Benjamin Franklin
politician, publisher, printer, political theorist, postmaster, inventor, political activist, statesperson, diplomat, dilettante, polymath, chess player, designer, musician, political philosopher, autobiographer, librarian, journalist, economist, physicist, editor, writer, philosopher
Read on Wikipedia1706 – 1790
All Quotes by Benjamin Franklin
“He that sows thorns should never go barefoot.”
“I saw few die of hunger; of eating, a hundred thousand.”
“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.”
“Savages we call them because their manners differ from ours.”
“Mine is better than ours.”
“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.”
“Beware of little expenses. A small leak will sink a great ship.”
“He that is of the opinion money will do everything may well be suspected of doing everything for money.”
“A great empire, like a great cake, is most easily diminished at the edges.”
“I saw few die of hunger; of eating, a hundred thousand.”
“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.”
“Those have a short Lent who owe money to be paid at Easter.”
“God works wonders now and then; Behold a lawyer, an honest man.”
“It is a grand mistake to think of being great without goodness and I pronounce it as certain that there was never a truly great man that was not at the same time truly virtuous.”
“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.”
“If a man empties his purse into his head, no one can take it from him.”
“If you would know the value of money, go and try to borrow some.”
“Who is rich? He that is content. Who is that? Nobody.”
“A place for everything, everything in its place.”
“Beauty and folly are old companions.”
“The U. S. Constitution doesn't guarantee happiness, only the pursuit of it. You have to catch up with it yourself.”
“He that has done you a kindness will be more ready to do you another, than he whom you yourself have obliged.”
“Do not fear mistakes. You will know failure. Continue to reach out.”
“Beware the hobby that eats.”
“A good conscience is a continual Christmas.”
“The Constitution only gives people the right to pursue happiness. You have to catch it yourself.”
“Leisure is the time for doing something useful. This leisure the diligent person will obtain the lazy one never.”
“Laws too gentle are seldom obeyed; too severe, seldom executed.”
“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.”
“The eye of the master will do more work than both his hands.”
“If you desire many things, many things will seem few.”
“Observe all men, thyself most.”
“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.”
“Since thou are not sure of a minute, throw not away an hour.”
“To Follow by faith alone is to follow blindly.”
“You can bear your own faults, and why not a fault in your wife?”
“Your net worth to the world is usually determined by what remains after your bad habits are subtracted from your good ones.”
“And whether you're an honest man, or whether you're a thief, depends on whose solicitor has given me my brief.”
“Marriage is the most natural state of man, and... the state in which you will find solid happiness.”
“I look upon death to be as necessary to our constitution as sleep. We shall rise refreshed in the morning.”
“The use of money is all the advantage there is in having it.”
“Even peace may be purchased at too high a price.”
“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.”
“Speak ill of no man, but speak all the good you know of everybody.”
“Our necessities never equal our wants.”
“Hear reason, or she'll make you feel her.”
“He that is good for making excuses is seldom good for anything else.”
“Tomorrow, every Fault is to be amended; but that Tomorrow never comes.”
“The first mistake in public business is the going into it.”
“At twenty years of age the will reigns; at thirty, the wit; and at forty, the judgment.”
“When befriended, remember it; when you befriend, forget it.”
“He that's secure is not safe.”
“He that has not got a wife is not yet a complete man.”
“In reality, there is, perhaps, no one of our natural passions so hard to subdue as pride.”
“He does not possess wealth; it possesses him.”
“Many foxes grow gray but few grow good.”
“There never was a truly great man that was not at the same time truly virtuous.”
“If you would be loved, love, and be loveable.”
“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.”
“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.”
“If you would have a faithful servant, and one that you like, serve yourself.”
“If you know how to spend less than you get, you have the philosopher's stone.”
“Beauty and folly are old companions.”
“Many a man thinks he is buying pleasure, when he is really selling himself to it.”
