William Penn (1644 – 1718)
Quaker who founded the Province of Pennsylvania, the British North American colony that became the U S state of Pennsylvania.
Friendship is the next Pleasure we may hope for: And where we find it not at home, or have no home to find it in, we may seek it abroad. It is an Union of Spirits, a Marriage of Hearts, and the Bond thereof Vertue.
True religion does not draw men out of the world but enables them to live better in it and excites their endeavors to mend it.
It were Happy if we studied Nature more in natural Things; and acted according to Nature; whose rules are few, plain and most reasonable. (9)
Reader, - This Enchiridion, I present thee with, is the Fruit of Solitude: A School few care to learn in, tho' None Instructs us better. Some Parts of it are the Result of serious Reflection: Others the Flashings of Lucid Intervals: Writ for private Satisfaction, and now publish'd for an Help to Human Conduct.
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)
Truth often suffers more by the heat of its defenders than from the arguments of its opposers.
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.
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.