Words matter. These are the best Benjamin Franklin Quotes, and they’re great for sharing with your friends.
Tricks and treachery are the practice of fools, that don’t have brains enough to be honest.
Blessed is he that expects nothing, for he shall never be disappointed.
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.
Being ignorant is not so much a shame, as being unwilling to learn.
And whether you’re an honest man, or whether you’re a thief, depends on whose solicitor has given me my brief.
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.
Work as if you were to live a hundred years. Pray as if you were to die tomorrow.
It is only when the rich are sick that they fully feel the impotence of wealth.
I saw few die of hunger; of eating, a hundred thousand.
There was never a good war, or a bad peace.
God works wonders now and then; Behold a lawyer, an honest man.
He that lives upon hope will die fasting.
An investment in knowledge pays the best interest.
He that composes himself is wiser than he that composes a book.
Fatigue is the best pillow.
Laws too gentle are seldom obeyed; too severe, seldom executed.
When will mankind be convinced and agree to settle their difficulties by arbitration?
Since thou are not sure of a minute, throw not away an hour.
Your net worth to the world is usually determined by what remains after your bad habits are subtracted from your good ones.
The doorstep to the temple of wisdom is a knowledge of our own ignorance.
Wars are not paid for in wartime, the bill comes later.
Wine is constant proof that God loves us and loves to see us happy.
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.’
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.
Many foxes grow gray but few grow good.
Human felicity is produced not as much by great pieces of good fortune that seldom happen as by little advantages that occur every day.
Each year one vicious habit discarded, in time might make the worst of us good.
If you desire many things, many things will seem few.
When the well is dry, they know the worth of water.
Let all your things have their places; let each part of your business have its time.
Those have a short Lent who owe money to be paid at Easter.
Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing.
They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.
You may delay, but time will not.
Beauty and folly are old companions.
If you would know the value of money, go and try to borrow some.
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.
The discontented man finds no easy chair.
A countryman between two lawyers is like a fish between two cats.
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.
Energy and persistence conquer all things.
It is only when the rich are sick that they fully feel the impotence of wealth.
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.
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.
He that has not got a wife is not yet a complete man.
If you would have a faithful servant, and one that you like, serve yourself.
Where sense is wanting, everything is wanting.
I didn’t fail the test, I just found 100 ways to do it wrong.
Lost time is never found again.
To Follow by faith alone is to follow blindly.
He that is of the opinion money will do everything may well be suspected of doing everything for money.
If you would be loved, love, and be loveable.
To succeed, jump as quickly at opportunities as you do at conclusions.
In general, mankind, since the improvement of cookery, eats twice as much as nature requires.
Marriage is the most natural state of man, and… the state in which you will find solid happiness.
Keep your eyes wide open before marriage, half shut afterwards.
All mankind is divided into three classes: those that are immovable, those that are movable, and those that move.
He that’s secure is not safe.
Take time for all things: great haste makes great waste.
A penny saved is two pence clear.
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.
Words may show a man’s wit but actions his meaning.
Do not fear mistakes. You will know failure. Continue to reach out.
Industry need not wish.
There never was a truly great man that was not at the same time truly virtuous.
If a man could have half of his wishes, he would double his troubles.
Where there’s marriage without love, there will be love without marriage.
He that sows thorns should never go barefoot.
Whatever is begun in anger ends in shame.
When befriended, remember it; when you befriend, forget it.
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.
A place for everything, everything in its place.
If passion drives you, let reason hold the reins.
It is much easier to suppress a first desire than to satisfy those that follow.
Speak ill of no man, but speak all the good you know of everybody.
Write injuries in dust, benefits in marble.
The eye of the master will do more work than both his hands.
Wise men don’t need advice. Fools won’t take it.
You can bear your own faults, and why not a fault in your wife?
The Constitution only gives people the right to pursue happiness. You have to catch it yourself.
Half a truth is often a great lie.
In the affairs of this world, men are saved not by faith, but by the want of it.
Never confuse motion with action.
He that would live in peace and at ease must not speak all he knows or all he sees.
To lengthen thy life, lessen thy meals.
There are three things extremely hard: steel, a diamond, and to know one’s self.
He that displays too often his wife and his wallet is in danger of having both of them borrowed.
Without freedom of thought, there can be no such thing as wisdom – and no such thing as public liberty without freedom of speech.
God helps those who help themselves.
Necessity never made a good bargain.
Don’t throw stones at your neighbors if your own windows are glass.
Some people die at 25 and aren’t buried until 75.
He that is good for making excuses is seldom good for anything else.
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.
Who had deceived thee so often as thyself?
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.
Creditors have better memories than debtors.
Diligence is the mother of good luck.
Our necessities never equal our wants.
A child thinks 20 shillings and 20 years can scarce ever be spent.
Rebellion against tyrants is obedience to God.
The way to see by Faith is to shut the Eye of Reason.
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