Explore the most impactful and insightful quotes and sayings by Benjamin Franklin, and enrich your perspective with the wisdom. Share these inspiring Benjamin Franklin quotes pictures with your friends on social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, or your personal blogs, completely free. Here are the top 1351 Benjamin Franklin quotes for you to read and share.
I believe in one God, Creator of the Universe in that He ought to be whipped from pilar to post and back again for His shameful actions toward Humanity. -- Benjamin Franklin
A light purse is a heavy curse. -- Benjamin Franklin
Your best investment is to pour your purse into your head, and no one can take it away from you. -- Benjamin Franklin
In eating ecology love murder vegan vegetarianism flesh eating is unprovoked murder. -- Benjamin Franklin
My refusing to eat flesh occasioned an inconveniency, and I was frequently chided for my singularity, but, with this lighter repast, I made the greater progress, for greater clearness of head and quicker comprehension. Flesh eating is unprovoked murder. -- Benjamin Franklin
Flesh eating is unprovoked murder. -- Benjamin Franklin
Never praise your cider or your horse -- Benjamin Franklin
Remember not only to say the right thing in the right place, but far more difficult still, to leave unsaid the wrong thing at the tempting moment. -- Benjamin Franklin
The US Constitution only guarantees your rights as a citizen, it doesn't guarantee happiness. It may take work, but if you have your rights, happiness is very possible. -- Benjamin Franklin
It takes many good deeds to build a good reputation, and only one bad one to lose it. -- Benjamin Franklin
Hope of gain lessens pain. -- Benjamin Franklin
Rarely use Venery but for Health or Offspring; Never to Dulness, Weakness, or the Injury of your own or another's Peace or Reputation. -- Benjamin Franklin
He that scatters thorns, let him not go barefoot. -- Benjamin Franklin
Nothing brings more pain than too much pleasure; nothing more bondage than too much liberty. -- Benjamin Franklin
A lonely man on a rainy night who cannot read. -- Benjamin Franklin
Thinking aloud is a habit which is responsible for most of mankind's misery. -- Benjamin Franklin
For the best return on your money, pour your purse into your head. -- Benjamin Franklin
Covetousness is ever attended with solicitude and anxiety. -- Benjamin Franklin
The discovery of a wine is of greater moment than the discovery of a constellation. The universe is too full of stars. -- Benjamin Franklin
I should have no objection to go over the same life from its beginning to the end: requesting only the advantage authors have, of correcting in a second edition the faults of the first. -- Benjamin Franklin
Reckless haste makes poor speed. -- Benjamin Franklin
We are all born without knowledge, but curious. With curiosity we should be able to learn as much as possible. With curiosity, it has to take a lot of work to remain ignorant. -- Benjamin Franklin
Avoid dishonest gain: no price can recompence the pangs of vice. -- Benjamin Franklin
Do not do that which you would not have known. -- Benjamin Franklin
The poor man must walk to get meat for his stomach,
the rich man to get a stomach to his meat. -- Benjamin Franklin
Eat few suppers, and you'll need few medicines. -- Benjamin Franklin
Waste neither time nor money, but make the best use of both. -- Benjamin Franklin
The way to wealth is as plain as the way to market. It depends chiefly on two words, industry and frugality: that is, waste neither time nor money, but make the best use of both. Without industry and frugality nothing will do, and with them everything. -- Benjamin Franklin
Where there is a free government, and the people make their own laws by their representatives, I see no injustice in their obliging one another to take their own paper money. -- Benjamin Franklin
How do you become better tomorrow? By improving yourself, the world is made better. Be not afraid of growing too slowly. Be afraid of standing still. Forget your mistakes, but remember what they taught you. So how do you become better tomorrow? By becoming better today. -- Benjamin Franklin
A child I was fond of reading, and all the little money that came into my hands was ever laid out in books. -- Benjamin Franklin
Nothing so likely to make a man's fortune as virtue. -- Benjamin Franklin
The United States Constitutional Convention, except for three or four persons, thought prayers unnecessary. -- Benjamin Franklin
Fatigue is the best pillow. -- Benjamin Franklin
Lost time is never found again, and what we call time enough, always proves little enough. -- Benjamin Franklin
When befriended, remember it; when you befriend, forget it. -- Benjamin Franklin
You cannot always run from a weakness. You must sometime fight it out or perish. -- Benjamin Franklin
Drive your business. Let not your business drive you. -- Benjamin Franklin
Many complain of their memory, few of their judgment. -- Benjamin Franklin
It's the easiest thing in the world for a man to deceive himself. -- Benjamin Franklin
Three things are men most likely to be cheated in, a horse, a wig, and a wife. -- Benjamin Franklin
Courteous Reader, Astrology is one of the most ancient Sciences, held in high esteem of old, by the Wise and the Great. Formerly, no Prince would make War or Peace, nor any General fight in Battle, in short, no important affair was undertaken without first consulting an Astrologer. -- Benjamin Franklin
Some books against Deism fell into my hands ... it happened that they wrought an effect on me quite contrary to what was intended by them; for the arguments of the Deists, which were quote to be refuted, appeared to me much stronger than the refutations; in short, I soon became a thorough Deist. -- Benjamin Franklin
The wise and the brave dares own that he was wrong. -- Benjamin Franklin
Cunning proceeds from lack of capacity. -- Benjamin Franklin
Pride is said to be the last vice the good man gets clear of ... -- Benjamin Franklin
Now I have a sheep and cow, everybody bids me good morrow. -- Benjamin Franklin
The man that walks wit crowd, will get no farther than the crowd. The man that walks alone, will reach places unknown. -- Benjamin Franklin
If you ride a horse, sit close and tight, if you ride a man, sit easy and light. -- Benjamin Franklin
Did not strong connections draw me elsewhere, I believe Scotland would be the country I would choose to end my days in. -- Benjamin Franklin
Eat not to dullness, drink not to elevation. -- Benjamin Franklin
There is much money given to be laughed at, though the purchasers don't know it; witness A.'s fine horse, and B.'s fine house. -- Benjamin Franklin
The rapid progress true Science now makes, occasions my regretting sometimes that I was born so soon. -- Benjamin Franklin
A Penny Saved is a Penny Earned -- Benjamin Franklin
Many have quarreled about religion that never practice it. -- Benjamin Franklin
Chess is so interesting in itself, as not to need the view of gain to induce engaging in it; and thence it is never played for money -- Benjamin Franklin
Thirteen virtues necessary for true success: temperance, silence, order, resolution, frugality, industry, sincerity, justice, moderation, cleanliness, tranquility, chastity, and humility. -- Benjamin Franklin
Imitate Jesus and Socrates -- Benjamin Franklin
Be slow in choosing a friend, slower in changing. There are three faithful friends in our life,an old wife,an old dog and ready money. A real friend is one who always warms you.
Love is blind. Friendship close it eyes. -- Benjamin Franklin
He who falls in love with himself will have no rivals -- Benjamin Franklin
Passion governs, and she never governs wisely. -- Benjamin Franklin
People want to catch a buzz. That is why drugs are illegal, yet people still try to get their hands on them no matter what the consequence. Drugs make us happy, they may not be healthy. -- Benjamin Franklin
Mary's mouth cost her nothing for she never opens it but at others' expense. -- Benjamin Franklin
Great Modesty often hides great Merit. -- Benjamin Franklin
If all but myself were blind, I should want neither a fine house nor fine furniture. -- Benjamin Franklin
A man must have a good deal of vanity who believes, and a good deal of boldness who affirms, that all the doctrines he holds are true, and all he rejects are false. -- Benjamin Franklin
Stand firm, don't flutter! -- Benjamin Franklin
There is ample time to sleep; after death. -- Benjamin Franklin
O powerful goodness! Bountiful Father! Merciful Guide! Increase in me that wisdom which discovers my truest interest. Strengthen my resolution to perform what that wisdom dictates. Accept my kind offices to thy other children as the only return in my power for thy continual favours to me. -- Benjamin Franklin
Educate your children to self-control, to the habit of holding passion and prejudice and evil tendencies subject to an upright and reasoning will, and you have done much to abolish misery from their future and crimes from society. -- Benjamin Franklin
Games lubricate the body and mind. -- Benjamin Franklin
Watch the pennies and the dollars will take care of themselves. -- Benjamin Franklin
He that is rich need not live sparingly,
and he that can live sparingly need not be rich. -- Benjamin Franklin
Cheese and salt meat, should be sparingly eat. -- Benjamin Franklin
Time Like a petal in the wind Flows softly by As old lives are taken New ones begin A continual chain Which lasts throughout eternity Every life but a minute in time But each of equal importance -- Benjamin Franklin
I know as well as thee that I am no poet born
It is a trade, I never learnt nor indeed could learn
If I make verses-'tis in spite
Of nature and my stars I write. -- Benjamin Franklin
If you have no Honey in your Pot, have some in your Mouth. -- Benjamin Franklin
If it were not for the Belly, the Back might wear Gold. -- Benjamin Franklin
I experienced, too, the truth of the observation, "that after getting the first hundred pound, it is more easy to get the second," money itself being of a prolific nature. -- Benjamin Franklin
Nor is it of much Importance to us to know the Manner in which Nature executes her laws; 'tis enough to know the Laws themselves. -- Benjamin Franklin
As charms are nonsense,
nonsense is a charm. -- Benjamin Franklin
In the dark, all cats are grey. -- Benjamin Franklin
Epitaph on a scolding wife by her husband: Here my poor Bridget's corpse doth lie, she is at rest - and so am I! -- Benjamin Franklin
In success be moderate. -- Benjamin Franklin
Do you love life? Then don't waste time, because time is life! -- Benjamin Franklin
Beer is proof that God wants us to be happy -- Benjamin Franklin
I began to suspect that this doctrine, tho' it might be true, was not very useful. -- Benjamin Franklin
Laws without morals are in vain. -- Benjamin Franklin
of light and life, thou Good Supreme! O teach me what is good; teach me Thyself! Save me from folly, vanity, and vice, From every low pursuit; and fill my soul With knowledge, conscious peace, and virtue pure; Sacred, substantial, never-fading bliss! -- Benjamin Franklin
Among the numerous luxuries of the table ... coffee may be considered as one of the most valuable. It excites cheerfulness without intoxication; and the pleasing flow of spirits which it occasions ... is never followed by sadness, languor or debility. -- Benjamin Franklin
Do not let fancy outrun your means. -- Benjamin Franklin
To find out a girl's faults, praise her to her girlfriends. -- Benjamin Franklin
Keep flax from fire, and youth from gaming. -- Benjamin Franklin
The Things which hurt, instruct. -- Benjamin Franklin
A single man has not nearly the value he would have in a state of union. He is an incomplete animal. He resembles the odd half of a pair of scissors. -- Benjamin Franklin
It was about this time I conceiv'd the bold and arduous project of arriving at moral perfection. -- Benjamin Franklin
You never want to give up your liberty, even if you are told it is for security. The Patriot Act is a perfect example of giving up liberty for security. It says let us tap your phones so we can keep safe. -- Benjamin Franklin
I think this Law, by which I am punished, is both unreasonable in itself, and particularly severe ...
Polly Baker -- Benjamin Franklin
In wine there is wisdom, in beer there is Freedom, in water there is bacteria. -- Benjamin Franklin
A man separated from his reflective belt is no man at all. -- Benjamin Franklin
The best tranquilizer is a clear conscience. -- Benjamin Franklin
Happiness consists more in the small conveniences of pleasures that occur every day, than in great pieces of good fortune that happen but seldom to a man in the course of his life. -- Benjamin Franklin
Young citizens by the use of our institutions; our better acquaintance with -- Benjamin Franklin
One good husband is worth two good wives, for the scarcer things are, the more they are valued. -- Benjamin Franklin
Time is money, be a better you. -- Benjamin Franklin
Genius is the ability to hold one's vision steady until it becomes reality -- Benjamin Franklin
Anger is never without a Reason, but seldom with a good One. -- Benjamin Franklin
The early morning has gold in its mouth. -- Benjamin Franklin
The Existence of Deity, that he made the World, and govern'd it by his Providence; that the most acceptable Service of God was the doing Good to Man; that our Souls are immortal; and that all Crime will be punished and Virtue rewarded either here or hereafter ... -- Benjamin Franklin
When you speak to a man, look on his eyes; when he speaks to you, look on his mouth. -- Benjamin Franklin
He is ill clothed that is bare of virtue. -- Benjamin Franklin
There are many roads to success, but only one sure road to failure; and that is to try to please everyone else. -- Benjamin Franklin
Beware belief in anything you read on the Internet. -- Benjamin Franklin
He [the Rev. Mr. Whitefield] used, indeed, sometimes to pray for my conversion, but never had the satisfaction of believing that his prayers were heard. -- Benjamin Franklin
O Lazy bones! Dost thou think God would have given thee arms and legs, if he had not design'd thou should'st use them? -- Benjamin Franklin
There are three things in life that are extremely hard.
Steel, a diamond, and to know oneself. -- Benjamin Franklin
The Honey is sweet, but the Bee has a Sting. -- Benjamin Franklin
Trouble springs from idleness, and grievous toil from needless ease. -- Benjamin Franklin
Quarrels never could last long, if on one side only lay the wrong. -- Benjamin Franklin
There is nothing so absurd as knowledge spun too fine. -- Benjamin Franklin
Doing an Injury puts you below your Enemy; Revenging one makes you but even with him; Forgiving it sets you above him. -- Benjamin Franklin
Remember this saying, The good payer is lord of another man's purse. He that is known to pay punctually and exactly to the time he promises, may at any time, and on any occasion, raise all the money his friends can spare. -- Benjamin Franklin
If dost thou love life, then Do not squander time, for that is the stuff life is made of, as Poor Richard says. -- Benjamin Franklin
I believe there is one Supreme most perfect being. -- Benjamin Franklin
I would advise you to read with a pen in your hand and enter in a little book short hints of what you feel that is common or that may be useful; for this will be the best method of imprinting such portcullis in your memory. -- Benjamin Franklin
Here you would know, and enjoy, what prosperity will way of Washington. For a thousand leagues have nearly the same effect with a thousand years. -- Benjamin Franklin
A nation of well-informed men who have been taught to know and prize the rights which God has given them cannot be enslaved. It is in the region of ignorance that tyranny begins. Benjamin Franklin -- Benjamin Franklin
And whether you're an honest man, or whether you're a thief, depends on whose solicitor has given me my brief. -- Benjamin Franklin
Here in France, you must practice the art of accomplishing much while appearing to accomplish little. (in the John Adams miniseries on HBO) -- Benjamin Franklin
To get the bad customs of a country changed and new ones, though better, introduced, it is necessary first to remove the prejudices of the people, enlighten their ignorance, and convince them that their interests will be promoted by the proposed changes; and this is not the work of a day. -- Benjamin Franklin
Work as if you were to live a thousand years, play as if you were to die tomorrow. -- Benjamin Franklin
A lighthouse is more useful than a church. -- Benjamin Franklin
To whom you betray your secret you sell your liberty. -- Benjamin Franklin
That, as we enjoy great advantages from the inventions of others, we should be glad of an opportunity to serve others by any invention of ours; and this we should do freely and generously. -- Benjamin Franklin
To succeed, jump as quickly at opportunities as you do at conclusions. -- Benjamin Franklin
He's a fool that makes his doctor his heir. -- Benjamin Franklin
People willing to trade their freedom for temporary security deserve neither and will lose both -- Benjamin Franklin
I am a mortal enemy to arbitrary government and unlimited power. I am naturally very jealous for the rights and liberties of my country, and the least encroachment of those invaluable privileges is apt to make my blood boil. -- Benjamin Franklin
When men and woman die, as poets sung, his heart's the last part moves, her last, the tongue. -- Benjamin Franklin
To be proud of virtue, is to poison yourself with the Antidote. -- Benjamin Franklin
Most people return small favors, acknowledge medium ones and repay greater ones - with ingratitude. -- Benjamin Franklin
Keep thy eyes wide open before marriage and half shut afterward. -- Benjamin Franklin
Teach your child to hold his tongue; he'll learn fast enough to speak. -- Benjamin Franklin
On the whole, though I never arrived at the perfection I had been so ambitious of obtaining, but fell far short of it, yet as I was, by the endeavor, a better and a happier man than I otherwise should have been had I not attempted it -- Benjamin Franklin
Do you love truth for truth's sake, and will you endeavor impartially to find and receive it yourself, and communicate it to others? -- Benjamin Franklin
War is when the government tells you who the bad guy is.
