Quotes By Benjamin Franklin

Genius is nothing but a greater aptitude for patience.

Time is money.

He that composes himself is wiser than he that composes a book.

Lost time is never found again.

By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.

Wise men learn by others' harms; fools by their own.

A true friend is the best Possession.

There is no such thing as a good war or a bad peace.

Love your Neighbour; yet don't pull down your Hedge.

If you would be wealthy, think of saving as well as getting.

Wars are not paid for in wartime. The bill comes later.

Little strokes fell great oaks.

A friend in need is a friend indeed!

He who can have patience can have what he will.

Do good to your friends to keep them, to your enemies to win them.

An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

The best doctors gives the least medicine.

The second vice is lying, the first is running in debt.

Rather go to bed supperless, than rise in debt.

While we may not be able to control all that happens to us, we can control what happens inside us.

Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise.

If you would know the value of money, go and try to borrow some.

The use of money is all the advantage there is in having it.

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.

As we must account for every idle word, so must we account for every idle silence.

Applause waits on success.

A penny saved is a penny earned.

If time be of all things the most precious, wasting time must be the greatest prodigality.

Each year one vicious habit discarded, in time might make the worst of us good.

Remember that credit is money.

Energy and persistence conquer all things.

Diligence is the mother of good luck.

Creditors have better memories than debtors.

He that would live in peace and at ease must not speak all he knows or all he sees.

A man wrapped up in himself makes a very small bundle.

Being ignorant is not so much a shame, as being unwilling to learn.

The doors of wisdom are never shut.

Do not fear mistakes. You will know failure. Continue to reach out.

Nothing preaches better than the act.

A penny saved is two pence clear, A pin a day's a groat a year.

If you'ld have a servant that you like, serve yourself.

Grace thou thy house and let not that grace thee.

Be not niggardly of what costs thee nothing, as courtesy, counsel and countenance.

A father's a treasure; a brother's a comfort; a friend is both.

I believe in one God, the creator of the universe. That he governs it by his Providence. That he ought to be worshipped. That the most acceptable service we can render to him is doing good to his other children.

If we do not hang together, we will all hang separately.

I fear the man who drinks water and so remembers this morning what the rest of us said last night.

Proclaim not all thou knowest, all thou owest, all thou hast, nor all thou can'st.

Hear reason or she will make you feel her.

To find out a girl's faults, praise her to her girl friends.

Where there is Hunger, Law is not regarded; and where Law is not regarded, there will be Hunger.

Many have quarreled about religion that never practised it.

An open foe may prove a curse but a pretended friend is worse.

We must indeed all hang together, or, most assuredly, we shall all hang separately.

Consider how hard it is to change yourself and you'll understand what little chance you have in trying to change others.

Observe all men; thyself most.

Love your enemies; for they shall tell you all your faults.

The rule is simple: Be sober and temperate, and you will be healthy.

Philosophy as well as foppery often changes fashion.

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.

Don't halloo until you're out of the wood.

Be always at war with your vices, at peace with your neighbors, and let each new year find you a better man.

A quarrelsome man has no good neighbours.

We must all hang together, or assuredly, we shall all hang separately.

If passion drives, let reason hold the reins.

After crosses and losses, men grow humbler and wiser.

Be neither silly, nor cunning, but wise.

Virtue and happiness are mother and daughter.

Taxes on consumption, like those on capital or income, to be just, must be uniform.

The busy man has few idle visitors; to the boiling pot, the flies come not.

For every minute spent organizing, an hour is earned.

Money never made a man happy yet, nor will it. The more a man has, the more he wants. Instead of filling a vacuum, it makes one.

Do not anticipate trouble or worry about what may never happen. Keep in the sunlight.

Where liberty dwells there is my country.

If we do do not hang together then we will surely hang separately.

He that's content has enough. He that complains hath too much.

It is wise not to seek a secret and honest not to reveal it.

We do not stop playing because we grow old. We grow old because we stop playing.

Wealth is nothing more or less than a tool to do things with. It is like the fuel that runs the furnace or the belt that runs the wheel only a means to an end.

Eat not to dullness; drink not to elevation.

One man may be more cunning than another, but not more cunning than everybody else.

Neglect kills injuries, revenge increases them.

Tart Words make no Friends: a spoonful of honey will catch more flies than Gallon of Vinegar.

What signifies knowing the names, if you know not the natures of things.

That as soon as a party has gained its general point, each member becomes intent upon his particular interest; which, thwarting others, breaks that party into divisions and occasions more confusion.

The sting of a reproach is the truth of it.

Pay what you owe and what you're worth you'll know.

Avoid dishonest gain: no price can recompence the pangs of vice.

Bad gains are true losses.

A man 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.

Cunning proceeds from lack of capacity.

Bacon is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy.

Friendship increases by visiting friends but visiting seldom.

Wine is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy.

Danger is sauce for prayers.

Oh the wonderful knowledge to be found in the stars. Even the smallest things are written there ... if you had but skill to read.

Keep Conscience clear, then never fear.

