Quotes By Benjamin Franklin (Page 3 of 5)

If Pride leads the Van, Beggary brings up the Rear.

Love, Cough, and a Smoke, can't well be hid.

Think of these things, whence you came, where you are going, and to whom you must account.

You have on hand those things that you need if you have but the wit and wisdom to use them.

Marry your son when you will, but you daughter when you can.

The next thing most like living one's life over again seems to be a recollection of that life, and to make that recollection as durable as possible by putting it down in writing.

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

There have been as great souls unknown to fame as any of the most famous.

In short, I conceive that great part of the miseries of mankind are brought upon them by the false estimates they have made of the value of things, and by their giving too much for their whistles.

Don't think to hunt two hares with one dog.

Time is an herb that cures all Diseases.

A virtuous heretic shall be saved before a wicked Christian.

Love of country is the Mason's deed; world citizenship is his thought.

In Truth I found myself incorrigible with respect to Order; and now I am grown old, and my Memory bad, I feel very sensibly the want of it.

Human happiness comes not from infrequent pieces of good fortune, but from the small improvements to daily life.

To inquisitive minds like yours and mine the reflection that the quantity of human knowledge bears no proportion to the quantity of human ignorance must be in one view rather pleasing, viz., that though we are to live forever we may be continually amused and delighted with learning something new.

Leisure is the time for doing something useful.

There is much difference between imitating a good man and counterfeiting him.

A man is sometimes more generous when he has but a little money than when he has plenty, perhaps through fear of being thought to have but little.

Let thy maid servant be faithful, strong, and homely.

No man ought to own more property than needed for his livelihood; the rest, by right, belonged to the state.

If we are industrious, we shall never starve; for, at the workingman's house hunger looks in, but dares not enter. Nor will the bailiff or the constable enter, for industry pays debts, while despair increaseth them.

Don't overload Gratitude; if you do, she'll kick.

In success be moderate.

The refusal of King George to allow the colonies to operate an honest money system, which freed the ordinary man from clutches of the money manipulators was probably the prime cause of the revolution.

Watch the pennies and the dollars will take care of themselves.

The electrical matter consists of particles extremely subtile, since it can permeate common matter, even the densest metals, with such ease and freedom as not to receive any perceptible resistance.

A little neglect may breed great mischief.

Everybody's human-everybody makes mistakes. If you laugh it off and keep going and try to give it your best the next time around, people respect that.

Do not let fancy outrun your means.

In the dark, all cats are grey.

Christians are directed to have faith in Christ, as the effectual means of obtaining the change they desire.

On the whole, though I never arrived at the perfection I had been so ambitious of obtaining, but fell far short of it, yet I was, by the endeavor, a better and a happier man than I otherwise should have been had I not attempted it.

Squeamish stomachs cannot eat without pickles.

You can not pluck roses without fear of thorns, Nor enjoy a fair wife without danger of horns.

A highwayman is as much a robber when he plunders in a gang as when single; and a nation that makes an unjust war is only a great gang.

A policy of life insurance is the cheapest and safest mode of making a certain provision for one's family.

I have lived, Sir, a long time, and the longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this truth -- that God governs in the affairs of men.

I therefore beg leave to move that henceforth prayers imploring the assistance of Heaven, and its blessing on our deliberations, be held in this Assembly every morning.

The exact Quantity and Quality being found out, is to be kept to constantly.

My rule, in which I have always found satisfaction, is, never to turn aside in public affairs through views of private interest; but to go straight forward in doing what appears to me right at the time, leaving the consequences with Providence.

Whoever shall introduce into public affairs the principles of primitive Christianity will change the face of the world.

The things of this world take up too much of my time, of which indeed I have too little left, to undertake anything like a reformation in religion.

I believe in one God, Creator of the Universe in that He ought to be whipped from pilar to post and back again for His shameful actions toward Humanity.

It would be thought a hard government that should tax its people one tenth part.

Never spare the parson's wine nor the baker's pudding.

A nod from a lord is a breakfast for a fool.

Some make Conscience of wearing a Hat in the Church, who make none of robbing the Altar.

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

It seems to me, that if statesmen had a little more arithmetic, or were accustomed to calculation, wars would be much less frequent.

A good spouse and health is a person's best wealth.

Remember this Saying, 'That the good Paymaster is Lord of another Man's Purse.' He that is known to pay punctually and exactly to the Time he promises, may at any Time, and on any Occasion, raise all the Money his Friends can spare.

To bear other people's afflictions, everyone has courage and enough to spare.

The most exquisite folly is made of wisdom spun too fine.

Learn of the skillful; he that teaches himself, has a fool for his master.

The grand leap of the whale up the Fall of Niagara is esteemed, by all who have seen it, as one of the finest spectacles in nature.

Setting too good an Example is a Kind of slander seldom forgiven.

I am about courting a girl I have had but little acquaintance with. How shall I come to a knowledge of her faults, and whether she has the virtues I imagine she has? Answer. Commend her among her female acquaintances.

Many estates are spent in the getting, since women for tea forsake spinning and knitting, and men for punch forsake hewing and splitting.

To the haranguers of the populace among the ancients, succeed among the moderns your writers of political pamphlets and news-papers, and your coffee-house talkers.

Great talkers, little doers.

Great talkers should be cropt, for they've no need of ears.

I am the laziest man in the world. I invented all those things to save myself from toil.

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.'

Love and toothache have many cures, but none infallible, except possession and dispossession.

It is the duty of mankind on all suitable occasions to acknowledge their dependence on the Divine Being.

Be in general virtuous, and you will be happy.

It's better to swim in the sea below Than to swing in the air and feed the crow, Says jolly Ned Teach of Bristol.