Revolution is when you decide that for yourself. -- Benjamin Franklin
Women are books, and men the readers be... -- Benjamin Franklin
In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people. -- Benjamin Franklin
All highly competent people continually search for ways to keep learning, growing, and improving. They do that by asking WHY. After all, the person who knows HOW will always have a job, but the person who knows WHY will always be the boss. -- Benjamin Franklin
Think What You Do When You Run in Debt: You Give to Another Power over Your Liberty -- Benjamin Franklin
Be not niggardly of what costs thee nothing, as courtesy, counsel, & countenance. -- Benjamin Franklin
A Republic, if you can keep it. -- Benjamin Franklin
Prayers and Provender hinder no Journey. -- Benjamin Franklin
Man is a tool-making animal -- Benjamin Franklin
Many people die at twenty five and aren't buried until they are seventy five. -- Benjamin Franklin
An egg today is better than a hen to-morrow. -- Benjamin Franklin
[E]very Man who comes among us, and takes up a piece of Land, becomes a Citizen, and by our Constitution has a Voice in Elections, and a share in the Government of the Country. -- Benjamin Franklin
Many a long dispute among divines may be thus abridged: It is so; It is not so. It is so; it is not so. -- Benjamin Franklin
I balanc'd some time between principle and inclination, till I recollected that, when the fish were opened, I saw smaller fish taken out of their stomachs; then thought I, "If you eat one another, I don't see why we mayn't eat you." So I din'd upon cod very heartily, -- Benjamin Franklin
Evils come not, then our fears are vain; And if they do fear but augments the pain. -- Benjamin Franklin
The only thing that is more expensive than education is ignorance. -- Benjamin Franklin
He that resolves to mend hereafter, resolves not to mend now. -- Benjamin Franklin
Wouldst thou enjoy a long Life, a healthy Body, and a vigorous Mind, and be acquainted also with the wonderful Works of God? labour in the first place to bring thy Appetite into Subjection to Reason. -- Benjamin Franklin
THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF BENJAMIN FRANKLIN -- Benjamin Franklin
Those who prefer security to liberty deserve neither. -- Benjamin Franklin
The best of all medicines is resting and fasting -- Benjamin Franklin
Those renowned generals [Alexander and Caesar] received more faithful service, and performed greater actions by means of the love their soldiers bore them, than they could possibly have done, if instead of being beloved and respected they had been hated and feared by those they commanded. -- Benjamin Franklin
We are more heavily taxed by our idleness, pride and folly than we are taxed by government. -- Benjamin Franklin
The best way to help the poor is to make them uncomfortable in their own poverty. -- Benjamin Franklin
Work while it is called today for you know not how much you may be hindered tomorrow. -- Benjamin Franklin
The game of Chess is not merely an idle amusement; several very valuable qualities of the mind are to be acquired and strengthened by it, so as to become habits ready on all occasions, for life is a kind of chess. -- Benjamin Franklin
I wish it (Christianity) were more productive of good works ... I mean real good works ... not holy day keeping, sermon-hearing ... or making long prayers, filled with flatteries and compliments despised by wise men, and much less capable of pleasing the Deity. -- Benjamin Franklin
When will mankind be convinced and agree to settle their difficulties by arbitration? -- Benjamin Franklin
Tis a common observation here that our cause is the cause of all mankind, and that we are fighting for their liberty in defending our own. -- Benjamin Franklin
My elder brothers were all put apprentices to different trades. I was put to the grammar-school at eight years of age, my father intending to devote me, as the tithe of his sons, to the service of the Church. -- Benjamin Franklin
Necessity never made a good bargain. -- Benjamin Franklin
Annual giving is the custom of making a gift-a-year to an institution in which one has faith ... -- Benjamin Franklin
Freedom of speech is a principal pillar of a free government; when this support is taken away, the constitution of a free society is dissolved, and tyranny is erected on its ruins. Republics ... derive their strength and vigor from a popular examination into the action of the magistrates. -- Benjamin Franklin
Observe all men, thyself most. -- Benjamin Franklin
Oh the wonderful knowledge to be found in the stars. Even the smallest things are written there ... if you had but skill to read. -- Benjamin Franklin
Let our Fathers and Grandfathers be valued for their Goodness, ourselves for our own. -- Benjamin Franklin
Those who are content have enough; those that complain, have too much. -- Benjamin Franklin
Serving God is doing good to man, but praying is thought an easier service and therefore more generally chosen. -- Benjamin Franklin
Getting into debt, is getting into a tanglesome net. -- Benjamin Franklin
A little House well fill'd, a little Field well till'd, and a little Wife well will'd, are great Riches. -- Benjamin Franklin
When the people find that they can vote themselves money that will herald the end of the republic. -- Benjamin Franklin
Motivation is when your dreams put on work clothes -- Benjamin Franklin
I should have no objection to a repetition of the same life from its beginning, -- Benjamin Franklin
Abuses of the freedom of speech ought to be repressed, but to whom are we to commit the power of doing it? -- Benjamin Franklin
He that riseth late, must trot all day, and shall scarce overtake his business at night. -- Benjamin Franklin
What's a Sun-Dial in the shade? -- Benjamin Franklin
He that goes a borrowing goes a sorrowing. -- Benjamin Franklin
My rule, in which I have always found satisfaction, is, never to turn aside in public affairs through views of private interest; but to go straight forward in doing what appears to me right at the time, leaving the consequences with Providence. -- Benjamin Franklin
You must always be prepared. Make sure to look at things from all angles. If you are not prepared you will fail. -- Benjamin Franklin
For when you assemble a number of men to have the advantage of their joint wisdom, you inevitably assemble with those men, all their prejudices, their passions, their errors of opinion, their local interests, and their selfish views. From such an assembly can a perfect production be expected? -- Benjamin Franklin
The discontented man finds no easy chair. -- Benjamin Franklin
All things are cheap to the saving, dear to the wasteful -- Benjamin Franklin
God heals, and the doctor takes the fees. -- Benjamin Franklin
Energy and persistence conquer all things. -- Benjamin Franklin
The person who deserves most pity is a lonesome one on a rainy day who doesn't know how to read. -- Benjamin Franklin
After all, wedlock is the natural state of man. A bachelor is not a complete human being. He is like the odd half of a pair of scissors, which has not yet found its fellow, and therefore is not even half so useful as they might be together. -- Benjamin Franklin
Money is of a prolific generating nature. Money can beget money, and its offspring can beget more. -- Benjamin Franklin
There are no gains without pains. -- Benjamin Franklin
He that steals the old man's supper does him no wrong. -- Benjamin Franklin
To cease to think creatively is to cease to live -- Benjamin Franklin
Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both. -- Benjamin Franklin
There's many witty men whose brains can't fill their bellies. -- Benjamin Franklin
If we lose our Money, it gives us some Concern. If we are cheated or robb'd of it, we are angry: But Money lost may be found; what we are robb'd of may be restored: The Treasure of Time once lost, can never be recovered; yet we squander it as tho' 'twere nothing worth, or we had no Use for it ... -- Benjamin Franklin
Fear not death for the sooner we die, the longer we shall be immortal. -- Benjamin Franklin
There never was a truly great man that was not at the same time truly virtuous. -- Benjamin Franklin
Beer is proof that God loves us. -- Benjamin Franklin
Nothing is more fatal to health than an over care of it. -- Benjamin Franklin
The cat in gloves catches no mice. -- Benjamin Franklin
The most acceptable service of God is doing good to man. -- Benjamin Franklin
To inquisitive minds like yours and mine the reflection that the quantity of human knowledge bears no proportion to the quantity of human ignorance must be in one view rather pleasing, viz., that though we are to live forever we may be continually amused and delighted with learning something new. -- Benjamin Franklin
Pride is as loud a beggar as want, and a great deal more saucy -- Benjamin Franklin
The expenses required to prevent a war are much lighter than those that will, if not prevented, be absolutely necessary to maintain it. -- Benjamin Franklin
Blessed is he that expects nothing, for he shall never be disappointed. expect nothing - get nothing! but expect something - get something!! -- Benjamin Franklin
Search others for their virtues, thyself for thy vices. -- Benjamin Franklin
It is the first responsibility of every citizen to question authority. -- Benjamin Franklin
By the word simplicity, is not always meant folly or ignorance; but often, pure and upright Nature, free from artifice, craft or deceitful ornament. -- Benjamin Franklin
Industry, perseverance, and frugality make fortune yield. -- Benjamin Franklin
Our friend and we were invited aboard on a party of pleasure, which is to last forever. His chair was ready first, and he has gone before us. We could not all conveniently start together; and why should you and I be grieved at this, since we are soon to follow, and know where to find him. -- Benjamin Franklin
Indeed the general natural Tendency of Reading good History, must be, to fix in the Minds of Youth deep Impressions of the Beauty and Usefulness of Virtue of all Kinds, Publick Spirit, Fortitude. -- Benjamin Franklin
No man ought to own more property than needed for his livelihood; the rest, by right, belonged to the state. -- Benjamin Franklin
We must hang together, gentlemen ... else, we shall most assuredly hang separately. -- Benjamin Franklin
We must all hang together or we shall most assuredly all hang separately. -- Benjamin Franklin
If we do not hang together, we shall surely hang separately. -- Benjamin Franklin
We must, indeed, all hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang separately. -- Benjamin Franklin
The good particular men may do separately, in relieving the sick, is small, compared with what they may do collectively. -- Benjamin Franklin
Outside Independence Hall when the Constitutional Convention of 1787 ended, Mrs. Powel of Philadelphia asked Benjamin Franklin, "Well, Doctor, what have we got, a republic or a monarchy?" With no hesitation whatsoever, Franklin responded, "A republic, if you can keep it." -- Benjamin Franklin
The only time a question should be asked is when all other possibilities of finding the answer for yourself have been eliminated. -- Benjamin Franklin
Squeamish stomachs cannot eat without pickles. -- Benjamin Franklin
The nearest I can make it out, "Love your Enemies" means, "Hate your Friends" -- Benjamin Franklin
Finding myself to exist in the world, I believe i shall, in some shape or other, always exist. -- Benjamin Franklin
We have been assured, Sir, in the Sacred Writings, that 'except the Lord build the House, they labor in vain that build it' I firmly believe this; by our partial local interests; our projects will be confounded, and we ourselves shall become a reproach and a by word down to future ages. -- Benjamin Franklin
If any man flatters me, I'll flatter him again; tho' he were my best Friend. -- Benjamin Franklin
The next thing most like living one's life over again seems to be a recollection of that life, and to make that recollection as durable as possible by putting it down in writing. -- Benjamin Franklin
The wise man draws more advantage from his enemies than the fool from his friends. -- Benjamin Franklin
He's the best physician who knows the worthlessness of most medicines. -- Benjamin Franklin
Why do tomorrow what you can do today? -- Benjamin Franklin
Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy.
[misquote of a letter about wine, see quotes/831031] -- Benjamin Franklin
It might be judged an affront to your understanding should I go about to prove this first principle; the existence of a Diety and that He is the Creator of the universe, for that would suppose you ignorant of what all mankind in all ages have agreed in. -- Benjamin Franklin
Be ashamed to catch yourself idle. -- Benjamin Franklin
Those have a short Lent who owe money to be paid at Easter. -- Benjamin Franklin
A Bible and a newspaper in every house, a good school in every district; all studied and appreciated as they merit; are the principal support of virtue, morality, and civil liberty. -- Benjamin Franklin
Traveling is one way of lengthening life, at least in appearance. -- Benjamin Franklin
Trouble Springs From Idleness. -- Benjamin Franklin
Who pleasure gives, Shall joy receive -- Benjamin Franklin
When you are done changing, you're done. -- Benjamin Franklin
Reader, I wish thee Health, Wealth, Happiness, And may kind Heaven thy Year's Industry bless. -- Benjamin Franklin
Don't put off until tomorrow what you can do today. -- Benjamin Franklin
Most people dislike vanity in others, whatever share they have of it themselves; -- Benjamin Franklin
He does not possess wealth; it possesses him. -- Benjamin Franklin
Never trust a government that doesn't trust its own citizens with guns. -- Benjamin Franklin
Industry need not wish. -- Benjamin Franklin
An ounce of wit that is bought, Is worth a pound that is taught. -- Benjamin Franklin
Leisure is the time for doing something useful. This leisure the diligent person will obtain the lazy one never. -- Benjamin Franklin
An infallible Remedy for the Tooth-ach, viz Wash the Root of an aching Tooth, in Elder Vinegar, and let it dry half an hour in the Sun; after which it will never ach more; Probatum est. -- Benjamin Franklin
Take heed of the Vinegar of sweet Wine, and the Anger of Good-nature. -- Benjamin Franklin
Tart words make no friends; a spoonful of honey will catch more flies than a gallon of vinegar. -- Benjamin Franklin
Money makes money. And the money that makes money makes more money. -- Benjamin Franklin
Two passions have powerful influence on the affairs of men: the love of power and the love of money. -- Benjamin Franklin
A cheerful face is nearly as good for an invalid as healthy weather. -- Benjamin Franklin
The best thing to give to your enemy is forgiveness; to an opponent, tolerance; to a friend, your heart; to your child, a good example; to a father, deference; to your mother, conduct that will make her proud of you; to yourself, respect; to all others, charity. -- Benjamin Franklin
An investment in knowledge always pays the best interest. -- Benjamin Franklin
And where is the Prince who can afford to so cover his country with troops for its defense, as that ten thousand men descending from the clouds, might not in many places do an infinite deal of mischief, before a force could be brought together to repel them? -- Benjamin Franklin
Silence is not always a sign of wisdom, but babbling is ever a mark of folly. -- Benjamin Franklin
Time is money' ... Waste it now. Pay for it later! -- Benjamin Franklin
You and I were long friends: you are now my enemy, and I am yours. -- Benjamin Franklin
If you want to keep a secret from an enemy, tell it not to a friend. -- Benjamin Franklin
He that is conscious of a stink in his breeches is [suspicious] of every wrinkle in another's nose. -- Benjamin Franklin
Love, Cough, & a Smoke, can't well be hid. -- Benjamin Franklin
Dost thou love life? then do not squander time, for that is the stuff life is made of, -- Benjamin Franklin
I have sometimes almost wished it had been my destiny to be born two or three centuries hence. -- Benjamin Franklin
Contentment makes poor men rich,
Discontent makes rich men poor. -- Benjamin Franklin
Your Business is to shine; therefore you must by all means prevent the shining of others, for their Brightness may make yours the less distinguished. -- Benjamin Franklin
A house is not a home unless it contains food and fire for the mind as well as the body. -- Benjamin Franklin
I say it is impossible that so sensible a people [citizens of Paris], under such circumstances, should have lived so long by the smoky, unwholesome, and enormously expensive light of candles, if they had really known that they might have had as much pure light of the sun for nothing. -- Benjamin Franklin
If thou thinkest twice, before thou speakest once, thou wilt speak twice the better for it. -- Benjamin Franklin
I think with you, that nothing is of more importance for the public weal, than to form and train up youth in wisdom and virtue. Wise and good men are in my opinion, the strength of the state; more so than riches or arms. -- Benjamin Franklin
A highwayman is as much a robber when he plunders in a gang as when single; and a nation that makes an unjust war is only a great gang. -- Benjamin Franklin
If you wish information and improvement from the knowledge of others, and yet at the same time express yourself as firmly fix'd in your present opinions, modest, sensible men, who do not love disputation, will probably leave you undisturbed in the possession of your error. -- Benjamin Franklin
When Wine enters, out goes the Truth. -- Benjamin Franklin
Most fools think they are only ignorant. -- Benjamin Franklin
Suspicion may be no fault, but showing it may be a great one. -- Benjamin Franklin
The worst wheel of the cart makes the most noise. -- Benjamin Franklin
Tis easier to suppress the first desire than to satisfy all that follow it. -- Benjamin Franklin
We are more thoroughly an enlightened people, with respect to our political interests, than perhaps any other under heaven. Every man among us reads, and is so easy in his circumstances as to have leisure for conversations of improvement and for acquiring information. -- Benjamin Franklin
We must all hang together, or most assuredly we shall all hang separately.' - Benjamin Franklin -- Benjamin Franklin
It is the man and woman united that makes the complete human being. Separate she lacks his force of body and strength of reason; he her softness, sensibility and acute discernment. Together they are most likely to succeed in the world. -- Benjamin Franklin
Great spenders are bad lenders. -- Benjamin Franklin
Our supper was only half an anchovy each, on a very little strip of bread and butter, and half a pint of ale between us; but the entertainment was in her conversation. -- Benjamin Franklin
Nothing great comes without enthusiasm. -- Benjamin Franklin
Any other, was disgusted, and attended his preaching no more. -- Benjamin Franklin
The ordaining of laws in favor of one part of the nation, to the prejudice and oppression of another, is certainly the most erroneous and mistaken policy. An equal dispensation of protection, rights, privileges, and advantages, is what every part is entitled to, and ought to enjoy. -- Benjamin Franklin
