Sense shines with a double luster when it is set in humility. An able yet humble man is a jewel worth a kingdom.
Peace can only be secured by justice; never by force of arms.
Interpretation
What this quote means
True peace can only be achieved through fairness and justice, rather than through violence or military power.
William Penn's quote emphasizes the fundamental idea that lasting peace is rooted in justice. Using force or military might may temporarily suppress conflict, but it does not create genuine harmony among people. Instead, when justice is established and upheld, it paves the way for a deeper and more sustainable peace that resonates within society. This perspective suggests that moral and ethical considerations should guide our actions towards resolving disputes and fostering understanding, rather than relying on aggression as a means to achieve security.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
This quote could be used in a speech about conflict resolution.
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.
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.
Do good with what thou hast, or it will do thee no good.
To be a man's own fool is bad enough, but the vain man is everybody's.
Unless virtue guide us our choice must be wrong.
Similar quotes
Opinions, like showers, are generated in high places, but they invariably descend into lower ones, and ultimately flow down to the people as rain unto the sea.
Memory is often less about the truth than about what we want it to be.
An honest man can feel no pleasure in the exercise of power over his fellow citizens . . . There has never been a moment of my life in which I should have relinquished for it the enjoyments of my family, my farm, my friends and books.
I hate extremes of any kind. Communism [seeks] the domination of the state over the individual... All my life I have stood against banning Communism or other extremist organisations because, if you do that, they go underground and it gives them an excitement that they don't get if they are allowed to pursue their policies openly. We'll beat them into the ground on argument...
It was my view then, and still is, that you don't make war without knowing why. Knowledge of course, is always imperfect, but it seemed to me that when a nation goes to war it must have reasonable confidence in the justice and imperative of its cause. You can't fix your mistakes. Once people are dead, you can't make them undead.
Christianity, whatever else it is, is an explosion. Unless it is sensational there is simply no sense in it. Unless the Gospel sounds like a gun going off it has not been uttered at all.