty of Love! Love is above all; and when it prevails in us all, we shall all be Lovely, and in Love with God and one with another. (554-556)
William Penn
All men have a natural and indefeasible right to worship Almighty God according to the dictates of their own consciences; no man can of right be compelled to attend, erect, or support any place of worship, or to maintain any ministry against his consent; no human authority can, in any case whatever, control or interfere with the rights of conscience, and no preference shall ever be given by law to any religious establishment or modes of worship.




William Penn quotes
No men, nor number of men upon earth, hath power or authority to rule over men's consciences in religious matters.
William Penn
It is a severe Rebuke upon us, that God makes us so many Allowances, and we make so few to our Neighbor: As if Charity had nothing to do with Religion; Or Love with Faith, that ought to work by it. (549)
Penn quotes
Knowledge is the treasure, but judgment the treasurer of a wise man.
Penn William
Whereas the glory of Almighty God and the good of mankind is the reason and end of government, therefore, government in itself is a venerable ordinance of God.
Penn William quotes
They have a Right to censure, that have a Heart to help: The rest is Cruelty, not Justice. (46)
William Penn
Less judgment than wit is more sail than ballast.
William Penn quotes
Liberty without obedience is confusion, and obedience without liberty is slavery.
William Penn
Much reading is an oppression of the mind, and extinguishes the natural candle, which is the reason of so many senseless scholars in the world.
Penn William
William Penn might, with reason, boast of having brought down upon earth the Golden Age, which in all probability, never had any real existence but in his dominions.


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