Tis easier to prevent bad habits than to break them. -- Benjamin Franklin
Christians are directed to have faith in Christ, as the effectual means of obtaining the change they desire. -- Benjamin Franklin
When you are finished changing, you are finished. -- Benjamin Franklin
We constantly change the world, even by our inaction. Therefore, let us change it responsibly. -- Benjamin Franklin
There are three sorts of people in the world: Those who are immovable, people who don't get it, or don't want to do anything about it; there are people who are movable, people who see the need for change and are prepared to listen to it; and there are people who move, people who make things happen. -- Benjamin Franklin
The way to be safe is never to be secure. -- Benjamin Franklin
A change of fortune hurts a wise man no more than a change of the moon. -- Benjamin Franklin
Whoever shall introduce into public affairs the principles of primitive Christianity will change the face of the world. -- Benjamin Franklin
Change is the only constant in life. Ones ability to adapt to those changes will determine your success in life. -- Benjamin Franklin
Anyone can complain, and they should have the right to, but if you want to see change you must act. Actions speak louder than words. Don't complain about things, change things. -- Benjamin Franklin
A learned blockhead is a greater blockhead than an ignorant one. -- Benjamin Franklin
Vessels large may venture more, But little boats should keep near shore. -- Benjamin Franklin
How can any Action be meritorious of Praise or Dispraise, Reward or Punishment, when the natural Principle of Self-Love is the only and the irresistible Motive to it? -- Benjamin Franklin
A flatterer never seems absurd: The flatter'd always takes his word. -- Benjamin Franklin
He that is the opinion money will do everything may well be suspected of doing everything for money. -- Benjamin Franklin
The best way to see Faith is to shut the eye of Reason. -- Benjamin Franklin
All cats look gray in the dark. -- Benjamin Franklin
Lost Time is never found again. -- Benjamin Franklin
If you judge a book by its cover,a fish will be thinking how stupid it looks its whole life. -- Benjamin Franklin
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN was born in Milk Street, Boston, on January 6, 1706. His father, Josiah Franklin, was a tallow chandler who married twice, and of his seventeen -- Benjamin Franklin
Take time for all things: great haste makes great waste. -- Benjamin Franklin
Each year one vicious habit discarded, in time might make the worst of us good. -- Benjamin Franklin
The apostle Paul very seriously advised Timothy to put some wine in his water for health's sake, but not one of the apostles nor any of the holy fathers have ever recommended putting water in wine -- Benjamin Franklin
Neglect mending a small fault and 'twill soon be a great one. -- Benjamin Franklin
Marry above thy match and you will get a master. -- Benjamin Franklin
There cannot be a stronger natural right than that of a man's making the best profit he can of the natural produce of his lands. -- Benjamin Franklin
The way to secure peace is to be prepared for war. They that are on their guard, and appear ready to receive their adversaries, are in much less danger of being attacked, than the supine, secure, and negligent. -- Benjamin Franklin
Remember, that six pounds a year is but a groat a day. -- Benjamin Franklin
Hot things, sharp things, sweet things, cold things All rot the teeth, and make them look like old things. -- Benjamin Franklin
And therefore wishing to break a habit I was getting into of prattling, punning, and joking, which only made me acceptable to trifling company, -- Benjamin Franklin
Sarcasm is the lowest form of humor but the highest form of flattery. -- Benjamin Franklin
He who will not be counseled cannot be helped. -- Benjamin Franklin
I was surprised to find myself so much fuller of Faults than I had imagined, but I had the Satisfaction of seeing them diminish. -- Benjamin Franklin
A man being sometimes more generous when he has but a little money than when he has plenty, perhaps thro' fear of being thought to have but little. -- Benjamin Franklin
Don't cry over spilled milk -- Benjamin Franklin
It is foolish to lay out money for the purchase of repentance. -- Benjamin Franklin
A Man of Knowledge like a rich Soil, feeds If not a world of Corn, a world of Weeds. -- Benjamin Franklin
Drink does not drown care, but waters it, and makes it grow faster. -- Benjamin Franklin
Critics are our friends, they show us our faults. -- Benjamin Franklin
The Difficulty lies, in finding out an exact Measure but eat for Necessity, not Pleasure, for Lust knows not where Necessity ends. -- Benjamin Franklin
Read much, but not many books. -- Benjamin Franklin
The happy State of Matrimony is, undoubtedly, the surest and most lasting Foundation of Comfort and Love ... the Cause of all good Order in the World, and what alone preserves it from the utmost Confusion. -- Benjamin Franklin
Virtue alone is sufficient to make a man great, glorious, and happy. -- Benjamin Franklin
A virtuous and industrious people may be cheaply governed. -- Benjamin Franklin
The poor have little; beggars, none; the rich, too much; enough, not one. -- Benjamin Franklin
I didn't fail the test, I just found 100 ways to do it wrong. -- Benjamin Franklin
The learned fool writes his nonsense in better language than the unlearned, but it is still nonsense. -- Benjamin Franklin
Half a truth is often a great lie -- Benjamin Franklin
Pain wastes the Body, Pleasures the Understanding. -- Benjamin Franklin
You made delay, but time will not, and lost time is never found again. -- Benjamin Franklin
In going on with these Experiments, how many pretty systems do we build, which we soon find ourselves oblig'd to destroy! If there is no other Use discover'd of Electricity, this, however, is something considerable, that it may help to make a vain Man humble. -- Benjamin Franklin
The doors of wisdom are never shut. -- Benjamin Franklin
Where liberty is, there is my country. -- Benjamin Franklin
The rotten apple spoils his companions. -- Benjamin Franklin
Great beauty, great strength, and great riches are really and truly of no great use; a right heart exceeds all -- Benjamin Franklin
Don't halloo until you're out of the wood. -- Benjamin Franklin
What maintains one vice would bring up two children. -- Benjamin Franklin
I wake up every morning at nine and grab for the morning paper. Then I look at the obituary page. If my name is not on it, I get up. -- Benjamin Franklin
Get what you can, and what you get hold; 'tis the Stone that will turn all your Lead into Gold. -- Benjamin Franklin
I'd rather be a pessimist because then I can only be pleasantly surprised. -- Benjamin Franklin
A new truth is a truth, an old error is an error. -- Benjamin Franklin
If time be of all things most precious, wasting time must be the greatest prodigality, since lost time is never found again; and what we call time enough always proves little enough. Let us then be up and doing, and doing to a purpose; so by diligence shall we do more with less perplexity -- Benjamin Franklin
Details are but trifles, but details make for perfection, and perfection is no trifle. -- Benjamin Franklin
Take it from Richard, poor and lame, What's begun in anger ends in shame. -- Benjamin Franklin
One today is worth two tomorrows. Lost time is never found again. Time is money. Dost thou love life? Then do not squander time, for that's the stuff that life is made of. You may delay, but time will not. -- Benjamin Franklin
Without continual growth and progress, such words as improvement, achievement, and success have no meaning. -- Benjamin Franklin
He who gives up freedom for safety deserves neither. -- Benjamin Franklin
They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. -- Benjamin Franklin
Those who trade freedom for safety deserve neither -- Benjamin Franklin
After crosses and losses men grow humbler and wiser. -- Benjamin Franklin
Nothing in the world is certain except for death and taxes. -- Benjamin Franklin
To follow by faith alone is to follow blindly -- Benjamin Franklin
Employ thy time well, if thou meanest to gain leisure. -- Benjamin Franklin
Love your Neighbour; yet don't pull down your Hedge. -- Benjamin Franklin
Love you Neighbor; yet don't pull down your Hedge. -- Benjamin Franklin
Be at war with your vices, at peace with your neighbors, and let every new year find you a better man. -- Benjamin Franklin
Temperance puts wood on the fire, meal in the barrel, flour in the tub, money in the purse, credit in the country, contentment in the house, clothes on the back, and vigor in the body. -- Benjamin Franklin
I look upon death to be as necessary to our constitution as sleep. We shall rise refreshed in the morning. -- Benjamin Franklin
The good or ill hap of a good or ill life, is the good or ill choice of a good or ill wife. -- Benjamin Franklin
Do good to your friends to keep them,to your enemies to win them. -- Benjamin Franklin
If you would know the value of money, go and try to borrow some; for he that goes a borrowing goes a sorrowing, as Poor Richard says; and indeed so does he that lends to such people, when he goes to get it in again. -- Benjamin Franklin
Scarcely was I arrived at fifteen years of age, when, after having doubted in turn of different tenets, according as I found them combated in the different books that I read, I began to doubt of Revelation itself. -- Benjamin Franklin
Notwithstanding my experiments with electricity the thunderbolt continues to fall under our noses and beards; and as for the tyrant, there are a million of us still engaged at snatching away his sceptre. -- Benjamin Franklin
Experience is the best teacher, but a fool will learn from no other. -- Benjamin Franklin
It is prodigious the quantity of good that may be done by one man if he will make a business of it. -- Benjamin Franklin
If Passion drives, let Reason hold the Reins. -- Benjamin Franklin
All the heavenly Bodies, the Stars and Planets, are regulated with the utmost Wisdom! And can we suppose less Care to be taken in the Order of the moral than in the natural System? -- Benjamin Franklin
The height of foolishness is to discard an opportunity without full investigation -- Benjamin Franklin
A man compounded of Law and Gospel, is able to cheat a whole country with his Religion, and then destroy them under Colour of Law. -- Benjamin Franklin
In rivers and bad governments the lightest things swim at top. -- Benjamin Franklin
If we can sleep without dreaming, it is well that painful dreams are avoided. If, while we sleep, we can have any pleasing dreams, it is as the French say, tant gagne, so much added to the pleasure of life. -- Benjamin Franklin
Don't throw stones at your neighbors', if your own windows are glass. -- Benjamin Franklin
He that's content, hath enough; He that complains, has too much. -- Benjamin Franklin
I have lived a long time, sir, and the longer I live the more convincing proofs I see of this truth - that God governs in the affairs of men. -- Benjamin Franklin
He that doth what he should not, shall feel what he would not. -- Benjamin Franklin
There are two ways to increase your wealth. Increase your means or decrease your wants. The best is to do both at the same time. -- Benjamin Franklin
Use now and then a little Exercise a quarter of an Hour before Meals, as to swing a Weight, or swing your Arms about with a small Weight in each Hand; to leap, or the like, for that stirs the Muscles of the Breast. -- Benjamin Franklin
Fools need advice most, but wise men only are the better for it. -- Benjamin Franklin
Wise men don't need advice. Fools won't take it. -- Benjamin Franklin
The absent are never without fault, nor the present without excuse. -- Benjamin Franklin
Write to Please Yourself. When You write to Please Others You end up Pleasing No one. -- Benjamin Franklin
Pride that dines on vanity, sups on contempt. -- Benjamin Franklin
For Age and Want save while you may; No morning Sun lasts a whole day. -- Benjamin Franklin
Since thou are not sure of a minute, throw not away an hour. -- Benjamin Franklin
We may perhaps learn to deprive large masses of their gravity and give them absolute levity, for the sake of easy transport. -- Benjamin Franklin
Trouble knocked at the door, but, hearing laughter, hurried away -- Benjamin Franklin
The cause of the South was the cause of constitutional government, the cause of government regulated by law, and the cause of honesty and fidelity in public servants. No nobler cause did man ever fight for! -- Benjamin Franklin
People who are willing to give up freedom for the sake of short term security, deserve neither freedom nor security. -- Benjamin Franklin
Why should Pennsylvania, founded by the English, become a Colony of Aliens, who will shortly be so numerous as to Germanize us instead of our Anglifying them, and will never adopt our Language or Customs, any more than they can acquire our Complexion ... -- Benjamin Franklin
Setting too good an Example is a Kind of slander seldom forgiven. -- Benjamin Franklin
In prosperous fortunes be modest and wise, The greatest may fall, and the lowest may rise: But insolent People that fall in disgrace, Are wretched and nobody pities their Case. -- Benjamin Franklin
Take one thing with another, and the world is a pretty good sort of a world, and it is our duty to make the best of it, and be thankful. -- Benjamin Franklin
The heart of a fool is in his mouth, but the mouth of a wise man is in his heart. -- Benjamin Franklin
Money never made a man happy yet, nor will it. There is nothing in its nature to produce happiness. The more a man has, the more he wants. Instead of its filling a vacuum, it makes one. -- Benjamin Franklin
Many foxes grow gray but few grow good. -- Benjamin Franklin
The notes one of my uncles (who had the same kind of curiosity in collecting family anecdotes) once put into my hands, furnished me with several particulars relating to our ancestors. -- Benjamin Franklin
They who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.
- written for the Pennsylvania Assembly in its Reply to the Governor, 11 November 1755 -- Benjamin Franklin
Never leave till tomorrow that which you can do today. -- Benjamin Franklin
Where there is marriage without love, there will be love without marriage. -- Benjamin Franklin
Bargaining has neither friends nor relations. -- Benjamin Franklin
Being ignorant is not so much a shame, as being unwilling to learn. -- Benjamin Franklin
We are all born ignorant, but one must work hard to remain stupid. -- Benjamin Franklin
Lawyers, Preachers, and Tomtits Eggs, there are more of them hatch'd than come to perfection. -- Benjamin Franklin
When a Religion is good, I conceive that it will support itself; and, when it cannot support itself, and God does not take care to support, so that its Professors are oblig'd to call for the help of the Civil Power, it is a sign, I apprehend, of its being a bad one. -- Benjamin Franklin
Strange secrets are let out by Death Who blabs so oft the follies of this world. -- Benjamin Franklin
It is the will of God and Nature that these mortal bodies be laid aside, when the soul is to enter into real life; 'tis rather an embrio state, a preparation for living; a man is not completely born until he be dead: Why then should we grieve that a new child is born among the immortals? -- Benjamin Franklin
Be studious in your profession, and you will be learned. Be industrious and frugal, and you will be rich. Be sober and temperate, and you will be healthy. Be in general virtuous, and you will be happy. At least you will, by such conduct, stand the be. -- Benjamin Franklin
What is without us has no connection with happiness, only so far as the preservation of our lives and health depends upon it ... Happiness springs immediately from the mind. -- Benjamin Franklin
A man who would sacrifice freedom for security deserves neither. -- Benjamin Franklin
Believe none of what you hear and half of what you see. -- Benjamin Franklin
Necessity is our quickest excuse. -- Benjamin Franklin
Be not disturbed at trifles, or at accidents common or unavoidable. -- Benjamin Franklin
When the well is dry, we know the worth of water. -- Benjamin Franklin
Do not fear mistakes. You will know failure. Continue to reach out. -- Benjamin Franklin
Many a man thinks he is buying pleasure, when he is really selling himself to it. -- Benjamin Franklin
So convenient a thing it is to be a reasonable creature, since it enables one to find or make a reason for everything one has a mind to do -- Benjamin Franklin
If I knew a miser, who gave up every kind of comfortable living, all the pleasure of doing good to others, all the esteem of his fellow-citizens, and the joys of benevolent friendship, for the sake of accumulating wealth. Poor man, said I, you pay too much for your whistle. -- Benjamin Franklin
Hide not your talents, they for use were made,
What's a sundial in the shade? -- Benjamin Franklin
If you ever need a helping hand, you'll find one at the end of your arm. Beer is living proof that God loves us and wants to see us happy. -- Benjamin Franklin
There's no gain, without pain. -- Benjamin Franklin
As often as we do good, we sacrifice. -- Benjamin Franklin
How many observe Christ's birthday! How few, His precepts! -- Benjamin Franklin
Virtue and Happiness are Mother and Daughter. -- Benjamin Franklin
Proclaim not all though knowest, or all though owest. -- Benjamin Franklin
Games lubricate the body and the mind. -- Benjamin Franklin
Who had deceived thee so often as thyself? -- Benjamin Franklin
The purpose of money was to purchase one's freedom to pursue that which is useful and interesting. -- Benjamin Franklin
Moderation in all things - including moderation. -- Benjamin Franklin
To be humble to superiors is a duty, to equals courtesy, to inferiors nobleness. -- Benjamin Franklin
Those who are fear'd, are hated. -- Benjamin Franklin
Promises may fit the friends, but non performance will turn them into enemies. -- Benjamin Franklin
So much for industry, my friends, and attention to one's own business; but to these we must add frugality if we would make our industry more certainly successful. A man may, if he knows not how to save as he gets, keep his nose all his life to the grindstone, and die not worth a grout at last. -- Benjamin Franklin
A policy of life insurance is the cheapest and safest mode of making a certain provision for one's family. -- Benjamin Franklin
He that raises a large family does, indeed, while he lives to observe them, stand a broader mark for sorrow; but then he stands a broader mark for pleasure too. -- Benjamin Franklin
Don't think so much of your own Cunning, as to forget other Men's; a Cunning Man is overmatched by a cunning Man and a Half. -- Benjamin Franklin
There are in life real evils enough and it is folly to afflict ourselves with imaginary ones. -- Benjamin Franklin
The borrower is slave to the lender and the debtor to the creditor. -- Benjamin Franklin
Love your Enemies, for they tell you your Faults. -- Benjamin Franklin
several of us were corrected by our fathers; and though I pleaded the usefulness of the work, mine convinced me that nothing was useful which was not honest. -- Benjamin Franklin
Taxes are indeed very heavy -
We are taxed twice as much by our Idleness.