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 previosly unsusceptible.

Make the best use of both time and money. Add industry and frugal dealings if they pay very well and if you're free to it.

One today is worth two tomorrows. Lost time is never found again. Time is money. Dost thou love life? Then do not squander time, for that's the stuff that life is made of. You may delay, but time will not.

Time Like a petal in the wind Flows softly by As old lives are taken New ones begin A continual chain Which lasts throughout eternity Every life but a minute in time But each of equal importance.

In reality, there is, perhaps, no one of our natural passions so hard to subdue as pride.

Eat few suppers, and you'll need few medicines.

Wouldst thou enjoy a long Life, a healthy Body, and a vigorous Mind, and be acquainted also with the wonderful Works of God? labour in the first place to bring thy Appetite into Subjection to Reason.

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.

Till we are uneasy in Rest, we can have no Desire to move, and without Desire of moving there can be no voluntary Motion.

Temperance puts wood on the fire, meal in the barrel, flour in the tub, money in the purse, credit in the country, contentment in the house, clothes on the back, and vigor in the body.

Religion I found to be without any tendency to inspire, promote, or confirm morality, serves principally to divide us and make us unfriendly to one another.

An infallible Remedy for the Tooth-ach, viz Wash the Root of an aching Tooth, in Elder Vinegar, and let it dry half an hour in the Sun; after which it will never ach more; Probatum est.

Take heed of the Vinegar of sweet Wine, and the Anger of Good-nature.

A spoonful of honey will catch more flies than a gallon of vinegar.

While the path to wealth is clearly marked, few are willing to adapt themselves to the modest discipline that the journey requires. Instead, most choose the shinier track of debt-driven consumption, which they find further along is covered in vines and thorns.

Twas Noah who first planted the vine
And mended his morals by drinking its wine.

Wine makes daily living easier, less hurried with fewer tensions and more tolerance.

The only time not wasted is wasted time.

Love well, whip well.

I am a mortal enemy to arbitrary government and unlimited power.

I think this Law, by which I am punished, is both unreasonable in itself, and particularly severe
Polly Baker.

Not to oversee workmen is to leave them your purse open.

Disdain the chain, preserve your freedom; and maintain your independency: be industrious and free; be frugal and free.

Constant dropping wears away stones.

Resolve to perform what you ought;
perform without fail what you resolve.

Ambition has its disappointments to sour us, but never the good fortune to satisfy us.

Without justice, courage is weak.

Let each new year find you a better person.

Handle your tools without mittens.

He is ill clothed, who is bare of virtue.

Marriage is the most natural state of man, and therefore the state in which one is most likely to find solid happiness.

Three things are men most likely to be cheated in, a horse, a wig, and a wife.

Nine Men in Ten are Suicides.

A wise man will desire no more than what he may get justly, use soberly, distribute cheerfully, and leave contently.

Our whole life is but a greater and longer childhood.

I know not which lives more unnatural lives, obeying husbands, or commanding wives.

A little House well fill'd, a little Field well till'd, and a little Wife well will'd, are great Riches.

Don't misinform your Doctor nor your Lawyer.

He's a fool that makes his doctor his heir.

We are not so sensible of the greatest Health as of the least Sickness.

He that riseth late, must trot all day, and shall scarce overtake his business at night.

Who is there that can be handsomely Supported in Affluence, Ease and Pleasure by another, that will chuse rather to earn his Bread by the Sweat of his own Brows?

Sloth makes all things difficult, but industry all things easy.

Laziness travels so slowly that poverty soon overtakes it.

When Wine enters, out goes the Truth.

Take counsel in wine, but resolve afterwards in water.

The discovery of a wine is of greater moment than the discovery of a constellation. The universe is too full of stars.

A man is not completely born until he is dead.

A man in a passion, rides a mad horse.

Pride is as loud a beggar as want, and a great deal more saucy.

On being asked what condition of man he considered the most pitiable: A lonesome man on a rainy day who does not know how to read.

All wars are follies, very expensive and very mischievous ones. In my opinion, there never was a good war or a bad peace. When will mankind be convinced and agree to settle their difficulties by arbitration?

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

What science can there be more noble, more excellent, more useful for men, more admirably high and demonstrative, than this of mathematics?

Promises may get thee friends, but non-performance will turn them into enemies.

Content and Riches seldom meet together, Riches take thou, contentment I had rather.

An undutiful daughter will prove an unmanageable wife.

The Body of B. Franklin, Printer Like the Cover of an old Book Its Contents turn out And Stript of its Lettering and Guilding Lies here. Food for Worms For, it will as he believed appear once more In a new and more elegant Edition corrected and improved By the Author.

He who gives up freedom for safety deserves neither.

Those who would give up liberty for safety deserve neither.

The way to be safe is never to be secure.

If you, do what you should not, you must bear what you would not.

Little strokes fell great oaks.

Idleness and pride tax with a heavier hand than kings and governments.

When women cease to be handsome, they study to be good.

There is no little enemy.

Hear no ill of a friend, nor speak any of an enemy.

The best is the cheapest.

Life is a kind of Chess, with struggle, competition, good and ill events.

The King's cheese is half wasted in parings: But no matter, 'tis made of the people's milk.

One good husband is worth two good wives, for the scarcer things are, the more they are valued.

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

If you would keep your secret from an enemy, tell it not to a friend.

Of learned Fools I have seen ten times ten,
Of unlearned wise men I have seen a hundred.

Your best investment is to pour your purse into your head, and no one can take it away from you.

When a religion is good, I conceive it will support itself; and when it does not support itself, and God does not take care to support it so that its professors are obliged to call for help of the civil power, 'tis a sign, I apprehend, of its being a bad one.