Wednesday, 23 September 2009

Quotes of Benjamin Franklin

In the affairs of this world, men are saved not by faith, but by the want of it.
Benjamin Franklin


In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.
Benjamin Franklin


Industry need not wish.
Benjamin Franklin


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.
Benjamin Franklin


It is easier to prevent bad habits than to break them.
Benjamin Franklin


It is much easier to suppress a first desire than to satisfy those that follow.
Benjamin Franklin


It is only when the rich are sick that they fully feel the impotence of wealth.
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


It is the working man who is the happy man. It is the idle man who is the miserable man.
Benjamin Franklin


It takes many good deeds to build a good reputation, and only one bad one to lose it.
Benjamin Franklin


Keep your eyes wide open before marriage, half shut afterwards.
Benjamin Franklin


Laws too gentle are seldom obeyed; too severe, seldom executed.
Benjamin Franklin


Leisure is the time for doing something useful. This leisure the diligent person will obtain the lazy one
never.
Benjamin Franklin


Life's Tragedy is that we get old to soon and wise too late.
Benjamin Franklin


Lost time is never found again.
Benjamin Franklin


Many a man thinks he is buying pleasure, when he is really selling himself to it.
Benjamin Franklin


Many foxes grow gray but few grow good.
Benjamin Franklin


Many people die at twenty five and aren't buried until they are seventy five.
Benjamin Franklin


Marriage is the most natural state of man, and... the state in which you will find solid happiness.
Benjamin Franklin


Mine is better than ours.
Benjamin Franklin


Hunger is the best pickle.
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


I didn't fail the test, I just found 100 ways to do it wrong.
Benjamin Franklin


I guess I don't so much mind being old, as I mind being fat and old.
Benjamin Franklin


I look upon death to be as necessary to our constitution as sleep. We shall rise refreshed in the morning.
Benjamin Franklin


I saw few die of hunger; of eating, a hundred thousand.
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


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


If a man could have half of his wishes, he would double his troubles.
Benjamin Franklin


If a man empties his purse into his head, no one can take it from him.
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


If passion drives you, let reason hold the reins.
Benjamin Franklin


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


If you desire many things, many things will seem few.
Benjamin Franklin


If you know how to spend less than you get, you have the philosopher's stone.
Benjamin Franklin


If you would be loved, love, and be loveable.
Benjamin Franklin


If you would have a faithful servant, and one that you like, serve yourself.
Benjamin Franklin


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


If you would not be forgotten as soon as you are dead, either write something worth reading or do things
worth writing.
Benjamin Franklin


In general, mankind, since the improvement of cookery, eats twice as much as nature requires.
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


Most people return small favors, acknowledge medium ones and repay greater ones - with ingratitude.
Benjamin Franklin


Necessity never made a good bargain.
Benjamin Franklin


Never confuse motion with action.
Benjamin Franklin


Never leave that till tomorrow which you can do today.
Benjamin Franklin


Never take a wife till thou hast a house (and a fire) to put her in.
Benjamin Franklin


Nine men in ten are would be suicides.
Benjamin Franklin


No nation was ever ruined by trade.
Benjamin Franklin


Observe all men, thyself most.
Benjamin Franklin


One today is worth two tomorrows.
Benjamin Franklin


Our necessities never equal our wants.
Benjamin Franklin


Rather go to bed with out dinner than to rise in debt.
Benjamin Franklin


Rebellion against tyrants is obedience to God.
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


Remember that credit is money.
Benjamin Franklin


Savages we call them because their manners differ from ours.
Benjamin Franklin


She laughs at everything you say. Why? Because she has fine teeth.
Benjamin Franklin


Since thou are not sure of a minute, throw not away an hour.
Benjamin Franklin


Some people die at 25 and aren't buried until 75.
Benjamin Franklin


Speak ill of no man, but speak all the good you know of everybody.
Benjamin Franklin


He that can have patience can have what he will.
Benjamin Franklin


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


He that displays too often his wife and his wallet is in danger of having both of them borrowed.
Benjamin Franklin


He that has done you a kindness will be more ready to do you another, than he whom you yourself have
obliged.
Benjamin Franklin


He that is good for making excuses is seldom good for anything else.
Benjamin Franklin