Three times as much by our Pride.
And four times as much by our Folly. -- Benjamin Franklin
It's better to swim in the sea below
Than to swing in the air and feed the crow,
Says jolly Ned Teach of Bristol. -- Benjamin Franklin
Never spare the parson's wine nor the baker's pudding -- Benjamin Franklin
Bad gains are true losses. -- Benjamin Franklin
He that blows the coals in quarrels that he has nothing to do with, has no right to complain if the sparks fly in his face. - Ben Franklin -- Benjamin Franklin
As I am not fond of giving advice,having seldom seen it taken -- Benjamin Franklin
Be temperate in wine, in eating, girls, & sloth; Or the Gout will seize you and plague you both. -- Benjamin Franklin
Unless the Stream of their Importation could be turned ... they will soon so outnumber us, that all the advantages we have, will not in my Opinion be able to preserve our Language, and even our Government will become precarious. -- Benjamin Franklin
Many estates are spent in the getting, since women for tea forsake spinning and knitting, and men for punch forsake hewing and splitting. -- Benjamin Franklin
If you were a servant would you not be ashamed that a good master should catch you idle? Then if you are your own master be ashamed to catch yourself idle. -- Benjamin Franklin
A wolf eats sheep but now and then, ten Thousands are devour'd by Men. -- Benjamin Franklin
Beauty and folly are old companions. -- Benjamin Franklin
God grant that not only the love of liberty but a thorough knowledge of the rights of man may pervade all the nations of the earth, so that anybody may set his foot anywhere on its surface and say: 'This is my country! -- Benjamin Franklin
Much Virtue in Herbs, little in Men. -- Benjamin Franklin
Never contradict anybody. -- Benjamin Franklin
Justice will not be served until those who are unaffected are as outraged as those who are. -- Benjamin Franklin
Scarcely have I ever heard or read the introductory phrase, "I may say without vanity," but some striking and characteristic instance of vanity has immediately followed. -- Benjamin Franklin
I think opinions should be judged by their influences and effects; and if a man holds none that tend to make him less virtuous or more vicious, it may be concluded that he holds none that are dangerous, which I hope is the case with me. -- Benjamin Franklin
From a child I was fond of reading, and all the little money that came into my hands was ever laid out in books. Pleased with the 'Pilgrim's Progress,' my first collection was of John Bunyan's works in separate little volumes. -- Benjamin Franklin
Those who laugh often never grow old. -- Benjamin Franklin
Man will ultimately be governed by God or by tyrants. -- Benjamin Franklin
To the generous mind the heaviest debt is that of gratitude, when it is not in our power to repay it. -- Benjamin Franklin
He that takes a wife, takes care -- Benjamin Franklin
A perfect character might be attended with the inconvenience of being envied and hated; and that a benevolent man should allow a few faults in himself, to keep his friends in countenance. -- Benjamin Franklin
Practice makes perfect. -- Benjamin Franklin
There was never a good war, or a bad peace. -- Benjamin Franklin
Silence - Speak not but what may benefit others or yourself; avoid trifling conversation. -- Benjamin Franklin
In the 1770s, when he was in Paris, Benjamin Franklin witnessed the flight of one of the first hot-air balloons. As the balloon soared into the air, someone asked Franklin: "What good is it?" Franklin responded: "What good is a new-born baby? -- Benjamin Franklin
Let no pleasure tempt thee, no profit allure thee, no ambition corrupt thee, to do anything which thou knowest to be evil; so shalt thou always live jollily; for a good conscience is a continual Christmas. -- Benjamin Franklin
Democracy is like having two wolves and a lamb decide what is for dinner. -- Benjamin Franklin
He that can take rest is greater than he that can take cities. -- Benjamin Franklin
Idleness is the Dead Sea that swallows all virtues. Be active in business, that temptation may miss her aim; the bird that sits is easily shot. -- Benjamin Franklin
An education is the investment with the greatest returns. -- Benjamin Franklin
An investment in education always pays the highest returns. -- Benjamin Franklin
Give me yesterday's bread, this day's flesh, and last year's cider -- Benjamin Franklin
Vicious actions are not hurtful because they are forbidden, but forbidden because they are hurtful. -- Benjamin Franklin
Revealed religion has no weight with me. -- Benjamin Franklin
Men and Melons are hard to know. -- Benjamin Franklin
Many would live by their Wits, but break for want of Stock. -- Benjamin Franklin
Discourses were chiefly either polemic arguments or explications of the peculiar doctrines of our sect, and were all to me very dry, uninteresting, and unedifying, since not a single moral principle was inculcated or enforced, their aim seeming to be rather to make us Presbyterians than good -- Benjamin Franklin
The Constitution only guarantees the American people the right to pursue happiness. You have to catch it yourself. -- Benjamin Franklin
I wish to live without committing any fault at any time. -- Benjamin Franklin
Here Skugg lies snug As a bug in a rug. -- Benjamin Franklin
The devil wipes his breech with poor folks' pride. -- Benjamin Franklin
Death takes no bribes. -- Benjamin Franklin
Innocence is its own defense. -- Benjamin Franklin
Many have been ruined by buying good Pennyworths. -- Benjamin Franklin
In 1736 I lost one of my sons, a fine boy of four years old, by the small-pox, taken in the common way. I long regretted bitterly, and still regret that I had not given it to him by inoculation. -- Benjamin Franklin
I am about courting a girl I have had but little acquaintance with. How shall I come to a knowledge of her faults, and whether she has the virtues I imagine she has? Answer. Commend her among her female acquaintances. -- Benjamin Franklin
There are three faithful friends, an old wife, an old dog, and ready money. -- Benjamin Franklin
How few there are who have courage enough to own their faults, or resolution enough to mend them. -- Benjamin Franklin
Love and toothache have many cures, but none infallible, except possession and dispossession. -- Benjamin Franklin
Dangerous, therefore, is it to take shelter under a tree, during a thunder-gust. It has been fatal to many, both men and beasts. -- Benjamin Franklin
Persons of good sense, I have since observed, seldom fall into disputation, except lawyers, university men, and men of all sorts that have been bred at Edinburgh. -- Benjamin Franklin
Masonic ideas are the precious jewels of Speculative Masons; the should be kept bright and sparkling for all the brethren to see and to admire. As such, they should be the special care of Masonic leaders particularly those who teach and interpret the philosophy of Freemasonry. -- Benjamin Franklin
It is the religion of ignorance that tyranny begins. -- Benjamin Franklin
The good will of the governed will be starved if not fed by the good deeds of the governors. -- Benjamin Franklin
Do good to thy friend to keep him, to thy enemy to gain him. -- Benjamin Franklin
Wine is constant proof that God loves us and loves to see us happy. -- Benjamin Franklin
Hunger never saw bad bread. -- Benjamin Franklin
While we may not be able to control all that happens to us, we can control what happens inside us. -- Benjamin Franklin
Keep out of the Sight of Feasts and Banquets as much as may be; for 'tis more difficult to refrain good Cheer, when it's present, than from the Desire of it when it is away; the like you may observe in the Objects of all the other Senses. -- Benjamin Franklin
Dally not with other folk's spouses or money. -- Benjamin Franklin
Tell me and I forget, teach me and I may remember, involve me and I learn. -- Benjamin Franklin
Do not anticipate trouble, or worry about what may never happen.
Keep in the sunlight. -- Benjamin Franklin
Keep thy shop, and thy shop will keep thee. Poor Richard -- Benjamin Franklin
Make yourself sheep and the wolves will eat you. -- Benjamin Franklin
Better is little with the fear of the Lord, than great treasure, and trouble therewith. -- Benjamin Franklin
I fear the man who drinks water and so remembers this morning what the rest of us said last night -- Benjamin Franklin
Remember that credit is money. -- Benjamin Franklin
I am captivated more by dreams of the future then history of the past. -- Benjamin Franklin
Genius without education is like silver in the mine. -- Benjamin Franklin
My companion at the press drank every day a pint before breakfast, a pint at breakfast with his bread and cheese, a pint between breakfast and dinner, a pint at dinner, a pint in the afternoon about six o'clock, and another when he had done his day's work. -- Benjamin Franklin
I therefore beg leave to move that henceforth prayers imploring the assistance of Heaven, and its blessing on our deliberations, be held in this Assembly every morning ... -- Benjamin Franklin
If thou hast wit and learning, add to it wisdom and modesty. -- Benjamin Franklin
Remember, Sir, that [England] began the slave trade! -- Benjamin Franklin
The madness of mobs or the insolence of soldiers, or both, when too near to each other, occasion some mischief. -- Benjamin Franklin
A little neglect may breed mischief; for want of a nail the shoe was lost; for want a horse the rider was lost; for want of the rider the battle was lost. -- Benjamin Franklin
When the well is dry, people know the worth of water. [so appreciate what you have while you have it] -- Benjamin Franklin
Genius is nothing but a greater aptitude for patience. -- Benjamin Franklin
In order to be happy you need a good dog, a good woman, and ready money. -- Benjamin Franklin
Fish and visitors smell in three days. -- Benjamin Franklin
The only certain things in life are death and taxes! -- Benjamin Franklin
Private property ... is the creature of society and is subject to the calls of that society even to the last farthing. -- Benjamin Franklin
He who drinks his cider alone, let him catch his horse alone. -- Benjamin Franklin
God works wonders now and then; Behold a lawyer, an honest man. -- Benjamin Franklin
Ill customs and bad advice are seldom forgotten. -- Benjamin Franklin
It is better to take many injuries than to give one. -- Benjamin Franklin
At 20 years of age the Will reigns; at 30 the Wit; at 40 the Judgment. -- Benjamin Franklin
It would be thought a hard government that should tax its people one tenth part. -- Benjamin Franklin
Some people die at age 25 and aren't buried until they are 75. -- Benjamin Franklin
Most men die at 25, we just don't bury them until they are 70. -- Benjamin Franklin
Anyone who trades liberty for security deserves neither liberty nor security. -- Benjamin Franklin
Eat to please thyself, but dress to please others. -- Benjamin Franklin
Be civil to all; sociable to many; familiar with few; friend to one; enemy to none. -- Benjamin Franklin
Speak with contempt of none, from slave to king, The meanest Bee hath, and will use, a sting. -- Benjamin Franklin
If a man would reap praise, you must sow the seeds, gentle words and useful deeds. -- Benjamin Franklin
He that spends a Groat a day idly, spends idly above 6 l. a year, which is the Price of using 100 l. -- Benjamin Franklin
There is no kind of dishonesty into which otherwise good people more easily and frequently fall than that of defrauding the government. -- Benjamin Franklin
If you would be remembered, write a book worth the reading or live a life worth the writing about. -- Benjamin Franklin
Till we are uneasy in Rest, we can have no Desire to move, and without Desire of moving there can be no voluntary Motion. -- Benjamin Franklin
Those who desire to give up freedom in order to gain security will not have either one. -- Benjamin Franklin
Beware of little expenses; A small leak will sink a great ship, as Poor Richard says; and again, Who dainties love, shall beggars prove; and moreover, Fools make feasts, and wise men eat them. -- Benjamin Franklin
The one who fails to prepare is preparing to fail. -- Benjamin Franklin
The man who trades freedom for security does not deserve nor will he ever receive either. -- Benjamin Franklin
Those who surrender freedom for security will not have, nor do they deserve, either one. -- Benjamin Franklin
An apple a day keeps the doctor away. -- Benjamin Franklin
Blame-all and Praise-all are two blockheads. -- Benjamin Franklin
Life biggest tragedy is that we get old too soon and wise too late -- Benjamin Franklin
Wealth is not his that has it, but his that enjoys it. -- Benjamin Franklin
No employment can be managed without arithmetic, no mechanical invention without geometry. -- Benjamin Franklin
Great talkers are little doers. -- Benjamin Franklin
On second thought, it's a good thing love is blind otherwise it would see too much. -- Benjamin Franklin
Perhaps I was too saucy and provoking. -- Benjamin Franklin
Hereafter, if you should observe an occasion to give your officers and friends a little more praise than is their due, and confess more fault than you can justly be charged with, you will only become the sooner for it, a great captain. -- Benjamin Franklin
Whenever we attempt to mend the scheme of Providence and to interfere in the Government of the world, we had need be very circumspect lest we do more harm than good. -- Benjamin Franklin
Ignorance leads men into a party, and shame keeps them from getting out again. -- Benjamin Franklin
The English love an insult. It's their only test of a man's sincerity. -- Benjamin Franklin
Let honesty and industry be thy constant companions, and spend one penny less than thy clear gains; then shall thy pocket begin to thrive; creditors will not insult, nor want oppress, nor hungerness bite, nor nakedness freeze thee -- Benjamin Franklin
At twenty years of age the will reigns; at thirty, the wit; and at forty, the judgment. -- Benjamin Franklin
Better slip with foot than tongue. -- Benjamin Franklin
He that lives upon hope will die farting. -- Benjamin Franklin
Perhaps I'm too saucy or provoking? -- Benjamin Franklin
In America, they do not inquire of a stranger, "What is he?" but, "What can he do?" -- Benjamin Franklin
Can anything be constant in a world which is eternally changing? -- Benjamin Franklin
Some books we read, tho' few there are that hit the happy point where wisdom joins with wit. -- Benjamin Franklin
In the beginning of the contest with Britain, when we were sensible of danger, we had daily prayers in this room for Divine protection," he stated. "Our prayers, Sir, were heard, and they were graciously answered ... Do we imagine we no longer need His assistance? -- Benjamin Franklin
He that drinks fast, pays slow. -- Benjamin Franklin
You have on hand those things that you need if you have but the wit and wisdom to use them. -- Benjamin Franklin
Don't go to the doctor with every distemper, nor to the lawyer with every quarrel, nor to the pot for every thirst. -- Benjamin Franklin
He that waits upon fortune, is never sure of a dinner. -- Benjamin Franklin
Some of the domestic evils of drunkenness are houses without windows, gardens without fences, fields without tillage, barns without roofs, children without clothing, principles, morals or manners. -- Benjamin Franklin
Approve not of him who commends all you say. -- Benjamin Franklin
Discontented Minds, and Fevers of the Body are not to be cured by changing Beds or Businesses. -- Benjamin Franklin
Taxes on consumption, like those on capital or income, to be just, must be uniform. -- Benjamin Franklin
A mob's a monster; heads enough but no brains. -- Benjamin Franklin
Distrust and caution are the parents of security. -- Benjamin Franklin
To lengthen thy life, lessen thy meals. -- Benjamin Franklin
Those who give up liberty for the sake of security, deserve neither liberty nor security. -- Benjamin Franklin
If you have a secret and tell someone everyone will know. You can only keep a secret if you don't tell anyone. -- Benjamin Franklin
Rules too soft are seldomly followed; rules too harsh are seldomly executed. -- Benjamin Franklin
Be not sick too late, nor well too soon -- Benjamin Franklin
[It was] the poverty caused by the bad influence of the English bankers on the Parliament which has caused in the colonies hatred of the English and ... the Revolutionary War. -- Benjamin Franklin
Tis easy to see, hard to foresee. -- Benjamin Franklin
A book indeed sometimes debauched me from my work ... -- Benjamin Franklin
Wherever desirable superfluities are imported, industry is excited, and thereby plenty is produced. Were only necessaries permitted to be purchased, men would work no more than was necessary for that purpose. -- Benjamin Franklin
Laziness travels so slowly that poverty soon overtakes it. -- Benjamin Franklin
He that has once done you a kindness will be more ready to do you another, than he whom you yourself have obliged. -- Benjamin Franklin
Nothing but Money, Is sweeter than Honey. -- Benjamin Franklin
You have two choices, write about something of significance or do something someone wants to write about. -- Benjamin Franklin
The great secret of succeeding in conversation is to admire little, to hear
much; always to distrust our own reason, and sometimes that of our
friends; never to pretend to wit, but to make that of others appear as much
as possibly we can; to hearken. -- Benjamin Franklin
Were the offer made true, I would engage to run again, from beginning to end, the same career of life. All I would ask should be the privilege of an author, to correct, in a second edition, certain errors of the first. -- Benjamin Franklin
if the Mufti of Constantinople were to send a missionary to preach Mohammedanism to us, he would find a pulpit at his service. -- Benjamin Franklin
If Jack's in love, he's no judge of Jill's beauty. -- Benjamin Franklin
Tis against some mens principle to pay interest, and seems against others interest to pay the principle. -- Benjamin Franklin
Ambition has its disappointments to sour us, but never the good fortune to satisfy us. -- Benjamin Franklin
An investment in knowledge pays the best interest. -- Benjamin Franklin
