Great Throughts Treasury

"Whoever is right, the persecutor must be wrong."

"Covetousness is the greatest of monsters, as well as the root of all evil."

"Death cannot kill what never dies. Nor can Spirits ever be divided that love and live in the same Divine Principle; the Root and Record of their Friendship. If Absence be not Death, neither is it theirs. Death is but crossing the world, as Friends do the Seas; they live in one another still."

"Drunkenness spoils health, dismounts the mind, and unmans man. It reveals secrets, is quarrelsome, lascivious, impudent, dangerous and mad."

"Fear and Gain are great Perverters of Mankind, and where either prevails the Judgment is violated."

"For Death is no more than a turning of us over from Time to Eternity."

"He that has more knowledge than judgment is made for another man’s use more than his own."

"If it be an evil to judge rashly or untruly any single man, how much a greater sin it is to condemn a whole people."

"It is reasonable to concur where Conscience does not forbid compliance; for Conformity is at least a Civic Virtue... it is a Weakness in Religion and Government where it is carried to Things of an Indifferent Nature, since... Liberty is always the Price of it."

"Love grows, lust wastes by enjoyment, and the reason is, that one springs from a union of souls, and the other from an union of sense."

"Religion is nothing else but love of God and man."

"The Humble, Meek, Merciful, Just, Pious, and Devout Souls, are everywhere of one religion; when Death has taken off the Mask, they will know one another, tho’ the divers Liveries they wear here make them Strangers."

"They that love beyond the world cannot be separated by it. Death cannot kill what never dies. Nor can spirits ever be divided, that love and live in the same divine principle, the root and record of their friendship. If absence be not death, neither is theirs. Death is but crossing the world, as friends do the seas; they live in one another still. For they must needs be present, that love and live in that which is omnipresent. In this divine glass they see face to face; and their converse is free, as well as pure. This is the comfort of friends, that though they may be said to die, yet their friendship and society are, in the best sense, ever present, because immortal. "

"Believe nothing against another but upon good Authority: Nor report what may hurt another, unless it e a greater hurt to others to conceal it."

"Death cannot kill what never dies."

"Force may subdue, but love gains; and he that forgives first, wins the laurel."

"A good End cannot sanctifie evil Means; nor must we ever do Evil, that Good may come of it. Some Folks think they may Scold, Rail, Hate, Rob and Kill too; so it be but for God's sake. But nothing in us unlike him, can please him."

"A jealous man only sees his own spectrum when he looks upon other men, and gives his character in theirs."

"A Man in Business must put up many Affronts, if he loves his own Quiet."

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

"A private Life is to be preferrd; the Honour and Gain of publick Posts, bearing no proportion with the Comfort of it."

"A reasonable opinion must ever be in danger where Reason is not judge."

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

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

"A vain man is a nauseous creature: he is so full of himself that he has no room for anything else, be it never so good or deserving."

"A wise man makes what he learns his own, the other shows he is but a copy or a collection at most."

"A wise neuter joins with neither, but uses both, as his honest interest leads him."

"Again, in presented William Penn quotes of his writings, there is a proof of wisdom and inspiration in his advice to humanity."

"All excess is ill, but drunkenness is of the worst sort. It spoils health, dismounts the mind, and unmans men. It reveals secrets, is quarrelsome, lascivious, impudent, dangerous and mad. In fine, he that is drunk is not a man: because he is so long void of Reason, that distinguishes a Man from a Beast."

"All humble, meek, merciful, just, pious, and devout souls are everywhere of one religion, and when death has taken off the mask, they will know one another, though the divers liveries they wear make them strangers."

"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."

"All we have is the Almighty's, and shall not God have his own when he calls for it?"

"Always rise from the table with an appetite, and you will never sit down without one."

"Any government is free to the people under it where the laws rule and the people are a party to the laws."

"Avoid flatterers, for they are thieves in disguise. Their praise is costly, designing to get by those they bespeak. They are the worst of creatures; they lie to flatter and flatter to cheat, and, which is worse, if you believe them, you cheat yourselves most dangerously."

"As Love ought to bring them together, so it is the best Way to keep them well together."

"Avoid popularity it has many snares and no real benefit."

"Be humble. It becomes a creature, a depending and borrowed being, that lives not of itself, but breathes in another's air with another's breath, and is accountable for every moment of time and can call nothing its own, but is absolutely a tenant at will of the great Lord of heaven and earth."

"Be rather bountiful than expensive; do good with what thou hast, or it will do thee no good."

"Be sure that religion cannot be right that a man is the worse for having."

"Beasts act by sense, man should by reason; else he is a greater beast than ever God made: And the proverb is verified, the corruption of the best things is the worst and most offensive."

"Because no People can be truly happy, though under the greatest Enjoyment of Civil Liberties, if abridged of the Freedom of their Consciences, as to their Religious Profession and Worship: And Almighty God being the only Lord of Conscience, Father of Lights and Spirits; and the Author as well as Object of all divine Knowledge, Faith and Worship, who only doth enlighten the Minds, and persuade and convince the Understandings of People, I do hereby grant and declare, That no Person or Persons, inhabiting in this Province or Territories, who shall confess and acknowledge One almighty God, the Creator, Upholder and Ruler of the World; and profess him or themselves obliged to live quietly under the Civil Government, shall be in any Case molested or prejudiced, in his or their Person or Estate, because of his or their conscientious Persuasion or Practice, nor be compelled to frequent or maintain any religious Worship, Place or Ministry, contrary to his or their Mind, or to do or suffer any other Act or Thing, contrary to their religious Persuasion."

"Between a man and his wife nothing ought to rule but love. Authority is for children and servants, yet not without sweetness."

"But 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; one that bears an equal Share with thee in all thy toils and troubles."

"But tho' God has replenished this world with abundance of good things for man's life and comfort, yet they are all but imperfect goods. He only is the perfect good to whom they point. But alas! Men cannot see him for them; tho' they should always see him in them."

"By Liberty of Conscience, we understand not only a mere Liberty of the Mind ... but the exercise of ourselves in a visible way of worship, upon our believing it to be indispensably required at our hands, that if we neglect it for fear or favor of any mortal man, we sin, and incur divine wrath."

"Charity is ... a universal remedy against discord, and an holy cement for mankind."

"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."

"Children, Fear God; that is to say, have an holy awe upon your minds to avoid that which is evil, and a strict care to embrace and do that which is good."

"Choose a friend as thou dost a wife, 'till Death separate you."