Youth is pert and positive, Age modest and doubting: So Ears of Corn when young and light, stand bolt upright, but hang their Heads when weighty, full, and ripe.

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.

I have thought that wild flowers might be the alphabet of angels, -- whereby they write on hills and fields mysterious truths, which it is not given our fallen nature to understand.

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.

An assembly of great men is the greatest fool upon earth.

Avarice and Happiness never saw each other, how then should they become acquainted?

Be ashamed to catch yourself idle.

He is not well bred, that cannot bear ill breeding in others.

There's many witty men whose brains can't fill their bellies.

Hold your Council before Dinner; the full Belly hates Thinking as well as Acting.

A full Belly is the Mother of all Evil.

If you wou'd have Guests merry with your cheer, Be so your self, or so at least appear.

One Man may be more cunning than another, but not more cunning than every body else.

Cold and cunning come from the north: But cunning sans wisdom is nothing worth.

He that drinks his cider alone, let him catch his horse alone.

I consent Sir, to this Constitution because I expect no better, and because I am not sure, that it is not the best.

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.

He's gone, and forgot nothing but to say farewell to his creditors.

Despair ruins some, presumption many.

Cowards can handle Arms, can strike where they are sure to meet with no Return, can wound, mangle and murder; but it belongs to brave Men to spare, and to protect.

Would you live with ease, Do what you ought, and not what you please.

Let thy discontents be thy secrets; if the world knows them 'twill despise thee and increase them.

The most acceptable service of God is doing good to man.

When the well is dry, they know the worth of water.

Either write something worth reading, or do something worth writing.

Electrical matter differs from common matter in this, that the parts of the latter mutually attract, those of the former mutually repel each other.

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.

Those who are content have enough; those that complain, have too much.

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.

He that lives upon hope will die farting.

The best of all medicines are resting and fasting.

Time is the stuff life is made of.

No employment can be managed without arithmetic, no mechanical invention without geometry.

Beware of meat twice boiled, and an old foe reconciled.

As sore places meet most rubs, proud folks meet most affronts.

Constant complaint is the poorest sort of pay for all the comforts we enjoy.

Virtue alone is sufficient to make a man great, glorious, and happy.

No man ever was glorious, who was not laborious.

Carelessness does more harm than a want of knowledge.

Take time for all things.

Do not, however, mistake me. It is not to my good friend's heresy that I impute his honesty. On the contrary, 'tis his honesty that brought upon him the character of a heretic.

The Things which hurt, instruct.

The greatest inventions are those inquiries which tend to increase the power of man over matter.

There never was a good knife made of bad steel.

Are you angry that others disappoint you? Remember you cannot depend upon yourself.

Little leaks sink the ship.

A lighthouse is more useful than a church.

What can laws do without morals?

The madness of mobs or the insolence of soldiers, or both, when too near to each other, occasion some mischief.

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.

A full Belly makes a dull Brain: The Muses starve in a Cook's Shop.

He that hath a calling, hath an office of profit and honor.

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.

Every pot must sit on its own bottom.

If principle is good for anything, it is worth living up to.

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.

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.

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.

Abuses of the freedom of speech ought to be repressed, but to whom are we to commit the power of doing it?

A Republic, if you can keep it.

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.

E'er you remark another's sin, bid your own conscience look within.

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.

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.

What you would seem to be, be really.

No nation has ever been ruined by trade.

I believe there is one Supreme most perfect being.

In America, they do not inquire of a stranger, What is he? but, What can he do?

He that is conscious of a stink in his breeches is suspicious of every wrinkle in another's nose.

Man is a tool-making animal.

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.

You will discover 3 trustworthy mates, an aged wife, an aged canine, and ready dollars.

He that scatters thorns, let him not go barefoot.

A man of words and not of deeds,
Is like a garden full of weeds.

Nothing is more important for the public wealth than to form and train youth in wisdom and virtue. Only a virtuous people are capable of freedom.

Most people dislike vanity in others, whatever share they have of it themselves.

He's the best physician that knows the worthlessness of most medicines.

In a discreet man's mouth, a public thing is private.

Duty is not beneficial because it is commanded, but is commanded because it is beneficial.

Silence is not always a sign of wisdom, but babbling is ever a mark of folly.

The poor have little; beggars, none; the rich, too much; enough, not one.

A man separated from his reflective belt is no man at all.

Give me yesterday's bread, this day's flesh, and last year's cider.

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.

Hope is an essential constituent of human life.

He that spits against the wind, spits in his own face.

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.

Annual giving is the custom of making a gift-a-year to an institution in which one has faith.

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.

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.

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.

Prodigality of Time produces Poverty of Mind as well as of Estate.

He that hath a Trade, hath an Estate.

Rich widows are the only secondhand goods that sell at first-class prices.

Pity and forbearance should characterize all acts of justice.

A flatterer never seems absurd: The flatter'd always takes his word.

Gaining money by my industry and frugality, I lived very agreeably.

The way to wealth depends on just two words, industry and frugality.

A ploughman on his legs is higher than a gentleman on his knees.

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.