Never take a wife till thou hast a house(and a fire) to put her in. -- Benjamin Franklin
You don't get somebody to like you by doing them a favor. That only tends to build resentment over the fact that they are needy and you are not. No, you ask them to do you a favor. -- Benjamin Franklin
She that paints her Face, thinks of her Tail. -- Benjamin Franklin
In a discreet man's mouth, a public thing is private. -- Benjamin Franklin
If all printers were determined not to print anything till they were sure it would offend nobody, there would be very little printed. -- Benjamin Franklin
The King's cheese is half wasted in parings: But no matter, 'tis made of the people's milk. -- Benjamin Franklin
Therefore, if he would eat that with a pint of water, -- Benjamin Franklin
When you assemble a number of men to have the advantage of their joint wisdom, you inevitably assemble with those men all their prejudices, their passions, their errors of opinion, their local interests and their selfish views. -- Benjamin Franklin
If I could see one live show before I died, I'd see Lucy Angel -- Benjamin Franklin
One of the greatest tragedies of life is the murder of a beautiful theory by a gang of brutal facts. -- Benjamin Franklin
A little Religion, and a little Honesty, goes a great way in Courts. -- Benjamin Franklin
Sell not virtue to purchase wealth, nor liberty to purchase power. -- Benjamin Franklin
Creditors are a superstitious sect, great observers of set days and times. -- Benjamin Franklin
He's gone, and forgot nothing but to say farewell to his creditors -- Benjamin Franklin
Creditors have better memories than debtors. -- Benjamin Franklin
If you have a bald head don't walk out in the sun because you will get burned. -- Benjamin Franklin
Take the money in your wallet and invest it in your mind. And in return, your mind will fill up your wallet! -- Benjamin Franklin
Lost time can never be found again -- Benjamin Franklin
It is better to let 100 criminals go free than to imprison 1 innocent man. -- Benjamin Franklin
If you wou'd be reveng'd of your enemy, govern your self -- Benjamin Franklin
When I wake up in the morning, I immediately check the morning paper. If my name is not in the obituaries, I get up -- Benjamin Franklin
The greatest monarch on the proudest throne is obliged to sit upon his own arse. -- Benjamin Franklin
A little sturdiness when superiors are much in the wrong sometimes occasions consideration. And there is truth in the old saying that if you make yourself a sheep, the wolves will eat you. -- Benjamin Franklin
In free governments the rulers are the servants and the people are their superiors and sovereigns. -- Benjamin Franklin
An Episcopalian divine once told the Pope that the only difference between their denominations was that "the Church of Rome is infallible and the Church of England is never in the wrong." -- Benjamin Franklin
If you would not be laughed at, be the first to laugh at yourself. -- Benjamin Franklin
The doorstep to the temple of wisdom is a knowledge of our own ignorance. -- Benjamin Franklin
Two dry Sticks will burn a green One. -- Benjamin Franklin
That man alone loves himself rightly who procures the greatest possible good to himself through the whole of his existence and so pursues pleasure as not to give for it more than it is worth. -- Benjamin Franklin
Here comes the orator with his flood of words and his drop of reason. -- Benjamin Franklin
No nation has ever been ruined by trade. -- Benjamin Franklin
What physicians call perspirable matter is that vapour which passes off from our bodies, from the lungs, and through the pores of the skin. The quantity of this is said to be five eighths of what we eat. - Author. -- Benjamin Franklin
Some people are weatherwise, but most are otherwise. -- Benjamin Franklin
By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail. -- Benjamin Franklin
Wisdom is in measured routine. Three naps a day will keep you fit, nine breakfasts before noon, spin until you fall on your back, and thrust your face into a nettle plant. Drink at least five cups of a mare's urine and look upon your self in a silver mirror while you hold your air in your chest. -- Benjamin Franklin
It is ill-manners to silence a fool and cruelty to let him go on -- Benjamin Franklin
Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing. -- Benjamin Franklin
The use of money is all the advantage there is in having it. -- Benjamin Franklin
The busy man has few idle visitors; to the boiling pot the flies come not. -- Benjamin Franklin
Constant complaint is the poorest sort of pay for all the comforts we enjoy. -- Benjamin Franklin
Who is strong? He that can conquer his bad habits. -- Benjamin Franklin
Take Courage, Mortal; Death can't banish thee out of the Universe. -- Benjamin Franklin
Your net worth to the
world is usually determined by what
remains after your bad habits are
subtracted from your good ones -- Benjamin Franklin
After three days men grow weary, of a wench, a guest, and weather rainy. -- Benjamin Franklin
In other men we faults can spy,/ And blame the mote that dims their eye;/ Each little speck and blemish find;/ To our own stronger errors blind. -- Benjamin Franklin
Cut the Wings of your Hens and Hopes, lest they lead you a weary Dance after them. -- Benjamin Franklin
The U. S. Constitution doesn't guarantee happiness, only the pursuit of it. You have to catch up with it yourself. -- Benjamin Franklin
A temperate Diet frees from Diseases; such are seldom ill, but if they are surprised with Sickness, they bear it better, and recover sooner; for most Distempers have their Original from Repletion. -- Benjamin Franklin
Nothing's so apt to undermine your confidence in a product as knowing that the commercial selling it has been approved by the company that makes it. -- Benjamin Franklin
A slip of the foot you may soon recover, but a slip of the tongue you may never get over. -- Benjamin Franklin
You tell me, and I forget
You teach me, and I remember
You involve me, and I learn -- Benjamin Franklin
A wise man will desire no more than what he may get justly, use soberly, distribute cheerfully, and leave contently. -- Benjamin Franklin
He's a fool who cannot conceal his wisdom. -- Benjamin Franklin
The pleasures of this world are rather from God's goodness than our own merit. -- Benjamin Franklin
Carelessness does more harm than a want of knowledge. -- Benjamin Franklin
Sin is not hurtful because it is forbidden,
but it is forbidden because it is hurtful. -- Benjamin Franklin
There is no good war or bad peace -- Benjamin Franklin
If you have time don't wait for time. -- Benjamin Franklin
Since I cannot govern my own tongue, though within my own teeth, how can I hope to govern the tongue of others? -- Benjamin Franklin
Whoever feels pain in hearing a good character of his neighbor, will feel a pleasure in the reverse. And those who despair to rise in distinction by their virtues, are happy if others can be depressed to a level of themselves. -- Benjamin Franklin
The handshake of the host affects the taste of the roast -- Benjamin Franklin
Beware of the young doctor and the old barber. -- Benjamin Franklin
For my own part, I wish the bald eagle had not been chosen the representative of our country. He is a bird of bad moral character. He does not get his living honestly. -- Benjamin Franklin
Reckless youth makes rueful age. -- Benjamin Franklin
Love of country is the Mason's deed; world citizenship is his thought. -- Benjamin Franklin
This was, therefore, the first house I was in, or slept in, in Philadelphia. -- Benjamin Franklin
If any form of government is capable of making a nation happy, ours I think bids fair now for producing that effect. But after all much depends upon the people who are governed. -- Benjamin Franklin
Pride breakfasted with plenty, dined with poverty, and supped with infamy. -- Benjamin Franklin
After three days houseguests and food begins to stink! -- Benjamin Franklin
While the path to wealth is clearly marked, few are willing to adapt themselves to the modest discipline that the journey requires. Instead, most choose the shinier track of debt-driven consumption, which they find further along is covered in vines and thorns. -- Benjamin Franklin
A fine genius in his own country is like gold in the mine. -- Benjamin Franklin
If Men are so wicked as we now see them with Religion what would they be if without it? -- Benjamin Franklin
Do not squander time, for that is the stuff life is made out of. -- Benjamin Franklin
Rebellion against tyrants is obedience to God. -- Benjamin Franklin
Keep your eyes wide open before marriage, half shut afterwards. -- Benjamin Franklin
Anger and folly walk cheek by sole. -- Benjamin Franklin
He'll cheat without scruple, who can without fear. -- Benjamin Franklin
Virtues, of ...
Justice: Wrong none by doing injuries or omitting the benefits that are your duty. -- Benjamin Franklin
God bless the King, and grant him long to Reign. -- Benjamin Franklin
Anger warms the invention, but overheats the oven. -- Benjamin Franklin
Let the child's first lesson be obedience, and the second will be what thou wilt. -- Benjamin Franklin
Absence sharpens love, presence strengthens it. -- Benjamin Franklin
Tis a great confidence in a friend to tell him your faults; greater to tell him his. -- Benjamin Franklin
Why ruin a young girl's life when you can make an older women SO very happy ! -- Benjamin Franklin
An enormous proportion of property vested in a few individuals is dangerous to the rights, and destructive of the common happiness of mankind, and, therefore, every free state hath a right by its laws to discourage the possession of such property. -- Benjamin Franklin
Marriage is the most natural state of man, and ... the state in which you will find solid happiness. -- Benjamin Franklin
Instead of cursing the darkness, light a candle. -- Benjamin Franklin
The sun of liberty is set; you must light up the candle of industry and economy. -- Benjamin Franklin
Nine men in ten are suicides. -- Benjamin Franklin
Alas, I know if I ever became truly humble, I would be proud of it. -- Benjamin Franklin
He who is good at making excuses is seldom good at anything else. -- Benjamin Franklin
We should make the poor uncomfortable and kick them out of poverty. -- Benjamin Franklin
If we are industrious, we shall never starve; for, at the workingman's house hunger looks in, but dares not enter. Nor will the bailiff or the constable enter, for industry pays debts, while despair increaseth them. -- Benjamin Franklin
The only time not wasted is wasted time. -- Benjamin Franklin
The second vice is lying, the first is running in debt. -- Benjamin Franklin
It is very imprudent to deprive America of any of her privileges. If her commerce and friendship are of any importance to you, they are to be had on no other terms than leaving her in the full enjoyment of her rights. -- Benjamin Franklin
Now I've a sheep and a cow, every body bids me good morrow. -- Benjamin Franklin
I have met the enemy, and it is the eyes of other people. -- Benjamin Franklin
Sloth and Silence are a Fool's Virtues -- Benjamin Franklin
The misers cheese is wholesomest -- Benjamin Franklin
The eye of the master will do more work than both his hands. -- Benjamin Franklin
Persuaded, therefore, that ere long some ingenious -- Benjamin Franklin
Families ought to be noisy. -- Benjamin Franklin
Wise men learn by others' harms, fools scarcely by their own. -- Benjamin Franklin
Britain was formerly the America of the Germans. -- Benjamin Franklin
If our great view is upon those of the next, the expectation of them is an infinitely higher satisfaction than the enjoyment of those of the present. -- Benjamin Franklin
You may give give a man office, but you cannot give him discretion -- Benjamin Franklin
Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise. -- Benjamin Franklin
E'er you remark another's sin, bid your own conscience look within. -- Benjamin Franklin
Lend money to an enemy, and thou will gain him, to a friend and thou will lose him. -- Benjamin Franklin
One Man may be more cunning than another, but not more cunning than every body else. -- Benjamin Franklin
Masonic labor is purely a labor of love. He who seeks to draw Masonic wages in gold and silver will be disappointed. The wages of a Mason are in the dealings with one another; sympathy begets sympathy, kindness begets kindness, helpfulness begets helpfulness, and these are the wages of a Mason. -- Benjamin Franklin
Poverty wants some things, Luxury many things, Avarice all things -- Benjamin Franklin
He that sells upon Credit expects to lose 5 per Cent. By bad Debts; therefore he charges, on all he sells upon Credit, an Advance that shall make up that Deficiency. -- Benjamin Franklin
An undutiful daughter will prove an unmanageable wife. -- Benjamin Franklin
Time eateth all things, could old poets say, The times are chang'd, our times drink all away. -- Benjamin Franklin
A traveller should have a hog's nose, a deer's legs, and an ass's back. -- Benjamin Franklin
Those who govern, having much business on their hands, do not generally like to take the trouble of considering and carrying into execution new projects. The best public measures are therefore seldom adopted from previous wisdom, but forced by the occasion. -- Benjamin Franklin
Make use of your friends by being of use to them. -- Benjamin Franklin
School and other education constantly proceed upon false principles, and show a clumsy apparatus pointed at a false mark; but your apparatus is simple, and the mark a true one; -- Benjamin Franklin
Strive to be the best and you may succeed: he may well win the race that runs by himself. -- Benjamin Franklin
We need a revolution every 200 years, because all governments become stale and corrupt after 200 years. -- Benjamin Franklin
Our whole life is but a greater and longer childhood. -- Benjamin Franklin
I grew convinc'd that truth, sincerity and integrity in dealings between man and man were of the utmost importance to the felicity of life; -- Benjamin Franklin
Be neither silly, nor cunning, but wise -- Benjamin Franklin
Spare when young, and spend when old. -- Benjamin Franklin
A place for everything, everything in its place. -- Benjamin Franklin
It is much easier to suppress a first desire than to satisfy those that follow. -- Benjamin Franklin
Diplomacy is seduction in another guise, Mr. Adams. One improves with practice. -- Benjamin Franklin
He that would thrive must ask his wife." It -- Benjamin Franklin
If you do not exclude them, in less than 200 years our descendants will be working in the fields to furnish them substance, while they will be in the counting houses rubbing their hands. I warn you, gentlemen, if you do not exclude Jews for all time, your children will curse you in your graves. -- Benjamin Franklin
Even peace may be purchased at too high a price. -- Benjamin Franklin
Enjoy the present hour, be mindful of the past; And neither fear nor wish the Approaches of the last. Learn of the skillful: He that teaches himself, hath a fool for his master. -- Benjamin Franklin
The foundation of all happiness in thinking rightly. -- Benjamin Franklin
He that would live in peace and at ease, must not speak all he knows nor judge all he sees. -- Benjamin Franklin
The grand leap of the whale up the Fall of Niagara is esteemed, by all who have seen it, as one of the finest spectacles in nature. -- Benjamin Franklin
Danger is sauce for prayers. -- Benjamin Franklin
Take courage, Mortal ... Death cannot banish you from the Universe. -- Benjamin Franklin
A countryman between two lawyers is like a fish between two cats. -- Benjamin Franklin
If you would know the worth of money, go and try to borrow some. -- Benjamin Franklin
Fond pride of dress is sure a very curse -- Benjamin Franklin
A nod from a lord is a breakfast for a fool. -- Benjamin Franklin
Believe none of what you hear, and only half of what you see. -- Benjamin Franklin
Humility makes great men twice honorable -- Benjamin Franklin
Necessity knows no law; I know some attorneys of the same. -- Benjamin Franklin
Life is rather a state of embryo, a preparation for life; a man is not completely born till he has passed through death. -- Benjamin Franklin
For want of modesty is want of sense. -- Benjamin Franklin
Rich widows are the only secondhand goods that sell at first-class prices. -- Benjamin Franklin
If passion drives you, let reason hold the reins. -- Benjamin Franklin
The riches of a country are to be valued by the quantity of labor its inhabitants are able to purchase, and not by the quantity of silver and gold they possess; which will purchase more or less labor, and therefore is more or less valuable, as is said before, according to its scarcity or plenty. -- Benjamin Franklin
Laws too gentle are seldom obeyed; too severe, seldom executed. -- Benjamin Franklin
When the well is dry we know the value of water -- Benjamin Franklin
Let every one ascertain his special business and calling, and then stick to it if he wants to be successful. -- Benjamin Franklin
One of the advantages of being a 'reasonable creature' is that one can find a reason for whatever one wants to do. -- Benjamin Franklin
Beware of meat twice boiled, and an old foe reconciled. -- Benjamin Franklin
Speak little, do much. -- Benjamin Franklin
The securest place is a prison cell, but there is no liberty -- Benjamin Franklin
Want of care does us more damage than want of knowledge -- Benjamin Franklin
It was said of him that he did not say much, but that when he did everyone stopped to listen. -- Benjamin Franklin
Would you live with ease,
Do what you ought, and not what you please. -- Benjamin Franklin
Often I sit up in my room reading the greatest part of the night, when the book was borrowed in the evening and to be returned early in the morning, lest it should be missed or wanted. -- Benjamin Franklin
He that won't be counseled can't be helped. -- Benjamin Franklin
The cunning man steals a horse, the wise man lets him alone. -- Benjamin Franklin
I never knew a man who was good at making excuses who was good at anything else. -- Benjamin Franklin
Any society that would give up essential liberty to obtain a little security will deserve neither and lose both.
