William Penn. (1644–1718). Fruits of Solitude.
The Harvard Classics. 1909–14. |
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| Part I |
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| Temporal Happiness |
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| 237. Do Good with what thou hast, or it will do thee no good. | 1 |
| 238. Seek not to be Rich, but Happy. The one lies in Bags, the other in Content: which Wealth can never give. | 2 |
| 239. We are apt to call things by wrong Names. We will have Prosperity to be Happiness, and Adversity to be Misery; though that is the School of Wisdom, and oftentimes the way to Eternal Happiness. | 3 |
| 240. If thou wouldest be Happy, bring thy Mind to thy Condition, and have an Indifferency for more than what is sufficient. | 4 |
| 241. Have but little to do, and do it thy self: And do to others as thou wouldest have them do to thee: So, thou canst not fail of Temporal Felicity. | 5 |
| 242. The generality are the worse for their Plenty: The Voluptuous consumes it, the Miser hides it: ’T is the good Man that uses it, and to good Purposes. But such are hardly found among the Prosperous. | 6 |
| 243. Be rather Bountiful, than Expensive. | 7 |
| 244. Neither make nor go to Feasts, but let the laborious Poor bless thee at Home in their Solitary Cottages. | 8 |
| 245. Never voluntarily want what thou hast in Possession; nor so spend it as to involve thyself in want unavoidable. | 9 |
| 246. Be not tempted to presume by Success: For many that have got largely, have lost all, by coveting to get more. | 10 |
| 247. To hazard much to get much, has more of Avarice than Wisdom. | 11 |
| 248. It is great Prudence both to Bound and Use Prosperity. | 12 |
| 249. Too few know when they have Enough; and fewer know how to employ it. | 13 |
| 250. It is equally adviseable not to part lightly with what is hardly gotten, and not to shut up closely what flows in freely. | 14 |
| 251. Act not the Shark upon thy Neighbors; nor take Advantage of the Ignorance, Prodigality or Necessity of any one: For that is next door to Fraud, and, at best, makes but an Unblest Gain. | 15 |
| 252. It is oftentimes the Judgment of God upon Greedy Rich Men, that he suffers them to push on their Desires of Wealth to the Excess of over-reaching, grinding or oppression, which poisons all the rest they have gotten: So that it commonly runs away as fast, and by as bad ways as it was heap’d up together. | 16 |
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