William Penn Quotes

No man is good enough to govern another man without the other's consent.

I'm no one's lap dog, you can't put me on a leash.

I can't imagine people telling me what to do - I just can't imagine it.

If we do not discipline ourselves the world will do it for us.

I can never consent to being dictated to.

Rules are made for people who aren't willing to make up their own.

I've never reacted well to other people telling me what to do.

No people must be forced under a sovereignty under which it does not wish to live.

The principle of "the consent of the governed" is distinctly American and should be our world-wide slogan.

Do not deliver yourself up as a slave to any man.

They are not accustomed to have any Captain, nor do they go in any ordered array, for every one is lord of himself: and the cause of their wars is not for lust of dominion, nor of extending their frontiers, no for inordinate covetousness, but for some ancient enmity which in by-gone times arose amongst them: and when asked why they made war, they knew not any other reason to give than that they did so to avenge the death of their ancestors, or of their parents: these people have neither King, nor Lord, nor do they yield obedience to any one, for they live in their own liberty: and how they be stirred up to go to war is (this) that when the enemies have slain or captured any of them, his oldest kinsman rises up and goes about the highways haranguing them to go with him and avenge the death of such his kinsman: and so are they stirred up by fellow-feeling: they have no judicial system, nor do they punish the ill-doer: nor does the father, nor the mother chastise the children and marvelously (seldom) or never did we see any dispute among them.

I'm not a big fan of people telling each other what to do, I'll say that.

I believe at the heart of any revolution for social justice and human dignity are consent and agency, the unequivocal belief that I own my body - not the state, not the church/mosque/temple, not the street and not the family.

I like to be controlled, but that doesn't mean controlled like a dog.

I don't like people telling me what to do.

I never liked being told what to do, so even in school plays, I never liked being an actor.

I have no interest in being told what to do.

Come, try, give any one of us, for instance, a little more independence, untie our hands, widen the spheres of our activity, relax the control and we...yes, I assure you...we should be begging to be under control again at once.

To a man the greatest blessing is individual liberty; to a dog it is the last word in despair.

Any kind of dictatorship, I'm uneasy. I just don't like dictators. I don't like crowds. I don't like hordes, and I don't like other people telling me what to do. This is probably a reaction against people telling me what to do when I was a kid. I won't join any group, espouse a cause against some other people.

If, before undertaking some action, you must obtain the permission of society-you are not free, whether such permission is granted to you or not. Only a slave acts on permission. A permission is not a right.

This is the difference between slavery and freedom. The slave must do what his superior orders him to do, but the free citizen-and this is what freedom means-is in a position to choose his own way of life.

It is a far greater happiness to obey no one than to rule the whole world.

Whoever has not two-thirds of his time to himself, is a slave.

The best thing you can give someone is the freedom to make their own mind up - and then, if it's not working out 5 years later, you can give your opinion.