Ben Franklin -- Benjamin Franklin
Righteousness, or justice, is, undoubtedly of all the virtues, the surest foundation on which to create and establish a new state. But there are two nobler virtues, industry and frugality, which tend more to increase the wealth, power and grandeur of the community, than all the others without them. -- Benjamin Franklin
Today is Yesterday's Pupil. -- Benjamin Franklin
Time is the stuff life is made of. -- Benjamin Franklin
We must hang together or we will surely hang separately -- Benjamin Franklin
It seems to me, that if statesmen had a little more arithmetic, or were accustomed to calculation, wars would be much less frequent. -- Benjamin Franklin
If you wouldn't live long, live well; for folly and wickedness shorten life. -- Benjamin Franklin
A quarrelsome man has no good neighbours. -- Benjamin Franklin
All who think cannot but see there is a sanction like that of religion which binds us in partnership in the serious work of the world. -- Benjamin Franklin
A word to the wise is enough, and many words won't fill a bushel. -- Benjamin Franklin
All human situations have their inconveniences. We feel those of the present but neither see nor feel those of the future; and hence we often make troublesome changes without amendment, and frequently for the worse. -- Benjamin Franklin
Immodest words admit of no defense, For want of modesty is want of sense. -- Benjamin Franklin
Speak ill of no man, but speak all the good you know of everybody. -- Benjamin Franklin
Learn of the skillful; he that teaches himself, has a fool for his master. -- Benjamin Franklin
If you would have a faithful servant, and one that you like, serve yourself. -- Benjamin Franklin
Diligence overcomes difficulties; sloth makes them. -- Benjamin Franklin
A man may, if he knows not how to save as he gets, keep his nose to the grindstone. -- Benjamin Franklin
The church, the state, and the poor, are 3 daughters which we should maintain, but not portion off. -- Benjamin Franklin
In the Affairs of this World Men are saved, not by Faith,
but by the Lack of it. -- Benjamin Franklin
The people heard it, and approved the doctrine, and immediately practiced the contrary. -- Benjamin Franklin
Virtue may not always make a Face handsome, but Vice will certainly make it ugly. -- Benjamin Franklin
Nothing preaches better than the act. -- Benjamin Franklin
Opportunity is the great bawd. -- Benjamin Franklin
We are not so sensible of the greatest Health as of the least Sickness. -- Benjamin Franklin
If time be of all things the most precious, wasting time must be the greatest prodigality. -- Benjamin Franklin
He who is in love with himself has no rivals. -- Benjamin Franklin
Hold your Council before Dinner; the full Belly hates Thinking as well as Acting. -- Benjamin Franklin
Words may show a man's wit, actions his meaning. -- Benjamin Franklin
Glass, China, and Reputation, are easily cracked, and never well mended. -- Benjamin Franklin
Arguing is a game that two can play at. But it is a strange game in that neither opponent ever wins. -- Benjamin Franklin
A friend in need is a friend indeed! -- Benjamin Franklin
The Sting of a reproach, is the Truth of it. -- Benjamin Franklin
Wish not so much to live long as to live well. -- Benjamin Franklin
He is not well bred, that cannot bear ill breeding in others. -- Benjamin Franklin
Disdain the chain, preserve your freedom; and maintain your independency: be industrious and free; be frugal and free. -- Benjamin Franklin
If you want a neat wife, choose her on a Saturday. -- Benjamin Franklin
If you would be wealthy, think of saving as well as getting. -- Benjamin Franklin
When nature gave us tears, She gave us leave to weep. -- Benjamin Franklin
Great hopes make everything great possible -- Benjamin Franklin
Gain may be temporary and uncertain; but ever while you live, expense is constant and certain: and it is easier to build two chimneys than to keep one in fuel. -- Benjamin Franklin
There are no fools so troublesome as those that have wit. -- Benjamin Franklin
He that hath a Trade, hath an Estate. -- Benjamin Franklin
Prodigality of Time produces Poverty of Mind as well as of Estate. -- Benjamin Franklin
Pity and forbearance should characterize all acts of justice. -- Benjamin Franklin
Out of adversity comes opportunity. -- Benjamin Franklin
Haste makes waste. -- Benjamin Franklin
I have heard that nothing gives an Author so great Pleasure, as to find his works respectfully quoted by other learned authors. -- Benjamin Franklin
Where sense is wanting, everything is wanting. -- Benjamin Franklin
To all apparent beauties blind, each blemish strikes an envious mind. -- Benjamin Franklin
I think vital religion has always suffered when orthodoxy is more regarded than virtue. The scriptures assure me that at the last day we shall not be examined on what we thought but what we did. -- Benjamin Franklin
A ploughman on his legs is higher than a gentleman on his knees -- Benjamin Franklin
A small leak will sink a great ship. -- Benjamin Franklin
Little leaks sink the ship. -- Benjamin Franklin
Take a coin from your purse and invest it in your mind. It will come pouring out of your mind and overflow your purse. -- Benjamin Franklin
A father's a treasure; a brother's a comfort; a friend is both. -- Benjamin Franklin
If we restrict liberty to attain security we will lose them both. -- Benjamin Franklin
Nine men in ten are would be suicides. -- Benjamin Franklin
As we must account for every idle word, so must we account for every idle silence. -- Benjamin Franklin
There have been as great souls unknown to fame as any of the most famous. -- Benjamin Franklin
It is much to be lamented that a man of Franklin's general good character and great influence should have been an unbeliever in Christianity, and also have done as much as he did to make others unbelievers. -- Benjamin Franklin
The key that unlocks a door is a key to keep if you want to go through that door again. -- Benjamin Franklin
Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn. -- Benjamin Franklin
A full Belly makes a dull Brain: The Muses starve in a Cook's Shop. -- Benjamin Franklin
Words may show a man's wit but actions his meaning. -- Benjamin Franklin
A Republic Madam...if you can keep it. -- Benjamin Franklin
The same man cannot be both Friend and Flatterer. -- Benjamin Franklin
Twas Noah who first planted the vine
And mended his morals by drinking its wine. -- Benjamin Franklin
Experience keeps a dear school, but fools will learn in no other, and scarce in that. -- Benjamin Franklin
After getting the first hundred pounds, it is more easy to get the second. -- Benjamin Franklin
I conceive that the great part of the miseries of mankind are brought upon them by false estimates they have made of the value of things. -- Benjamin Franklin
Onions can make even Heirs and Widows weep. -- Benjamin Franklin
Wealth and Content are not always Bed-fellows. -- Benjamin Franklin
When men are employed they are best contented. -- Benjamin Franklin
If you'd be beloved, make yourself amiable. A true friend is the best possession. -- Benjamin Franklin
Women and wine, game and deceit, make the wealth small, and the want great -- Benjamin Franklin
In short, I conceive that a great part of the miseries of mankind are brought upon them by the false estimates they have made of the value of things, and by their giving too much for their whistles. -- Benjamin Franklin
He that pays for work before it's done, has but a pennyworth for two pence. -- Benjamin Franklin
Beer is God's way of telling us that he loves us and wants us to be happy. -- Benjamin Franklin
Virtues, of ...
Moderation: Avoid extremes. Forbear resenting injuries so much as you think they deserve. -- Benjamin Franklin
Evil, as evil, can never be chosen; and though evil is often the effect of our own choice, yet we never desire it but under the appearance of an imaginary good. -- Benjamin Franklin
Those who would trade in their freedom for their protection deserve neither. -- Benjamin Franklin
Cold & cunning come from the north: But cunning sans wisdom is nothing worth. -- Benjamin Franklin
Life is a kind of Chess, with struggle, competition, good and ill events. -- Benjamin Franklin
Kill no more pigeons than you can eat. -- Benjamin Franklin
The honest Man takes Pains, and then enjoys Pleasures; the knave takes Pleasure, and then suffers Pains. -- Benjamin Franklin
A truly great man will neither trample on a worm nor sneak to an emperor -- Benjamin Franklin
Do not fear mistakes. -- Benjamin Franklin
Those who give up their liberty for more security neither deserve liberty nor security. -- Benjamin Franklin
He that can have patience can have what he will. -- Benjamin Franklin
The best doctor gives the least medicines. -- Benjamin Franklin
Getting it done is my reward. -- Benjamin Franklin
Increase in me that wisdom
Which discovers my truest interest,
Strengthen my resolution
To perform that which wisdom dictates. -- Benjamin Franklin
Handle your tools without mittens. -- Benjamin Franklin
Who judges best of a Man, his Enemies or himself? -- Benjamin Franklin
I have no private interest in the reception of my inventions by the world, having never made, nor proposed to make, the least profit by any of them. -- Benjamin Franklin
Tis hard for an empty bag to stand upright. -- Benjamin Franklin
Freedom of speech is the great bulwark of liberty; they prosper and die together: And it is the terror of traitors and oppressors, and a barrier against them. It produces excellent writers, and encourages men of fine genius. -- Benjamin Franklin
If you would persuade, you must appeal to interest rather than intellect. -- Benjamin Franklin
The world is full of fools and faint hearts; and yet everyone has courage enough to bear the misfortunes, and wisdom enough to manage the affairs, of his neighbor. -- Benjamin Franklin
It is a bad temper of mind that takes delight in opposition. -- Benjamin Franklin
On the whole, sir, I can not help expressing a wish that every member of the convention who may still have objections to it, would, with me, on this occasion, doubt a little of his own infallibility, and, to make manifest our unanimity, put his name to this instrument. -- Benjamin Franklin
To bear other people's afflictions, everyone has courage and enough to spare. -- Benjamin Franklin
Paintings and fightings are best seen at a distance. -- Benjamin Franklin
In reality there is perhaps no one of our natural Passions so hard to subdue as Pride. Disguise it, struggle with it, beat it down, stifle it, mortify it as much as one pleases, it is still alive, and will now and then peek out and show itself. -- Benjamin Franklin
Freedom is not a gift bestowed upon us by other men, but a right that belongs to us by the laws of God and nature. -- Benjamin Franklin
It is very hard to dislike someone you have helped -- Benjamin Franklin
Men should be taught as if you taught them not, And things unknown propos'd as things forgot; -- Benjamin Franklin
Don't you know, that all wives are in the right? It may be you don't, for you are yet a young husband. -- Benjamin Franklin
You will observe with concern how long a useful truth may be known, and exist, before it is generally received and practiced on. -- Benjamin Franklin
There are three kinds of people: those that are immovable, those that are movable, and those who move. -- Benjamin Franklin
All mankind is divided into three classes: those that are immovable, those that are movable, and those that move. -- Benjamin Franklin
He that best understands the world, least likes it -- Benjamin Franklin
Our Constitution is in actual operation; everything appears to promise that it will last; but in this world nothing is certain but death and taxes. -- Benjamin Franklin
There is much difference between imitating a good man and counterfeiting him. -- Benjamin Franklin
Since such a repetition is not to be expected, the next thing most like living one's life over again seems to be a recollection of that life, and to make that recollection as durable as possible by putting it down in writing. Hereby, -- Benjamin Franklin
When you are finished changing, you're finished. -- Benjamin Franklin
Work as if you were to live a hundred years. Pray as if you were to die tomorrow. -- Benjamin Franklin
Gaining money by my industry and frugality, I lived very agreeably ... -- Benjamin Franklin
No European who has tasted savage life can afterwards bear to live in our societies. -- Benjamin Franklin
There was never a bad peace or a good war. -- Benjamin Franklin
If the elbow had been placed closer to the hand, the forearm would have been too short to bring the glass to the mouth; and if it had been closer to the shoulder, the forearm would have been so long that it would have carried the glass beyond the mouth. -- Benjamin Franklin
Look before, or you'll find yourself behind. -- Benjamin Franklin
I am what I am and that's all that I am and if I'm supposed to be somebody else, why do I look like me? -- Benjamin Franklin
Read much, but not too many books. -- Benjamin Franklin
Time is an herb that cures all Diseases. -- Benjamin Franklin
I shall a good deal gratify my own vanity. -- Benjamin Franklin
Common sense without education, is better than education without common sense. -- Benjamin Franklin
Some are weatherwise, some are otherwise. -- Benjamin Franklin
'Tis true there is much to be done, ... but stick to it steadily, and you will see great effects, for constant dropping wears away stones ... and little strokes fell great oaks, as Poor Richard says ... -- Benjamin Franklin
Pardoning the Bad, is injuring the Good. -- Benjamin Franklin
If you give up your freedom for safety, you don't deserve either one. -- Benjamin Franklin
If you do tomorrow what you did today , you will get tomorrow what you got today -- Benjamin Franklin
Little minds think and talk about people.
Average minds think and talk about things and actions.
