| Painting (like poetry) chooses from universals what is most apposite. It brings together, in a single imaginary being, circumstances and characteristics which occur in nature in many different persons. | — Francisco Goya |
| Painting is that pleasant amusement being one of the means whereby we convey ideas to each other. — Essay on the Theory of Painting, 1725 | — Jonathan Richardson |
| Partiality in a parent is unlucky; for fondlings are in danger to be made fools. | — Roger L'Estrange |
| Party-spirit at best is but the madness of many for the gain of a few. | — Alexander Pope |
| Passions, as fire and water, are good servants, but bad masters, and subminister to the best and worst purposes. | — Roger L'Estrange |
| Pastime with good company I love and shall, until I die. Grudge who list, but none deny! So God be pleased, thus live will I. | — Henry VIII |
| Patience and Diligence, like faith, remove mountains. | — William Penn |
| Patience and perseverance have a magical effect before which difficulties disappear and obstacles vanish. | — John Quincy Adams |
| Patience is bitter, but its fruit is sweet. | — Jean-Jacques Rousseau |
| Patiently and with industry did I apply myself to study, for although I felt the impossibility of giving life to my productions, I did not abandon the idea of representing nature. | — John James Audubon |
| Patriotism is as much a virtue as justice, and is as necessary for the support of societies as natural affection is for the support of families.
— letter to His Fellow Countrymen: On Patriotism, October 20, 1773 | — Benjamin Rush |
| Peace and abstinence from European interferences are our objects, and so will continue while the present order of things in America remain uninterrupted. | — Thomas Jefferson |
| Peace and friendship with all mankind is our wisest policy, and I wish we may be permitted to pursue it. | — Thomas Jefferson |
| Peace hath higher tests of manhood, than battle ever knew. | — John Greenleaf Whittier |
| Peace, above all things, is to be desired, but blood must sometimes be spilled to obtain it on equable and lasting terms. | — Andrew Jackson |
| Peace, commerce and honest friendship with all nations; entangling alliances with none. — First inaugural address,1801 | — Thomas Jefferson |
| Peace, plenty, and contentment reign throughout our borders, and our beloved country presents a sublime moral spectacle to the world. | — James K. Polk |
| People hate as they love, unreasonably. | — William Makepeace Thackeray |
| People have discovered that they can fool the devil; but they can't fool the neighbors. | — Francis Bacon |
| People may doubt what you say, but they will believe what you do. | — Lewis Cass |
| People usually think according to their inclinations, speak according to their learning and ingrained opinions, but generally act according to custom. | — Francis Bacon |
| People who know little are usually great talkers, while men who know much say little. | — Jean-Jacques Rousseau |
| Perhaps it is a universal truth that the loss of liberty at home is to be charged to provisions against danger, real or pretended, from abroad. | — James Madison |
| Persecution is not an original feature in any religion; but it is always the strongly marked feature of all religions established by law. Take away the law-establishment, and every religion re-assumes its original benignity. — The Rights of Man, 1791 | — Thomas Paine |
| Pettiness of mind, ignorance and presumption are the cause of stubbornness, because stubborn people only want to believe what they themselves can imagine, and they can imagine very few things. | — Madeleine de Souvre |
| Philosophy abounds more than philosophers, and learning more than learned men. | — William Benton Clulow |
| Philosophy is common sense with big words. | — James Madison |
| Physio-philosophy has to show how, and in accordance indeed with what laws, the Material took its origin; and, therefore, how something derived its existence from nothing. It has to portray the first periods of the world's development from nothing; how the elements and heavenly bodies originated; in what method by self-evolution into higher and manifold forms, they separated into minerals, became finally organic, and in Man attained self-consciousness.
— Elements of Physiophilosophy (1847) | — Lorenz Oken |
| Pictures and shapes are but secondary objects and please or displease only in the memory. | — Francis Bacon |
| Plant and your spouse plants with you; weed and you weed alone. | — Jean-Jacques Rousseau |
| Plato is my friend, Aristotle is my friend, but my greatest friend is truth.