“Where sense is wanting, everything is wanting.”
“A child thinks 20 shillings and 20 years can scarce ever be spent.”
“It is a grand mistake to think of being great without goodness and I pronounce it as certain that there was never a truly great man that was not at the same time truly virtuous.”
“He that can have patience can have what he will.”
“Were I a Roman Catholic, perhaps I should on this occasion vow to build a chapel to some saint, but as I am not, if I were to vow at all, it should be to build a light-house.”
“When men and woman die, as poets sung, his heart's the last part moves, her last, the tongue.”
“Employ thy time well, if thou meanest to gain leisure.”
“Let all your things have their places; let each part of your business have its time.”
“Never take a wife till thou hast a house (and a fire) to put her in.”
“He that composes himself is wiser than he that composes a book.”
“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.”
“The first mistake in public business is the going into it.”
“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.”
“Danger is sauce for prayers.”
“Applause waits on success.”
“Time is money.”
“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.”
“Industry need not wish.”
“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.”
“Wine is constant proof that God loves us and loves to see us happy.”
“Well done is better than well said.”
“Laws too gentle are seldom obeyed; too severe, seldom executed.”
“Experience keeps a dear school, but fools will learn in no other.”
“The way to see by Faith is to shut the Eye of Reason.”
“A house is not a home unless it contains food and fire for the mind as well as the body.”
“He who falls in love with himself will have no rivals.”
“Happiness depends more on the inward disposition of mind than on outward circumstances.”
“The doorstep to the temple of wisdom is a knowledge of our own ignorance.”
“Anger is never without a reason, but seldom with a good one.”
“Half a truth is often a great lie.”
“Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise.”
“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.”
“Well done is better than well said.”
“By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.”
“In the affairs of this world, men are saved not by faith, but by the want of it.”
“I have never entered into any controversy in defense of my philosophical opinions; I leave them to take their chance in the world. If they are right, truth and experience will support them; if wrong, they ought to be refuted and rejected. Disputes are apt to sour one's temper and disturb one's quiet.”
“A Penny Saved is a Penny Earned”
“Without freedom of thought, there can be no such thing as wisdom - and no such thing as public liberty without freedom of speech.”
“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.”
“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.”
“Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn.”
“God helps those who help themselves.”
“Guests, like fish, begin to smell after three days.”
“Dost thou love life? Then do not squander time, for that is the stuff life is made of.”
“In general, mankind, since the improvement of cookery, eats twice as much as nature requires.”
“An investment in knowledge pays the best interest.”
“Lost time is never found again.”
“Life's tragedy is that we get old too soon and wise too late.”
“Do not fear mistakes. You will know failure. Continue to reach out.”
“Without continual growth and progress, such words as improvement, achievement, and success have no meaning.”
“Marriage is the most natural state of man, and... the state in which you will find solid happiness.”
“Wine is constant proof that God loves us and loves to see us happy.”
“Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing.”
“He that is good for making excuses is seldom good for anything else.”
“Wise men don't need advice. Fools won't take it.”
“It takes many good deeds to build a good reputation, and only one bad one to lose it.”
“Beware of little expenses. A small leak will sink a great ship.”
“He that can have patience can have what he will.”
“The Constitution only gives people the right to pursue happiness. You have to catch it yourself.”
“Whatever is begun in anger ends in shame.”
“You may delay, but time will not.”
“Keep your eyes wide open before marriage, half shut afterwards.”
“When in doubt, don't.”
“He that lives upon hope will die fasting.”
“Be slow in choosing a friend, slower in changing.”
“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.”
“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.”
“To succeed, jump as quickly at opportunities as you do at conclusions.”
“A life of leisure and a life of laziness are two things. There will be sleeping enough in the grave.”
“Content makes poor men rich; discontent makes rich men poor.”
“Wine is constant proof that God loves us and loves to see us happy.”
“Marriage is the most natural state of man, and... the state in which you will find solid happiness.”