He that is of the opinion money will do everything may well be suspected of doing everything for money.
Benjamin Franklin


He that lives upon hope will die fasting.
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


He that rises late must trot all day.
Benjamin Franklin


He that speaks much, is much mistaken.
Benjamin Franklin


He that waits upon fortune, is never sure of a dinner.
Benjamin Franklin
He that won't be counseled can't be helped.
Benjamin Franklin


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


He that's secure is not safe.
Benjamin Franklin


He who falls in love with himself will have no rivals.
Benjamin Franklin


Hear reason, or she'll make you feel her.
Benjamin Franklin


Hide not your talents. They for use were made. What's a sundial in the shade?
Benjamin Franklin


Honesty is the best policy.
Benjamin Franklin


How few there are who have courage enough to own their faults, or resolution enough to mend them.
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


Take time for all things: great haste makes great waste.
Benjamin Franklin


Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn.
Benjamin Franklin


The absent are never without fault, nor the present without excuse.
Benjamin Franklin


The art of acting consists in keeping people from coughing.
Benjamin Franklin


The Constitution only gives people the right to pursue happiness. You have to catch it yourself.
Benjamin Franklin


The discontented man finds no easy chair.
Benjamin Franklin


The doors of wisdom are never shut.
Benjamin Franklin


The doorstep to the temple of wisdom is a knowledge of our own ignorance.
Benjamin Franklin


The eye of the master will do more work than both his hands.
Benjamin Franklin


The first mistake in public business is the going into it.
Benjamin Franklin


The man who trades freedom for security does not deserve nor will he ever receive either.
Benjamin Franklin


The strictest law sometimes becomes the severest injustice.
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


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


The way to see by Faith is to shut the Eye of Reason.
Benjamin Franklin


The worst wheel of the cart makes the most noise.
Benjamin Franklin


There are three faithful friends - an old wife, an old dog, and ready money.
Benjamin Franklin


There are three things extremely hard: steel, a diamond, and to know one's self.
Benjamin Franklin


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.
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


Dost thou love life? Then do not squander time, for that is the stuff life is made of.
Benjamin Franklin


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


Eat to please thyself, but dress to please others.
Benjamin Franklin


Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing.
Benjamin Franklin


Employ thy time well, if thou meanest to gain leisure.
Benjamin Franklin


Energy and persistence conquer all things.
Benjamin Franklin


Even peace may be purchased at too high a price.
Benjamin Franklin


Experience is a dear teacher, but fools will learn at no other.
Benjamin Franklin


Experience keeps a dear school, but fools will learn in no other.
Benjamin Franklin


Fatigue is the best pillow.
Benjamin Franklin


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.
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


Games lubricate the body and the mind.
Benjamin Franklin


Genius without education is like silver in the mine.
Benjamin Franklin


God helps those who help themselves.
Benjamin Franklin


God works wonders now and then; Behold a lawyer, an honest man.
Benjamin Franklin


Guests, like fish, begin to smell after three days.
Benjamin Franklin


Half a truth is often a great lie.
Benjamin Franklin


Having been poor is no shame, but being ashamed of it, is.
Benjamin Franklin


He does not possess wealth; it possesses him.
Benjamin Franklin


There never was a truly great man that was not at the same time truly virtuous.
Benjamin Franklin


There was never a good war, or a bad peace.
Benjamin Franklin


They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor
safety.
Benjamin Franklin


They who would give up an essential liberty for temporary security, deserve neither liberty or security.
Benjamin Franklin


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.
Benjamin Franklin


Those that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor
safety.
Benjamin Franklin


Those that won't be counseled can't be helped.
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


Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty
nor safety.
Benjamin Franklin


Three can keep a secret, if two of them are dead.
Benjamin Franklin


Time is money.
Benjamin Franklin


To Follow by faith alone is to follow blindly.
Benjamin Franklin


To lengthen thy life, lessen thy meals.
Benjamin Franklin


To succeed, jump as quickly at opportunities as you do at conclusions.
Benjamin Franklin


Tomorrow, every Fault is to be amended; but that Tomorrow never comes.
Benjamin Franklin


Tricks and treachery are the practice of fools, that don't have brains enough to be honest.
Benjamin Franklin


