What did William Penn mean when he said "Right is right, even if every one is against it, and wrong is wrong wrong, even if everyone is for it."

Answer 1

Penn was talking about the notion of individualism vs mob-mentality, in regards to how to figure out whether something is moral or not.

You can re-phrase his thought as "Objective Good (Capital R Right, in philosophy terms) is always the correct course of action, even if everyone is against it, and the opposite of that, Objective Evil, is always in the incorrect choice, even if everyone is for it."

You have to remember that Penn was a Quaker, and lived in a very religiously black and white time. To certain people, morality wasn't debatable because it was based on a holy text, or dogma. In the most neutral way, Penn is relying on everyone's shared understanding of right and wrong, to cleverly say absolutely nothing.

Theologically, Quaker morality isn't debatable, and Penn is referring to the concept of Inner Light. IF this quote is in fact first his (as it's an incredibly old sentiment), it's because the choice to do good and evil is central in New Wold Quaker dogma (the individual choice wasn't well received on the Continent, where religion was used as a state tool in the 1600s).