“It is easier to prevent bad habits than to break them.”
“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.”
“There was never a good war, or a bad peace.”
“Be at war with your vices, at peace with your neighbors, and let every new year find you a better man.”
“A house is not a home unless it contains food and fire for the mind as well as the body.”
“Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise.”
“One today is worth two tomorrows.”
“Take time for all things: great haste makes great waste.”
“Do not fear mistakes. You will know failure. Continue to reach out.”
“Beware of little expenses. A small leak will sink a great ship.”
“Whatever is begun in anger ends in shame.”
“Most people return small favors, acknowledge medium ones and repay greater ones - with ingratitude.”
“Wine is constant proof that God loves us and loves to see us happy.”
“Well done is better than well said.”
“You may delay, but time will not.”
“Those have a short Lent who owe money to be paid at Easter.”
“We must, indeed, all hang together or, most assuredly, we shall all hang separately.”
“They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.”
“Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn.”
“Three can keep a secret, if two of them are dead.”
“Never leave that till tomorrow which you can do today.”
“Energy and persistence conquer all things.”
“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.”
“Some people die at 25 and aren't buried until 75.”
“Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise.”
“Rebellion against tyrants is obedience to God.”
“There never was a truly great man that was not at the same time truly virtuous.”
“Diligence is the mother of good luck.”
“That bodies should be lent us, while they can afford us pleasure, assist us in acquiring knowledge, or doing good to our fellow creatures, is a kind and benevolent act of God - when they become unfit for these purposes and afford us pain instead of pleasure-instead of an aid, become an encumbrance and answer none of the intentions for which they were given, it is equally kind and benevolent that a way is provided by which we may get rid of them. Death is that way.”
“Experience keeps a dear school, but fools will learn in no other.”
“By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.”
“Diligence is the mother of good luck.”
“It is the working man who is the happy man. It is the idle man who is the miserable man.”
“Dost thou love life? Then do not squander time, for that is the stuff life is made of.”
“Half a truth is often a great lie.”
“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.”
“If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail!”
“A penny saved is a penny earned.”
“Dost thou love life? Then do not squander time, for that is the stuff life is made of.”
“In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.”
“Being ignorant is not so much a shame, as being unwilling to learn.”
“Where liberty is, there is my country.”
“Work as if you were to live a hundred years. Pray as if you were to die tomorrow.”
“Tricks and treachery are the practice of fools, that don't have brains enough to be honest.”
“If passion drives you, let reason hold the reins.”
“It takes many good deeds to build a good reputation, and only one bad one to lose it.”
“A house is not a home unless it contains food and fire for the mind as well as the body.”
“Honesty is the best policy.”
“He who falls in love with himself will have no rivals.”
“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.”
“There are three faithful friends - an old wife, an old dog, and ready money.”
“One today is worth two tomorrows.”
“He that would live in peace and at ease must not speak all he knows or all he sees.”
“Nine men in ten are would be suicides.”
“When you're finished changing, you're finished.”
“But dost thou love Life, then do not squander Time, for that's the stuff Life is made of, as Poor Richard say.”
“Eat to please thyself, but dress to please others.”
“Genius without education is like silver in the mine.”
“A man wrapped up in himself makes a very small bundle.”
“If you would know the value of money, go and try to borrow some.”
“Never confuse motion with action.”
“Distrust and caution are the parents of security.”
“Be slow in choosing a friend, slower in changing.”
“There was never a good war, or a bad peace.”
“There are three things extremely hard: steel, a diamond, and to know one's self.”
“It's better to swim in the sea below”
“At twenty years of age the will reigns; at thirty, the wit; and at forty, the judgment.”
“Having been poor is no shame, but being ashamed of it, is.”
“Speak ill of no man, but speak all the good you know of everybody.”
“A good conscience is a continual Christmas.”
“The worst wheel of the cart makes the most noise.”
