Named source · 1669

No Cross, No Crown Quotes by William Penn: Context & Meanings

1 quotation linked to No Cross, No Crown by or associated with William Penn, with source notes, explanations and related topics.

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William Penn’s Christian devotional work No Cross, No Crown, first published in 1669

Topics and ideas

Christian discipleship, purpose, self-denial, conscience, salvation, conduct and Quaker devotional practice.

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The great business of man's life, is to answer the end for which he lives;

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“The great business of man's life, is to answer the end for which he lives;”

William Penn

Voice: Authorial / signed preface voice · William Penn (signed preface voice)

Meaning & context

Penn frames a meaningful life in explicitly Christian terms: a person’s central task is to live toward the religious purpose for which Penn believes human life was given.

Source details

No Cross, No Crown, Preface, Project Gutenberg #44895. Penn opens by saying that the great business of life is to answer the end for which one lives, immediately defining that end as glorifying God and saving one’s soul. The frozen catalog retains only the opening clause. This is explicitly Quaker Christian devotional exhortation, not a neutral or universal factual definition of life’s purpose.

William Penn’s Christian devotional work No Cross, No Crown, first published in 1669

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