Great minds think and talk about ideas. -- Benjamin Franklin
Truth and sincerity have a certain distinguishing native lustre about them which cannot be perfectly counterfeited; they are like fire and flame, that cannot be painted. -- Benjamin Franklin
Human happiness comes not from infrequent pieces of good fortune, but from the small improvements to daily life. -- Benjamin Franklin
Remember, that money is of the prolific, generating nature. -- Benjamin Franklin
An old man in a house is a good sign. -- Benjamin Franklin
Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote! -- Benjamin Franklin
Hear reason, or she'll make you feel her. -- Benjamin Franklin
No better relation than a prudent and faithful friend. -- Benjamin Franklin
Use no hurtful deceit; think innocently and justly and, if you speak, speak accordingly. -- Benjamin Franklin
I have never seen the Philosopher's Stone that turns lead into Gold, but I have known the pursuit of it turn a Man's Gold into Lead. -- Benjamin Franklin
Where security exists, liberty and opportunity do not. -- Benjamin Franklin
On the whole, I wonder'd much how such a man came to be intrusted with so important a business as the conduct of a great army; but, having since seen more of the great world, and the means of obtaining, and motives for giving places, my wonder is diminished. -- Benjamin Franklin
If you wou'd have Guests merry with your cheer, Be so your self, or so at least appear. -- Benjamin Franklin
When religion is good, it will take care of itself. When it is not able to take care of itself, and God does not see fit to take care of it, so that it has to appeal to the civil power for support, it is evidence to my mind that its cause is a bad one. -- Benjamin Franklin
The best investment is in the tools of one's own trade. -- Benjamin Franklin
An honest Man will receive neither Money nor Praise that is not his due. -- Benjamin Franklin
Why does the blind man's wife paint herself. -- Benjamin Franklin
He that's secure is not safe. -- Benjamin Franklin
I early found that when I worked for myself alone, myself alone worked for me; but when I worked for others also, others worked also for me. -- Benjamin Franklin
How much more than necessary do we spend in sleep, forgetting that the sleeping fox catches no poultry, and that there will be sleeping enough in the grave, as Poor Richard says. -- Benjamin Franklin
The man who does things makes mistakes, but he doesn't make the biggest mistake of all-doing nothing. -- Benjamin Franklin
If you would be loved, love, and be loveable. -- Benjamin Franklin
The only things of certainty are Death and Taxes. -- Benjamin Franklin
There is none deceived but he that trusts. -- Benjamin Franklin
If you want to be rich, think of the savings and get them. -- Benjamin Franklin
My refusing to eat meat occasioned inconveniency, and I have been frequently chided for my singularity. But my light repast allows for greater progress, for greater clearness of head and quicker comprehension. -- Benjamin Franklin
one thing I know
that is
I know NOTHING -- Benjamin Franklin
Historians relate not so much what is done as what they would have believed. -- Benjamin Franklin
When men differ in opinion, both sides ought equally to have the advantage of being heard by the public; when Truth and Error have fair play, the former is always an overmatch for the latter. -- Benjamin Franklin
Never leave that till tomorrow which you can do today. -- Benjamin Franklin
The refusal of King George to allow the colonies to operate an honest money system, which freed the ordinary man from clutches of the money manipulators was probably the prime cause of the revolution. -- Benjamin Franklin
The generous Mind least regards money, and yet most feels the Want of it. -- Benjamin Franklin
Success has ruined many a man. -- Benjamin Franklin
Life's Tragedy is that we get old to soon and wise too late. -- Benjamin Franklin
A good spouse and health is a person's best wealth. -- Benjamin Franklin
There is nothing wrong with retirement as long as one doesn't allow it to interfere with one's work. -- Benjamin Franklin
The sleeping fox catches no poultry. -- Benjamin Franklin
Contentment makes a poor person rich and discontent makes a rich person poor. -- Benjamin Franklin
What vast additions to the Conveniences and Comforts of Living might Mankind have acquired, if the Money spent in Wars had been employ'd in Works of public utility! -- Benjamin Franklin
Seest thou a man diligent in his calling, he shall stand before kings, he shall not stand before mean men," I -- Benjamin Franklin
Neither a Fortress nor a Maidenhead will hold out long after they begin to parley. -- Benjamin Franklin
Revelation, indeed, as such had no influence on my mind -- Benjamin Franklin
Buy what thou hast no need of and ere long thou shalt sell thy necessities. -- Benjamin Franklin
There are lazy minds as well as lazy bodies. -- Benjamin Franklin
An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. -- Benjamin Franklin
It is observable that God has often called men to places of dignity and honor when they have been busy in the honest employment of their vocation. -- Benjamin Franklin
If better is possible, good is not enough -- Benjamin Franklin
Boatman and I concluded to sleep, if we could; and so crowded -- Benjamin Franklin
Mankind are dastardly when they meet with opposition. -- Benjamin Franklin
Let each new year find you a better person. -- Benjamin Franklin
If you'd be wealthy, think of saving, more than of getting: The Indies have not made Spain rich, because her Outgoes equal her Incomes. -- Benjamin Franklin
But in this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes. -- Benjamin Franklin
Reading makes a full man, meditation a profound man, discourse a clear man. -- Benjamin Franklin
Not to oversee workmen is to leave them your purse open. -- Benjamin Franklin
To be thrown upon one's own resources, is to be cast in the very lap of fortune. -- Benjamin Franklin
I know not which lives more unnatural lives, obeying husbands, or commanding wives. -- Benjamin Franklin
Why should I give my Readers bad lines of my own when good ones of other People's are so plenty? -- Benjamin Franklin
I never turned to drink. It seemed to turn to me. -- Benjamin Franklin
What is the use of a new-born child ? -- Benjamin Franklin
Any fool can criticize, condemn, and complain - and most fools do. -- Benjamin Franklin
Knowledge of the investment is most profitable -- Benjamin Franklin
The cat in gloves catches no mice. Make hay while the sun shines. -- Benjamin Franklin
Christianity commands us to pass by injuries; policy, to let them pass by us. -- Benjamin Franklin
Every pot must sit on its own bottom. -- Benjamin Franklin
Avarice and Happiness never saw each other, how then should they become acquainted? -- Benjamin Franklin
It is therefore wish'd that all commerce were as free between all the nations of the world as it is between the several counties of England. -- Benjamin Franklin
Without industry and frugality, nothing will do; with them, everything. -- Benjamin Franklin
Acquire Riches by Industry and Frugality. -- Benjamin Franklin
The way to wealth depends on just two words, industry and frugality. -- Benjamin Franklin
Industry and frugality, as the means of procuring wealth ... thereby [secures] virtue, it being more difficult for a man in want to act always honestly ... -- Benjamin Franklin
Old boys have their playthings as well as young ones; the difference is only in the price. -- Benjamin Franklin
Who is rich? He that rejoices in his portion. -- Benjamin Franklin
That which resembles most living one's life over again, seems to be to recall all the circumstances of it; and, to render this remembrance more durable, to record them in writing. -- Benjamin Franklin
They who have nothing to trouble them,
will be troubled at nothing. -- Benjamin Franklin
Only a virtuous people are capable of freedom. -- Benjamin Franklin
That the vegetable creation should restore the air which is spoiled by the animal part of it, looks like a rational system, and seems to be of a piece with the rest. -- Benjamin Franklin
The thrifty maxim of the wary Dutch, Is to save all the Money they can touch -- Benjamin Franklin
Seek virtue and of that posest, to Providence resign the rest. -- Benjamin Franklin
The Golden Age was never the present age. -- Benjamin Franklin
Security without liberty is called prison. -- Benjamin Franklin
He that hath a calling, hath an office of profit and honor. -- Benjamin Franklin
A man is not completely born until he is dead. Why then should we grieve that a new child is born among the immortals, a new member added to their happy society? -- Benjamin Franklin
No longer virtuous no longer free; is a Maxim as true with regard to a private Person as a Common-wealth. -- Benjamin Franklin
Grief for a dead Wife, and a troublesome Guest, Continues to the threshold, and there is at rest; But I mean such wives as are none of the best -- Benjamin Franklin
There is scarce a king in a hundred who would not, if he could, follow the example of Pharoah - get first all the people's money, then all their lands, and then make them and their children servants forever. -- Benjamin Franklin
Let thy maid servant be faithful, strong, and homely. -- Benjamin Franklin
Those who would give up liberty for safety deserve neither. -- Benjamin Franklin
Those who sacrifice essential liberty for temporary safety are not deserving of either liberty or safety. -- Benjamin Franklin
By my rambling digressions I perceive myself to be growing old. -- Benjamin Franklin
That Quantity that is sufficient, the Stomach can perfectly concoct and digest, and it sufficeth the due Nourishment of the Body. -- Benjamin Franklin
Love well, whip well. -- Benjamin Franklin
Fiction or fable allures to instruction. -- Benjamin Franklin
He that would fish, must venture his bait. -- Benjamin Franklin
I cannot conceive otherwise than that He, the Infinite Father, expects or requires no worship or praise from us, but that He is even infinitely above it. -- Benjamin Franklin
Who has deceived thee as oft as thyself. -- Benjamin Franklin
Everybody's human-everybody makes mistakes. If you laugh it off and keep going and try to give it your best the next time around, people respect that. -- Benjamin Franklin
I have found Christian dogma unintelligible. Early in life, I absenteed myself from Christian assemblies. -- Benjamin Franklin
Life with Fools consists in Drinking; with the wise Man, living's Thinking. -- Benjamin Franklin
Liberality is not giving much, but giving wisely. -- Benjamin Franklin
Politicians are a lot like diapers. They should be changed frequently, and for the same reasons. -- Benjamin Franklin
If everyone is thinking alike, then no one is thinking. -- Benjamin Franklin
A false friend and a shadow attend only while the sun shines. -- Benjamin Franklin
Doing your best means never stop trying. -- Benjamin Franklin
The exact Quantity and Quality being found out, is to be kept to constantly. -- Benjamin Franklin
The things of this world take up too much of my time, of which indeed I have too little left, to undertake anything like a reformation in religion. -- Benjamin Franklin
What Comfort can the Vortices of Descartes give to a Man who has Whirlwinds in his bowels! -- Benjamin Franklin
Slavery is ... an atrocious debasement of human nature. -- Benjamin Franklin
The noblest question in the world is: 'What good may I do in it?' -- Benjamin Franklin
By diligence and patience, the mouse bit in two the cable. -- Benjamin Franklin
A wicked Hero will turn his back to an innocent coward. -- Benjamin Franklin
contending clients in a suit, he for the proprietaries and I for the Assembly. He would, therefore, sometimes call in a friendly way to advise with me on difficult points, and sometimes, tho' not often, take -- Benjamin Franklin
Honesty is the best policy. -- Benjamin Franklin
Fart for freedom, fart for liberty - and fart proudly. -- Benjamin Franklin
There are three things extremely hard: steel, a diamond, and to know one's self. -- Benjamin Franklin
He that displays too often his wife and his wallet is in danger of having both of them borrowed. -- Benjamin Franklin
Nothing is so tiresome to one's self, as well as so odious to others, as disguise and affectation. -- Benjamin Franklin
A lady asked Dr. Franklin Well Doctor what have we got a republic or a monarchy - "A republic," replied the Doctor, "if you can keep it." -- Benjamin Franklin
A bargain is something you have to find a use for once you have bought it. -- Benjamin Franklin
If you want to make a friend, let someone do you a favor. -- Benjamin Franklin
He that rises late must trot all day. -- Benjamin Franklin
There never was a good knife made of bad steel. -- Benjamin Franklin
When you taste honey, remember gall. -- Benjamin Franklin
Justice is as strictly due between neighbor nations as between neighbor citizens. -- Benjamin Franklin
I have conceived a higher opinion of the natural capacities of the black race than I had ever before entertained. Their apprehension seems as quick, their memory as strong, and their docility in every respect equal to that of white children. -- Benjamin Franklin
There is much truth in the Italian saying, 'Make yourselves sheep, and the wolves will eat you.' -- Benjamin Franklin
Stationer, that Riddlesden, the attorney, was a very knave. -- Benjamin Franklin
There is no gains without pain. -- Benjamin Franklin
Be cheerful
the problems that worry us most are those that never arrive. -- Benjamin Franklin
He that cannot obey cannot command. -- Benjamin Franklin
The first mistake in public business is the going into it. -- Benjamin Franklin
Some make Conscience of wearing a Hat in the Church, who make none of robbing the Altar. -- Benjamin Franklin
Let thy discontents be thy secrets -- Benjamin Franklin
Nature performs the cure, the physician takes the fee. -- Benjamin Franklin
At the working man's house, hunger looks in but dares not enter. -- Benjamin Franklin
What is a butterfly? At best
He's but a caterpiller drest.
The gaudy Fop's his picture just. -- Benjamin Franklin
A people who chose security over liberty will receive neither nor deserve either. -- Benjamin Franklin
If anyone should doubt whether the electrical matter passes through the substance of bodies, or only over along their surfaces, a shock from an electrified large glass jar, taken through his own body, will probably convince him. -- Benjamin Franklin
Our necessities never equal our wants. -- Benjamin Franklin
Fear God, and your enemies will fear you. -- Benjamin Franklin
Eyes and Priests Bear no Jests. -- Benjamin Franklin
Industry need not wish, and he that lives upon hope will die fasting. There are no gains without pains; then help hands, for I have no lands; -- Benjamin Franklin
When Knaves betray each other, one can scarce be blamed or the other pitied. -- Benjamin Franklin
Visit your Aunt, but not every Day; and call at your Brother's, but not every night. -- Benjamin Franklin
Would thou confound thy enemy, be good thyself. -- Benjamin Franklin
Great talkers should be cropt, for they've no need of ears. -- Benjamin Franklin
By improving yourself, the world is made better. Be not afraid of growing too slowly. Be afraid only of standing still. -- Benjamin Franklin
A true friend is the greatest possesion. -- Benjamin Franklin
The used key is always bright. -- Benjamin Franklin
What more valuable than Gold? Diamonds. Than Diamonds? Virtue. -- Benjamin Franklin
Conviction that it was out Interest to be completely virtuous, was not sufficient to prevent our Slipping ... -- Benjamin Franklin
He that speaks much, is much mistaken. -- Benjamin Franklin
I will speak ill of no man, and speak all the good I know of everybody. -- Benjamin Franklin
Certainlie these things agree, The Priest, the Lawyer, & Death all three: Death takes both the weak and the strong. The lawyer takes from both right and wrong, And the priest from living and dead has his Fee. -- Benjamin Franklin
Here's to our beloved George Washington, the Joshua of America, who commanded the sun and the moon to sand still
and they obeyed. -- Benjamin Franklin
In order for three people to keep a secret, two must be dead. -- Benjamin Franklin
Constant dropping wears away stones -- Benjamin Franklin
What science can there be more noble, more excellent, more useful for men, more admirably high and demonstrative, than this of mathematics? -- Benjamin Franklin
One mend-fault is worth two find-faults, but one find-fault is better than two make-faults. -- Benjamin Franklin
He wish'd to please everybody; and, having little to give, he gave expectations. -- Benjamin Franklin
He that lies down with dogs shall rise up with fleas. -- Benjamin Franklin
Lie down with dogs and you get up with fleas.
One of the main characters in 'Nothing is Lost' says that. She probably didn't know that the source was Benjamin Franklin. -- Benjamin Franklin
When you are good to others, you are best to yourself. -- Benjamin Franklin
Industry and patience are the surest means of plenty. -- Benjamin Franklin
Whoever would overthrow the liberty of a nation must begin by subduing the freeness of speech. -- Benjamin Franklin
Mankind naturally and generally love to be flatter'd. -- Benjamin Franklin
Drive thy business or it will drive thee. -- Benjamin Franklin
Let thy vices die before thee. -- Benjamin Franklin
Have you something to do to-morrow; do it to-day. -- Benjamin Franklin
Don't judge men's wealth or godliness by their Sunday appearance. -- Benjamin Franklin
To fail to Prepare is to prepare to fail -- Benjamin Franklin
An assembly of great men is the greatest fool upon earth. -- Benjamin Franklin
It is the working man who is the happy man. It is the idle man who is the miserable man. -- Benjamin Franklin
I guess I don't so much mind being old, as I mind being fat and old. -- Benjamin Franklin
There are no ugly loves nor handsome prisons. -- Benjamin Franklin
If Pride leads the Van, Beggary brings up the Rear. -- Benjamin Franklin
What one relishes, nourishes. -- Benjamin Franklin
If you desire many things, many things will seem few. -- Benjamin Franklin
There never was a good war or a bad peace. -- Benjamin Franklin
Are you angry that others disappoint you? Remember you cannot depend upon yourself. -- Benjamin Franklin
It is the eye of other people that ruin us. If I were blind I would want, neither fine clothes, fine houses or fine furniture. -- Benjamin Franklin
He that has not got a wife is not yet a complete man. -- Benjamin Franklin
Make no expense but to do good to others or yourself. -- Benjamin Franklin
You will find the key to success under the alarm clock. -- Benjamin Franklin
There will be plenty of time to sleep once you are dead -- Benjamin Franklin
Nor eye in a letter, nor hand in a purse, nor ear in the secret of another. -- Benjamin Franklin
Graft good Fruit all, or graft not at all. -- Benjamin Franklin
The most profound enchantment for the collector is the locking of individual items within a magic circle in which they are fixed as the final thrill, the thrill of acquisition, passes over them. -- Benjamin Franklin
A good example is the best sermon. -- Benjamin Franklin
Most men die from the neck up at age twenty-five because they stop dreaming. -- Benjamin Franklin
One day is worth a thousand tomorrows. -- Benjamin Franklin
The proof of gold is fire ... -- Benjamin Franklin
Little rogues easily become great ones. -- Benjamin Franklin
The first Degree of Folly, is to conceit one's self wise; the second to profess it; the third to despise Counsel. -- Benjamin Franklin
I saw few die of hunger; of eating, a hundred thousand. -- Benjamin Franklin
The best is the cheapest. -- Benjamin Franklin
It is a strange anomaly that men could be careful to insure their houses, their ships, their merchandise, and yet neglect to insure their lives - surely the most important of all to their families, and more subject to loss. -- Benjamin Franklin
To err is human, to repent divine; to persist devilish. -- Benjamin Franklin
Beware the hobby that eats. -- Benjamin Franklin
What is best for people is what they do for themselves. -- Benjamin Franklin
Little strokes fell great oaks. -- Benjamin Franklin
Thou can'st not joke an enemy into a friend,
but thou may'st a friend into an enemy. -- Benjamin Franklin
If we all think alike, no one is thinking. -- Benjamin Franklin
There is always room for the man of force. -- Benjamin Franklin
Is there anything men take more pains about than to render themselves unhappy? -- Benjamin Franklin
Eat what you like, but dress for other people. -- Benjamin Franklin
He that's content hath enough. -- Benjamin Franklin
Industry pays debts, while despair increases them. -- Benjamin Franklin
A Brother may not be a Friend, but a Friend will always be a Brother. -- Benjamin Franklin
