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Quotes by Benjamin Franklin

US author, diplomat, inventor, physicist, politician, & printer (1706 - 1790)

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

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

To lengthen thy life, lessen thy meals.

Fish and visitors smell in three days.

God heals, and the doctor takes the fee.

Wish not so much to live long as to live well.

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

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

If you wouldst live long, live well, for folly and wickedness shorten life.

He that falls in love with himself will have no rivals.

In rivers and bad governments, the lightest things swim at the top.

Be slow in choosing a friend, slower in changing.

To be proud of virtue is to poison oneself with the antidote.

Be civil to all; sociable to many; familiar with few; friend to one; enemy to none.

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.

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

I believe I shall,in some shape or other,always exist; and, with all the inconveniences human life is liable to, I shall not object to a new edition of mine, hoping, however, that the errata of the last may be corrected.

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

By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.

Passion governs, and she never governs wisely.

Who is rich? He who is content. Who is that? Nobody.

Three people can keep a secret so long as two of them are dead.

Well done is better than well said.

You may delay, but time will not.

If your head is wax, don't walk in the sun.

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

Drive thy business or it will drive thee.

Think what you do when you run into debt; you give another power over your liberty.

A penny saved is a penny earned.

Three may keep a secret, if two of them are dead.

If you would persuade, you must appeal to interest rather than intellect.

Beware of the young doctor and the old barber.

Employ thy time well, if thou meanest to get leisure.

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

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.

He that lives upon hope will die fasting.

Never leave that till tomorrow which you can do today.

But in this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.

Hide not your talents, they for use were made. What's a sun-dial in the shade?

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

Creditors have better memories than debtors.

Lost time is never found again.

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

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

To follow by faith alone is to follow blindly.

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

Write injuries in dust, benefits in marble.

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

Distrust and caution are the parents of security.

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

The strictest law sometimes becomes the severest injustice.

Our critics are our friends; they show us our faults.

Search others for their virtues, thyself for thy vices.

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.

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

He that is good at making excuses is seldom good at anything else.

Sir, I agree to this Constitution, with all its Faults, if they are such; because I think a General Government necessary for us, and there is no Form of Government but what may be a Blessing to the People if well administered; and I believe farther that this is likely to be well administered for a Course of Years, and can only end in Despotism as other Forms have done before it, when the People shall become so corrupted as to need Despotic Government, being incapable of any other.

We must hang together, gentlemen...else, we shall most assuredly hang separately.

An investment in knowledge still yields the best returns.

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

Critics are our friends, they tell us our faults.

If you would be loved, love and be lovable.

Genius without education is like silver in the mine.

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.

A democracy is two wolves and a small lamb voting on what to have for dinner. Freedom under a constitutional republic is a well armed lamb contesting the vote.

He is a fool that cannot conceal his wisdom.

A good conscience is a continual Christmas.

A slip of the foot you may soon recover, but a slip of the tongue you may never get over.

All would live long, but none would be old.

An investment in knowledge always pays the best interest.

At 20 years of age the will reigns, at 30 the wit, at 40 the judgment.

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

Energy and persistence conquer all things.

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

All cats are gray in the dark.

We'll either hang together or we'll hang separately.

When the people find that they can vote themselves money, that will herald the end of the republic. Sell not liberty to purchase power.

Dost thou love life? Than do not squander time, for it is the stuff life is made of.

The Constitution only guarantees the American people the right to pursue happiness. You have to catch it yourself.

Glass, china, and reputation are easily cracked, and never well mended.

God heals, and the doctor takes the fees.

He is ill clothed that is bare of virtue.

He that can have patience can have what he will.

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

He that would live in peace and at ease, must not speak all he knows nor judge all he sees.

Life's tragedy is that we get old too soon and wise too late.

The way to see by faith is to shut the eye of reason.

How many observe Christ's birthday! How few, his precepts! O! 'tis easier to keep Holidays than Commandments.

I am in the prime of senility.

Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote!

Rules too soft are seldomly followed; rules too harsh are seldomly executed.

Tell me....And I Forget, Teach me.....And I Learn, Involve Me.....And I Remember.

If you would not be forgotten, as soon as you are rotten, either write things worth reading or do things worth the writing.

If you would know the value of money, go try to borrow some; for he that goes a-borrowing goes a-sorrowing.

Laws too gentle are seldom obeyed; to severe, seldom executed.

Anger is never without Reason, but seldom with a good One.

Old boys have their playthings as well as young ones; the difference is only in the price.

Who is wise? He that learns from every One. Who is powerful? He that governs his Passions. Who is rich? He that is content. Who is that? Nobody.

Take it from Richard, poor and lame, what's begun in anger ends in shame.

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

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

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."

To the generous mind the heaviest debt is that of gratitude, when it is not in our power to repay it.

Necessity never made a good bargain.

CP There is no kind of dishonesty into which otherwise good people more easily and frequently fall than that of defrauding the government.

They that will not be counseled, cannot be helped. If you do not hear reason she will rap you on the knuckles.

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.

Read much, but not many books.

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.

Early morning hath gold in its mouth.

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.

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

To be thrown upon one's own resources, is to be cast into the very lap of fortune; for our faculties then undergo a development and display an energy of which they were previously unsusceptible.

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

To lengthen thy Life, lessen thy meals

Sloth makes all things difficult, but industry, all things easy. He that rises late must trot all day, and shall scarce overtake his business at night, while laziness travels so slowly that poverty soon overtakes him.

Five thousand balloons, capable of raising two men each, could not cost more than five ships of the line; and where is the prince who can afford so to cover his country with troops for its defense as that 10,000 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?

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. If it satisfies one want, it doubles and trebles that want another way. That was a true proverb of the wise man, rely upon it; "Better is little with the fear of the Lord, than great treasure, and trouble therewith."

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

For the want of a nail, the shoe was lose; for the want of a shoe the horse was lose; and for the want of a horse the rider was lost, being overtaken and slain by the enemy, all for the want of care about a horseshoe nail.

Pride breakfasted with plenty, dined with poverty, and supped with infamy.

He who multiplies riches multiplies cares.

Where sense is wanting, everything is wanting,

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