Frame of Government (1682)
Context: Governments, like clocks, go from the motion men give them; and as governments are made and moved by men, so by them they are ruined too. Wherefore governments rather depend upon men, than men upon governments. Let men be good, and the government cannot be bad; if it be ill, they will cure it. But, if men be bad, let the government be never so good, they will endeavor to warp and spoil it to their turn.
William Penn: Quotes about men
William Penn was English real estate entrepreneur, philosopher, early Quaker and founder of the Province of Pennsylvania. Explore interesting quotes on men.
Pennsylvania Constitution (1776), Declaration of Rights http://www.pahouse.com/pa_const.htm; this may be based upon principles stated by Penn, but earlier renditions in this form have not been located.
Disputed
Context: 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.
“Men must be governed by God or they will be ruled by tyrants.”
This has been quoted as Penn's in various forms since at least 1943 (Fulton J. Sheen, Philosophies at War, p. 154). James H Billington of the Library of Congress wrote (Respectfully Quoted: A Dictionary of Quotations, 2010, p. 145) "Numerous sources cite this remark but it has not been found in Penn's writings." Other variants include:
Unless we are governed by God, we shall be ruled by tyrants. (1949 speech by Norman Vincent Peale)
If men do not find God to rule them, they will be ruled by tyrants. (Roy Masters, How to Conquer Suffering Without Doctors, 1976, p. 50)
... those who will not be governed by God will be ruled by tyrants. (David Barton, The Myth of Separation, 1992, p. 89
Misattributed
Sometimes attributed to Penn, this is actually from a document Concessions and Agreements of West New Jersey http://www.lonang.com/exlibris/organic/1677-cnj.htm (13 March 1677)
Misattributed
First Frame of Government (25 April 1682).
Frame of Government (1682)
542 - 547
Fruits of Solitude (1682), Part I
“Men are generally more careful of the breed of their horses and dogs than of their children.”
85
Fruits of Solitude (1682), Part I
376 - 379
Fruits of Solitude (1682), Part I