A penny saved is twopence dear; A pin a day 's a groat a year. -- Benjamin Franklin
Patience in Market, is worth Pounds in a year. -- Benjamin Franklin
I would rather have it said, 'He lived usefully,' than, 'He died rich.' -- Benjamin Franklin
'Tis more noble to forgive, and more manly to despise, than to revenge an Injury. -- Benjamin Franklin
I've striven my whole life for humility, but if I'd ever achieved it, I'd probably be pretty damn proud of that. -- Benjamin Franklin
Don't overload Gratitude; if you do, she'll kick. -- Benjamin Franklin
He that lives well, is learned enough. -- Benjamin Franklin
If you will not hear reason, she'll rap your knuckles. -- Benjamin Franklin
But in this world nothing is sure but death and taxes. -- Benjamin Franklin
Take time for all things. -- Benjamin Franklin
I grew convinced that truth, sincerity and integrity in dealings between man and man were of the utmost importance to the felicity of life, and I formed written resolutions ... to practice them ever while I lived. -- Benjamin Franklin
An old young man, will be a young old man. -- Benjamin Franklin
Human felicity is produced not as much by great pieces of good fortune that seldom happen as by little advantages that occur every day. -- Benjamin Franklin
What good shall I do this day? -- Benjamin Franklin
Interest which blinds some People, enlightens others. -- Benjamin Franklin
Idle hands are the devil's playthings. -- Benjamin Franklin
If you want to be loved, love and be loveable. -- Benjamin Franklin
He was so learned that he could name a horse in nine languages; so ignorant that he bought a cow to ride on. -- Benjamin Franklin
The tongue offends and the ears get the cuffing -- Benjamin Franklin
The most exquisite folly is made of wisdom spun too fine. -- Benjamin Franklin
Idleness and pride tax with a heavier hand than kings and governments. -- Benjamin Franklin
You can't tell anyone anything. You have to teach people for them to remember. Let the person experience what you are teaching and they will learn. -- Benjamin Franklin
Tolerate no Uncleanliness in Body, Clothes, or Habitation. -- Benjamin Franklin
If you eat one another, I don't see why we may not eat you. -- Benjamin Franklin
There cannot be good living where there is not good drinking. -- Benjamin Franklin
Would you persuade, speak of interest, not of reason. -- Benjamin Franklin
Who is wise? He that learns from everyone. Who is powerful? He that governs his passions. Who is rich? He that is content. Who is that? Nobody. -- Benjamin Franklin
He that sows thorns should never go barefoot. -- Benjamin Franklin
Tricks and treachery are the practice of fools that don't have brains enough to be honest. -- Benjamin Franklin
Some people are weatherwise, and most are otherwise. -- Benjamin Franklin
Willows are weak, but they bind the Faggot. -- Benjamin Franklin
Great good nature without prudence is a great misfortune. -- Benjamin Franklin
Think of these things, whence you came, where you are going, and to whom you must account. -- Benjamin Franklin
Let the experiment be made. -- Benjamin Franklin
The way to see by faith is to shut the eye of reason. -- Benjamin Franklin
I am the laziest man in the world. I invented all those things to save myself from toil. -- Benjamin Franklin
There's small Revenge in Words, but Words may be greatly revenged -- Benjamin Franklin
As we benefit from the inventions of others, we should be glad to share our own ... freely and gladly. -- Benjamin Franklin
He gives twice that gives soon, i.e., he will soon be called to give again. -- Benjamin Franklin
I fully agree with General Washington, that we must protect this young nation from an insidious influence and impenetration. The menace, gentlemen, is the Jews. -- Benjamin Franklin
We have no poor houses in the Colonies, and if we had, we would have no one to put in them, as in the Colonies there is not a single unemployed man, no poor and no vagabonds. -- Benjamin Franklin
Men's minds do not die with their bodies but are made more happy or miserable after this life according to their actions. -- Benjamin Franklin
There seems to be three ways for a nation to acquire wealth: the first is by war ... this is robbery; the second by commerce, which is generally cheating; the third by agriculture, the only honest way. -- Benjamin Franklin
Vice knows [its] ugly, so [it] puts on [a] mask. -- Benjamin Franklin
Truth is brighter than light. -- Benjamin Franklin
I scarce ever heard or saw the introductory words, "Without vanity I may say," etc., but some vain thing immediately followed. -- Benjamin Franklin
Life is a kind of chess. -- Benjamin Franklin
it is hard for an empty sack to stand upright -- Benjamin Franklin
No one cares what you know until they know that you care! -- Benjamin Franklin
No nation was ever ruined by trade. -- Benjamin Franklin
You will discover 3 trustworthy mates, an aged wife, an aged canine, and ready dollars. -- Benjamin Franklin
Tis a well spent penny that saves a groat. -- Benjamin Franklin
themselves and their own -- Benjamin Franklin
Success is the residue of planning. -- Benjamin Franklin
Rather go to bed with out dinner than to rise in debt. -- Benjamin Franklin
Plough deep while sluggards sleep. -- Benjamin Franklin
If you, do what you should not, you must bear what you would not. -- Benjamin Franklin
Marry your son when you will, but you daughter when you can. -- Benjamin Franklin
What can laws do without morals? -- Benjamin Franklin
Money has never made man happy,nor will it,there is nothing in its nature to produce happiness. The more of it one has the more one wants. -- Benjamin Franklin
Take counsel in wine, but resolve afterwards in water. -- Benjamin Franklin
A lie stands on one leg, truth on two. -- Benjamin Franklin
Most people die at 25 but are buried at 75. -- Benjamin Franklin
Our limited perspective, our hopes and fears become our measure of life, and when circumstances don't fit our ideas, they become our difficulties. -- Benjamin Franklin
But our great security lies, I think, in our growing strength. -- Benjamin Franklin
People who are wrapped up in themselves make small packages. -- Benjamin Franklin
It isn't what you know that counts,it's what you think of in time. -- Benjamin Franklin
Indeed, when religious people quarrel about religion, or hungry people quarrel about victuals, it looks as if they had not much of either among them. -- Benjamin Franklin
Sloth makes all things difficult, but industry all easy; and he that riseth late must trot all day, and shall scarce overtake his business at night; while laziness travels so slowly, that poverty soon overtakes him. -- Benjamin Franklin
If your head is made of wax, don't walk in the sun. -- Benjamin Franklin
A full Belly is the Mother of all Evil. -- Benjamin Franklin
Make the best use of both time and money. Add industry and frugal dealings if they pay very well and if you're free to it. -- Benjamin Franklin
If your riches are yours, why don't you take them with you to the other world? -- Benjamin Franklin
In general, mankind, since the improvement of cookery, eats twice as much as nature requires. -- Benjamin Franklin
What I am to be, I am now becoming. -- Benjamin Franklin
to come on hereafter, was what -- Benjamin Franklin
Anyone willing to give up liberty in exchange for security deserves neither. -- Benjamin Franklin
By heaven we understand a state of happiness infinite in degree, and endless in duration. -- Benjamin Franklin
...there will be sleeping enough in the grave.... -- Benjamin Franklin
You can bear your own faults, and why not a fault in your wife? -- Benjamin Franklin
All would live long, but none would be old. -- Benjamin Franklin
Eat to live, don't live to eat. -- Benjamin Franklin
Religion I found to be without any tendency to inspire, promote, or confirm morality, serves principally to divide us and make us unfriendly to one another. -- Benjamin Franklin
Strict punctuality is a cheap virtue. -- Benjamin Franklin
Let thy discontents be thy secrets; if the world knows them 'twill despise thee and increase them. -- Benjamin Franklin
Grace thou thy house and let not that grace thee. -- Benjamin Franklin
He that speaks ill of the mare will buy her. -- Benjamin Franklin
None but the well-bred man knows how to confess a fault, or acknowledge himself in an error. -- Benjamin Franklin
You may sometimes be much in the Wrong, in owning your being in the Right. -- Benjamin Franklin
Well done is better than well said. -- Benjamin Franklin
Trusting too much to others care is the ruin of many. -- Benjamin Franklin
Write your injuries in dust, your benefits in marble. -- Benjamin Franklin
The two most beautiful sights I have witnessed in my life are a full blown ship at sail and the round-bellied pregnant female. -- Benjamin Franklin
Vice knows she is ugly, so puts on her mask. -- Benjamin Franklin
I am for doing good to the poor, but I differ in opinion about the means. I think the best way of doing good to the poor is not making them easy in poverty, but leading or driving them out of it. -- Benjamin Franklin
Write with the learned, pronounce with the vulgar. -- Benjamin Franklin
We may give advice, but we cannot give conduct. -- Benjamin Franklin
That it is better 100 guilty Persons should escape than that one innocent Person should suffer, is a Maxim that has been long and generally approved. -- Benjamin Franklin
Happiness depends more on the inward disposition of mind than on outward circumstances. -- Benjamin Franklin
I think that humanity brings much misery on itself by the false value they put on things. -- Benjamin Franklin
If we give up freedom for security, we are in danger of losing both. -- Benjamin Franklin
When passion rules, she never rules wisely. -- Benjamin Franklin
No man ever was glorious, who was not laborious. -- Benjamin Franklin
You can not pluck roses without fear of thorns, Nor enjoy a fair wife without danger of horns. -- Benjamin Franklin
He that would travel much, should eat little. -- Benjamin Franklin
He that by the Plough would thrive, Himself must either hold or drive. -- Benjamin Franklin
Duty is not beneficial because it is commanded,
but is commanded because it is beneficial. -- Benjamin Franklin
Where there's no law, there's no bread. -- Benjamin Franklin
We can defer, yet time is most certainly not. -- Benjamin Franklin
Having been poor is no shame, but being ashamed of it, is. -- Benjamin Franklin
Let all Men know thee, but no man know thee thoroughly: Men freely ford that see the shallows. -- Benjamin Franklin
The trouble with doing nothing is not knowing when you're finished. -- Benjamin Franklin
Content and Riches seldom meet together, Riches take thou, contentment I had rather. -- Benjamin Franklin
He who multiplies riches multiplies cares. -- Benjamin Franklin
Display is as false as it is costly. -- Benjamin Franklin
She laughs at everything you say. Why? Because she has fine teeth. -- Benjamin Franklin
Where there is hunger, law is not regarded;
and where law is not regarded, there will be hunger. -- Benjamin Franklin
There is no little enemy -- Benjamin Franklin
He is no clown that drives the plow, but he that doth clownish things. -- Benjamin Franklin
Those who are willing to forfeit liberty for security will have neither. -- Benjamin Franklin
If you want a thing done - go. If not - send. -- Benjamin Franklin
Guests, like fish, begin to smell after three days. -- Benjamin Franklin
Whatever is begun in anger, ends in shame. -- Benjamin Franklin
America cultivates best what Germany brought forth. -- Benjamin Franklin
When in doubt, don't. -- Benjamin Franklin
Proclaim not all thou knowest, all thou owest, all thou hast, nor all thou canst. -- Benjamin Franklin
If you would not be forgotten, do things worth remembering. -- Benjamin Franklin
If you know how to spend less than you get, you have the philosopher's stone. -- Benjamin Franklin
Hunger is the best pickle. -- Benjamin Franklin
Tomorrow, every Fault is to be amended; but that Tomorrow never comes. -- Benjamin Franklin
A greater Quantity of some things may be eaten than of others, some being of lighter Digestion than others. -- Benjamin Franklin
He that pursues two hares at once, does not catch one and lets the other go. -- Benjamin Franklin
Then plough deep, while sluggards sleep, and you shall have corn to sell and to keep. -- Benjamin Franklin
To the haranguers of the populace among the ancients, succeed among the moderns your writers of political pamphlets and news-papers, and your coffee-house talkers. -- Benjamin Franklin
Singularity in the right hath ruined many; happy those who are convinced of the general opinion. -- Benjamin Franklin
Pay what you owe and you'll know what's your own. -- Benjamin Franklin
He that composes himself is wiser than he that composes books. -- Benjamin Franklin
If principle is good for anything, it is worth living up to. -- Benjamin Franklin
All wars are follies, very expensive and very mischievious ones. -- Benjamin Franklin
A ship under sail and a big-bellied woman, Are the handsomest two things that can be seen common. -- Benjamin Franklin
Don't misinform your Doctor nor your Lawyer. -- Benjamin Franklin
Lose no time; be always employed in something useful. -- Benjamin Franklin
If this lady is pleased to spend her days with Franklin, he would be just as pleased to spend his nights with her. -- Benjamin Franklin
Years since. It was written in 1675, in the home-spun verse of that time and people, -- Benjamin Franklin
Be sober and temperate, and you will be healthy. -- Benjamin Franklin
Be in general virtuous, and you will be happy. -- Benjamin Franklin
Do well by doing good. -- Benjamin Franklin
The ancients tell us what is best; but we must learn of the moderns what is fittest. -- Benjamin Franklin
Mankind are very odd creatures:
one half censure what they practice,
the other half practice what they censure;
the rest always say and do as they ought. -- Benjamin Franklin
He is ill clothed, who is bare of virtue. -- Benjamin Franklin
Joy doesn't exist in the world, it exists in us. -- Benjamin Franklin
Hope and faith may be more firmly built upon charity, than charity upon faith and hope. -- Benjamin Franklin
The States acceded to the Union. -- Benjamin Franklin
What signifies knowing the Names, if you know not the Natures of things. -- Benjamin Franklin
He that lives upon hope will die fasting. -- Benjamin Franklin
Saying and Doing, have quarrel'd and parted. -- Benjamin Franklin
There is no such thing as a good war or a bad peace. -- Benjamin Franklin
Half-wits talk much, but say little. -- Benjamin Franklin
The strictest law sometimes becomes the severest injustice. -- Benjamin Franklin
Those Who Sacrifice Liberty For Security Deserve Neither. -- Benjamin Franklin
That which hurts, also instructs. -- Benjamin Franklin
No gains without pains. -- Benjamin Franklin
'tis his honesty that brought upon him the character of a heretic. -- Benjamin Franklin
We are a kind of posterity in respect to them. -- Benjamin Franklin
Without justice, courage is weak. -- Benjamin Franklin
None are deceived but they that confide. -- Benjamin Franklin
Savages we call them, because their manners differ from ours, which we think the perfection of civility; they think the same of theirs. -- Benjamin Franklin
Most people die at 25 and aren't buried until they're 75 -- Benjamin Franklin
Venison and venery defeated me. -- Benjamin Franklin
I am in the prime of senility. -- Benjamin Franklin
When women cease to be handsome, they study to be good. -- Benjamin Franklin
The world is run by the people who show up. -- Benjamin Franklin
Praise to the undeserving is severe satire. -- Benjamin Franklin
Let all your things have their places; let each part of your business have its time. -- Benjamin Franklin
Some men grow mad by studying much to know,
But who grows mad by studying good to grow. -- Benjamin Franklin
Kings have long arms, but Misfortune longer: let none think themselves out of her reach. -- Benjamin Franklin
I looked around for God's judgments, but saw no signs of them. -- Benjamin Franklin
When you're testing to see how deep water is, never use two feet. -- Benjamin Franklin
If you would be loved, love, and be lovable -- Benjamin Franklin
The moral and religious system which Jesus Christ transmitted to us is the best the world has ever seen, or can see. -- Benjamin Franklin
Flowers are the alphabet of angels, whereby they write on the hills and fields mysterious truths. -- Benjamin Franklin
Pen, wax and parchment govern the world. -- Benjamin Franklin
A long life may not be good enough, but a good life is long enough. -- Benjamin Franklin
Never confuse Motion with Action. -- Benjamin Franklin
All cats are gray in the dark. -- Benjamin Franklin
Before you consult your fancy, consult your purse. -- Benjamin Franklin
If you FAIL to PLAN. You PLAN to FAIL. -- Benjamin Franklin
For every minute spent in organizing, an hour is earned. -- Benjamin Franklin
Don't think to hunt two hares with one dog. -- Benjamin Franklin
If a man empties his purse into his head, no one can take it from him. -- Benjamin Franklin
The greatest inventions are those inquiries which tend to increase the power of man over matter. -- Benjamin Franklin
Hope is an essential constituent of human life. -- Benjamin Franklin
Quacks are the greatest liars in the world except their patients. -- Benjamin Franklin
The problem with common sense is, it isn't. -- Benjamin Franklin
It is only when the rich are sick that they fully feel the impotence of wealth. -- Benjamin Franklin
The punishment of murder by death is contrary to reason, and to the order and happiness of society, and contrary to divine revelation. -- Benjamin Franklin
Poverty, Poetry, and new Titles of Honor, make Men ridiculous -- Benjamin Franklin
A dying man can do nothing easy. -- Benjamin Franklin
Reading was the only amusement I allowed myself -- Benjamin Franklin
Wars are not paid for in wartime, the bill comes later. -- Benjamin Franklin
Friends are the true Sceptres of Princes. -- Benjamin Franklin
Speak and speed: the close mouth catches no flies. -- Benjamin Franklin
Keep conscience clear, then never fear. -- Benjamin Franklin
Men differ daily about things which are subject to sense, is it likely then they should agree about things invisible. -- Benjamin Franklin
A virtuous heretic shall be saved before a wicked Christian. -- Benjamin Franklin
Pride gets into the Coach, and Shame mounts behind. -- Benjamin Franklin
Men take more pains to mask than mend. -- Benjamin Franklin
Wine makes daily living easier, less hurried with fewer tensions and more tolerance. -- Benjamin Franklin
Hear not ill of a friend, nor speak any of an enemy. -- Benjamin Franklin
Never ruin an apology with an excuse. -- Benjamin Franklin
I believe long habits of virtue have a sensible effect on the countenance. -- Benjamin Franklin
Discretion did not always accompany years, nor was youth always without it. -- Benjamin Franklin
Hast thou virtue? acquire also the graces and beauties of virtue. -- Benjamin Franklin
I don't believe in stereotypes. I prefer to hate people on a more personal basis. -- Benjamin Franklin
Success has ruin'd many a man. -- Benjamin Franklin
Clean your Finger, before you point at my Spots. -- Benjamin Franklin
If a man could have half of his wishes, he would double his troubles. -- Benjamin Franklin
To be proud of knowledge is to be blind with light. -- Benjamin Franklin
whatever you become be good at it -- Benjamin Franklin
He who empties his purse into his mind, shall never go bankrupt. -- Benjamin Franklin
A child thinks 20 shillings and 20 years can scarce ever be spent. -- Benjamin Franklin
What you would seem to be, be really. -- Benjamin Franklin
People are best convinced by things they themselves discover. -- Benjamin Franklin
Your argument is sound, nothing but sound. -- Benjamin Franklin
Mine is better than ours. -- Benjamin Franklin
Philosophy as well as foppery often changes fashion. -- Benjamin Franklin
I am lord of myself, accountable to none. -- Benjamin Franklin
Fear to do ill, and you need fear else. -- Benjamin Franklin
A fish is a sock for a fish skeleton. -- Benjamin Franklin
Sloth, like rust, consumes faster than labor wears; while the used key is always bright -- Benjamin Franklin
When you are in debt, then you are a slave. -- Benjamin Franklin
The proud hate pride in others. -- Benjamin Franklin
A great empire, like a great cake, is most easily diminished at the edges. -- Benjamin Franklin
O Lazy bones! Dostrong>ststrong> thou think God would have given thee arms and legs, if he had not design'd thou should'strong>ststrong> use them? -- Benjamin Franklin
O Lazy b<>ong>oong>nes! D<>ong>oong>st th<>ong>oong>u think G<>ong>oong>d w<>ong>oong>uld have given thee arms and legs, if he had n<>ong>oong>t design'd th<>ong>oong>u sh<>ong>oong>uld'st use them? -- Benjamin Franklin