Sense shines with a double luster when it is set in humility. An able yet humble man is a jewel worth a kingdom.
William PennRead
God is better served in resisting a temptation to evil than in many formal prayers.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Resisting evil is more meaningful than simply praying about it.
William Penn highlights the importance of action over ritualistic behavior. He suggests that when individuals choose to resist temptation and act morally, they are serving a higher purpose more effectively than by merely performing prayers or religious rites without true commitment to virtue.
Themes
TemptationEvilPrayerActionMoralityVirtue
In practice
Example use cases
During a discussion on ethical decision-making, one could quote this to emphasize the importance of personal integrity.
More from William Penn
All quotes βWhere thou art Obliged to speak, be sure speak the Truth: For Equivocation is half way to Lying, as Lying, the whole way to Hell.
William PennRead
Man, being made reasonable, and so a thinking creature, there is nothing more worthy of his being than the right direction and employment of his thoughts; since upon this depends both his usefulness to the public, and his own present and future benefit in all respects.
William PennRead
Do good with what thou hast, or it will do thee no good.
William PennRead
To be a man's own fool is bad enough, but the vain man is everybody's.
William PennRead
Unless virtue guide us our choice must be wrong.
William PennRead
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It receives you when you come and dismisses you when you go.
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To be commanded to love God at all, let alone in the wilderness, is like being commanded to be well when we are sick, to sing for joy when we are dying of thirst, to run when our legs are broken. But this is the first and great commandment nonetheless. Even in the wilderness - especially in the wilderness - you shall love him.
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Salvation for a race, nation or class must come from within. Freedom is never granted; it is won. Justice is never given; it is exacted.
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The State, on the other hand, both in its genesis and by its primary intention, is purely anti-social. It is not based on the idea of natural rights, but on the idea that the individual has no rights except those that the State may provisionally grant him. It has always made justice costly and difficult of access, and has invariably held itself above justice and common morality whenever it could advantage itself by so doing.
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