— Written in the margin of a notebook while a student at Cambridge | — Isaac Newton |
| Play interests me very much," said Hermann: "but I am not in the position to sacrifice the necessary in the hope of winning the superfluous. | — Alexander Pushkin |
| Please, never despise the translator. He's the mailman of human civilization. | — Alexander Pushkin |
| Poetry is as precise a thing as geometry. | — Gustave Flaubert |
| Poets are all who love, who feel great truths, And tell them; and the truth of truths is love. | — Philip James Bailey |
| Politics is such a torment that I advise everyone I love not to mix with it. | — Thomas Jefferson |
| Poor France, thy fine climate, rich vineyards, and the wishes of the learned avail nothing; thou art a destitute beggar, and not the powerful friend thou wert represented to me. | — John James Audubon |
| Popularity, I have always thought, may aptly be compared to a coquette - the more you woo her, the more apt is she to elude your embrace. | — John Tyler |
| Posterity, you will never know how much it cost the present generation to preserve your freedom. I hope you will make good use of it. If you do not, I shall repent in heaven that ever I took half the pains to preserve it. | — John Adams |
| Posterity: you will never know how much it has cost my generation to preserve your freedom. I hope you will make good use of it. | — John Quincy Adams |
| Poverty in the end parts friends.
— The Unfortunate Traveller, 1594
| — Thomas Nashe |
| Power always thinks it has a great soul and vast views beyond the comprehension of the weak. | — John Adams |
| Power always thinks... that it is doing God's service when it is violating all his laws. | — John Adams |
| Power is not alluring to pure minds. | — Thomas Jefferson |
| Praise undeserved, is satire in disguise. | — Alexander Pope |
| Prayer is the spirit speaking truth to Truth. | — Philip James Bailey |
| Prayer is where the action is. | — John Wesley |
| Preparation for war is a constant stimulus to suspicion and ill will. | — James Monroe |
| Prepare a noble death song for the day when you go over the great divide. | — Tecumseh |
| Presumption should never make us neglect that which appears easy to us, nor despair make us lose courage at the sight of difficulties. — Reflections on different Subjects of Morality, in The Universal Magazine (1765), p. 119 | — Stanislaw Leszczynski |
| Pretences go a great way with men that take fair words and magisterial looks for current payment. | — Roger L'Estrange |
| Pride is still aiming at the best houses: Men would be angels, angels would be gods. Aspiring to be gods, if angels fell; aspiring to be angels men rebel. | — Alexander Pope |
| Principally and first of all, I recommend my soul to that Almighty Being who gave it and my body I commit to the dust, relying upon the merits of Jesus Christ for a pardon of all my sins.
— Last Will and Testament, October 2, 1803 | — Samuel Adams |
| Promises that you make to yourself are often like the Japanese plum tree - they bear no fruit. | — Francis Marion |
| Promote then as an object of primary importance, Institutions for the general diffusion of knowledge. In proportion as the structure of a government gives force to public opinion, it is essential that public opinion should be enlightened.
— Farewell Address, September 19, 1796 | — George Washington |
| Property is surely a right of mankind as real as liberty. | — John Adams |
| Prosperity is not without many fears and distastes; adversity not without many comforts and hopes. | — Francis Bacon |
| Prosperity is the blessing of the Old Testament; adversity is the blessing of the New. | — Francis Bacon |
| Providence has given to our people the choice of their rulers and it is the duty as well as the privilege and interest of our Christian Nation to select and prefer Christians for their rulers. — Private letter to PA Representative John Murray (1816) | — John Jay |
| Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes ... but when a long train of abuses and usurpations ... evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security | — Thomas Jefferson |
| Public affairs go on pretty much as usual: perpetual chicanery and rather more personal abuse than there used to be... Our American Chivalry is the worst in the world. It has no Laws, no bounds, no definitions; it seems to be all a Caprice.
— Letter to Thomas Jefferson, April 17, 1826 | — John Adams |
| Public opinion is a weak tyrant compared with our own private opinion. What a man thinks of himself, that is which determines, or rather indicates, his fate. | — Henry David Thoreau |
| Public opinion sets bounds to every government, and is the real sovereign in every free one.
— Public Opinion, December 19, 1791 | — James Madison |
| Public virtue cannot exist in a nation without private, and public virtue is the only foundation of republics. There must be a positive passion for the public good, the public interest, honour, power and glory, established in the minds of the people, or there can be no republican government, nor any real liberty: and this public passion must be superior to all private passions.
— Letter to Mercy Warren, April 16, 1776 | — John Adams |
| Pursue some path, however narrow and crooked, in which you can walk with love and reverence. | — Henry David Thoreau |
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A collection of notable quotations from a variety of Early Modern Era individuals. See the Guide for more details.
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