Trouble springs from idleness, and grievous toil from needless ease.
Benjamin Franklin


Wars are not paid for in wartime, the bill comes later.
Benjamin Franklin


We are all born ignorant, but one must work hard to remain stupid.
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


Work as if you were to live a hundred years. Pray as if you were to die tomorrow.
Benjamin Franklin


Write injuries in dust, benefits in marble.
Benjamin Franklin
Write your injuries

in dust, your benefits in marble.
Benjamin Franklin


You can bear your own faults, and why not a fault in your wife?
Benjamin Franklin


You may delay, but time will not.
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


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


Wealth is not his that has it, but his that enjoys it.
Benjamin Franklin


Well done is better than well said.
Benjamin Franklin


Whatever is begun in anger ends in shame.
Benjamin Franklin


When befriended, remember it; when you befriend, forget it.
Benjamin Franklin


When in doubt, don't.
Benjamin Franklin


When men and woman die, as poets sung, his heart's the last part moves, her last, the tongue.
Benjamin Franklin


When will mankind be convinced and agree to settle their difficulties by arbitration?
Benjamin Franklin


When you're finished changing, you're finished.
Benjamin Franklin


Where liberty is, there is my country.
Benjamin Franklin


Where sense is wanting, everything is wanting.
Benjamin Franklin


Where there's marriage without love, there will be love without marriage.
Benjamin Franklin


Who had deceived thee so often as thyself?
Benjamin Franklin


Who is rich? He that is content. Who is that? Nobody.
Benjamin Franklin


Who is rich? He that rejoices in his portion.
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


Wine is constant proof that God loves us and loves to see us happy.
Benjamin Franklin


Wise men don't need advice. Fools won't take it.
Benjamin Franklin


Without continual growth and progress, such words as improvement, achievement, and success have no
meaning.
Benjamin Franklin


Words may show a man's wit but actions his meaning.
Benjamin Franklin


A countryman between two lawyers is like a fish between two cats.
Benjamin Franklin


A good conscience is a continual Christmas.
Benjamin Franklin


A great empire, like a great cake, is most easily diminished at the edges.
Benjamin Franklin


A house is not a home unless it contains food and fire for the mind as well as the body.
Benjamin Franklin


A learned blockhead is a greater blockhead than an ignorant one.
Benjamin Franklin


A life of leisure and a life of laziness are two things. There will be sleeping enough in the grave.
Benjamin Franklin


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


A penny saved is a penny earned.
Benjamin Franklin


A place for everything, everything in its place.
Benjamin Franklin


A small leak can sink a great ship.
Benjamin Franklin


Absence sharpens love, presence strengthens it.
Benjamin Franklin


Admiration is the daughter of ignorance.
Benjamin Franklin


All mankind is divided into three classes: those that are immovable, those that are movable, and those
that move.
Benjamin Franklin


All wars are follies, very expensive and very mischievous ones.
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


An investment in knowledge pays the best interest.
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


Anger is never without a reason, but seldom with a good one.
Benjamin Franklin


Any fool can criticize, condemn and complain and most fools do.
Benjamin Franklin


Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both.
Benjamin Franklin


Anyone who trades liberty for security deserves neither liberty nor security.
Benjamin Franklin


Applause waits on success.
Benjamin Franklin


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


At twenty years of age the will reigns; at thirty, the wit; and at forty, the judgment.
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


Be slow in choosing a friend, slower in changing.
Benjamin Franklin


Beauty and folly are old companions.
Benjamin Franklin


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


Beware of little expenses. A small leak will sink a great ship.
Benjamin Franklin


Beware the hobby that eats.
Benjamin Franklin


Buy what thou hast no need of and ere long thou shalt sell thy necessities.
Benjamin Franklin


By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.
Benjamin Franklin


Certainty? In this world nothing is certain but death and taxes.
Benjamin Franklin


Content makes poor men rich; discontent makes rich men poor.
Benjamin Franklin


Creditors have better memories than debtors.
Benjamin Franklin


Diligence is the mother of good luck.
Benjamin Franklin


Distrust and caution are the parents of security.
Benjamin Franklin


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


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


Do not squander time for that is the stuff life is made of.
Benjamin Franklin

No comments:

Post a Comment

Back to TOP