“No nation was ever ruined by trade.”
“A place for everything, everything in its place.”
“Lost time is never found again.”
“Where there's marriage without love, there will be love without marriage.”
“Beware the hobby that eats.”
“Content makes poor men rich; discontent makes rich men poor.”
“When will mankind be convinced and agree to settle their difficulties by arbitration?”
“In general, mankind, since the improvement of cookery, eats twice as much as nature requires.”
“It is much easier to suppress a first desire than to satisfy those that follow.”
“Let all your things have their places; let each part of your business have its time.”
“Fatigue is the best pillow.”
“Creditors have better memories than debtors.”
“Write injuries in dust, benefits in marble.”
“Keep your eyes wide open before marriage, half shut afterwards.”
“The discontented man finds no easy chair.”
“Necessity never made a good bargain.”
“Many people die at twenty five and aren't buried until they are seventy five.”
“Admiration is the daughter of ignorance.”
“Words may show a man's wit but actions his meaning.”
“Blessed is he that expects nothing, for he shall never be disappointed.”
“The doorstep to the temple of wisdom is a knowledge of our own ignorance.”
“Take time for all things: great haste makes great waste.”
“I guess I don't so much mind being old, as I mind being fat and old.”
“Do good to your friends to keep them, to your enemies to win them.”
“There is no kind of dishonesty into which otherwise good people more easily and frequently fall than that of defrauding the government.”
“For having lived long, I have experienced many instances of being obliged, by better information or fuller consideration, to change opinions, even on important subjects, which I once thought right but found to be otherwise.”
“Rebellion against tyrants is obedience to God.”
“Trouble springs from idleness, and grievous toil from needless ease.”
“Without freedom of thought, there can be no such thing as wisdom - and no such thing as public liberty without freedom of speech.”
“If time be of all things the most precious, wasting time must be the greatest prodigality.”
“Time is money.”
“A false friend and a shadow attend only while the sun shines.”
“The way to see by Faith is to shut the Eye of Reason.”
“Honesty is the best policy.”
“If you would be loved, love, and be loveable.”
“Hunger is the best pickle.”
“Fear not death for the sooner we die, the longer we shall be immortal.”
“Anger is never without a reason, but seldom with a good one.”
“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.”
“Hide not your talents. They for use were made. What's a sundial in the shade?”
“Your net worth to the world is usually determined by what remains after your bad habits are subtracted from your good ones.”
“Don't throw stones at your neighbors if your own windows are glass.”
“To Follow by faith alone is to follow blindly.”
“I didn't fail the test, I just found 100 ways to do it wrong.”
“God helps those who help themselves.”
“Genius without education is like silver in the mine.”
“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.”
“A penny saved is a penny earned.”
“Wars are not paid for in wartime, the bill comes later.”
“Each year one vicious habit discarded, in time might make the worst of us good.”
“All mankind is divided into three classes: those that are immovable, those that are movable, and those that move.”
“How few there are who have courage enough to own their faults, or resolution enough to mend them.”
“He that lives upon hope will die fasting.”
“To Follow by faith alone is to follow blindly.”
“If a man could have half of his wishes, he would double his troubles.”
“He that displays too often his wife and his wallet is in danger of having both of them borrowed.”
“Wealth is not his that has it, but his that enjoys it.”
“...there will be sleeping enough in the grave....”
“I have never entered into any controversy in defense of my philosophical opinions; I leave them to take their chance in the world. If they are right, truth and experience will support them; if wrong, they ought to be refuted and rejected. Disputes are apt to sour one's temper and disturb one's quiet.”
“Nine men in ten are would be suicides.”
“God works wonders now and then; Behold a lawyer, an honest man.”
“He that won't be counseled can't be helped.”
“Rather go to bed without dinner than to rise in debt.”
“An investment in knowledge pays the best interest.”
“The U. S. Constitution doesn't guarantee happiness, only the pursuit of it. You have to catch up with it yourself.”
“There is no kind of dishonesty into which otherwise good people more easily and frequently fall than that of defrauding the government.”
“An investment in knowledge pays the best interest.”
“An egg today is better than a hen to-morrow.”
“I look upon death to be as necessary to our constitution as sleep. We shall rise refreshed in the morning.”
“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.”
“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 a philosopher may set his foot anywhere on its surface and say: 'This is my country.'”
“If you would not be forgotten, as soon as you are dead and rotten, either write things worth reading, or do things worth writing.”
“Human felicity is produced not as much by great pieces of good fortune that seldom happen as by little advantages that occur every day.”
“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.”
“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 a philosopher may set his foot anywhere on its surface and say: 'This is my country.'”
“Fatigue is the best pillow.”
“To lengthen thy life, lessen thy meals.”
“Being ignorant is not so much a shame, as being unwilling to learn.”
“So convenient a thing it is to be a reasonable creature, since it enables one to find or make a reason for every thing one has a mind to do.”
“A countryman between two lawyers is like a fish between two cats.”
“In my youth, I traveled much, and I observed in different countries, that the more public provisions were made for the poor, the less they provided for themselves, and of course became poorer. And, on the contrary, the less was done for them, the more they did for themselves, and became richer.”
“Buy what thou hast no need of and ere long thou shalt sell thy necessities.”
“The absent are never without fault, nor the present without excuse.”
“In the affairs of this world, men are saved not by faith, but by the want of it.”
“Marriage is the most natural state of man, and... the state in which you will find solid happiness.”
“When the well is dry, they know the worth of water.”
“He that rises late must trot all day.”
“Remember that credit is money.”
“There is no kind of dishonesty into which otherwise good people more easily and frequently fall than that of defrauding the government.”
“Who is rich? He that rejoices in his portion.”
“All wars are follies, very expensive and very mischievous ones.”
“He that waits upon fortune, is never sure of a dinner.”
“He that speaks much, is much mistaken.”
“A penny saved is two pence clear.”
“Fatigue is the best pillow.”
“Who had deceived thee so often as thyself?”
“Wise men don't need advice. Fools won't take it.”
“He that is of the opinion money will do everything may well be suspected of doing everything for money.”
“In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.”
“Games lubricate the body and the mind.”
“By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.”
“There are two ways of being happy: We must either diminish our wants or augment our means - either may do - the result is the same and it is for each man to decide for himself and to do that which happens to be easier.”
“Anger is never without a reason, but seldom with a good one.”
“She laughs at everything you say. Why? Because she has fine teeth.”
“As we must account for every idle word, so must we account for every idle silence.”
“The art of acting consists in keeping people from coughing.”
“The strictest law sometimes becomes the severest injustice.”
“Where there's marriage without love, there will be love without marriage.”
“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.”
“Time is money”
“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.”
“I have never entered into any controversy in defense of my philosophical opinions; I leave them to take their chance in the world. If they are right, truth and experience will support them; if wrong, they ought to be refuted and rejected. Disputes are apt to sour one's temper and disturb one's quiet.”
“It is only when the rich are sick that they fully feel the impotence of wealth.”
“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.”
“Those have a short Lent who owe money to be paid at Easter.”
“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.”
“Necessity never made a good bargain.”
“For having lived long, I have experienced many instances of being obliged, by better information or fuller consideration, to change opinions, even on important subjects, which I once thought right but found to be otherwise.”
“Those disputing, contradicting, and confuting people are generally unfortunate in their affairs. They get victory, sometimes, but they never get good will, which would be of more use to them.”
“If all printers were determined not to print anything till they were sure it would offend nobody, there would be very little printed.”
“A learned blockhead is a greater blockhead than an ignorant one.”
“The doors of wisdom are never shut.”
“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.”
“In the affairs of this world, men are saved not by faith, but by the want of it.”