Benjamin Franklin Quotes

It is wonderful how preposterously the affairs of the world are managed. We assemble parliaments and councils to have the benefit of collected wisdom, but we necessarily have, at the same time, the inconvenience of their collected passions, prejudices and private interests: for regulating commerce an assembly of great men is the greatest fool on earth

Increase in me that wisdom
Which discovers my truest interest,
Strengthen my resolution
To perform that which wisdom dictates.

A virtuous and industrious people may be cheaply governed.

JOSIAH FRANKLIN and ABIAH his wife, lie here interred. They lived lovingly together in wedlock fifty-five years. Without an estate, or any gainful employment, By constant labor and industry, with God's blessing, They maintained a large family comfortably, and brought up thirteen children and seven grandchildren reputably. From this instance, reader, Be encouraged to diligence in thy calling, And distrust not Providence. He was a pious and prudent man; She, a discreet and virtuous woman. Their youngest son, In filial regard to their memory, Places this stone. J.

The most trifling actions that affect a man's credit are to be regarded. The sound of your hammer at five in the morning, or at nine at night, heard by a creditor, makes him easy six months longer; but if he sees you at the billiard-table, or hears your voice at a tavern, when you should be at work, he sends for his money the next day.

Distrust and caution are the parents of security.

The best way to help the poor is to make them uncomfortable in their own poverty.

I have so much faith in the general government of the world by Providence that I can hardly conceive a transaction of such momentous importance [as the framing of the Constitution] ... should be suffered to pass without being in some degree influenced, guided, and governed by that omnipotent, omnipresent, and beneficent Ruler in whom all inferior spirits live and move and have their being.

If a man would reap praise, you must sow the seeds, gentle words and useful deeds.

Historians relate not so much what is done as what they would have believed.

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.

Somebody, it seemed, gave it out that I loved ladies; and then everybody presented me their ladies (or the ladies presented themselves) to be embraced, that is to have their necks kissed ... The French ladies had a thousand other ways of rendering themselves agreeable by their various attentions and civilities, and their sensible conversation. Tis a delightful people to live with.

What signifies knowing the Names, if you know not the Natures of things.

You desire to know something of my Religion. It is the first time I have been questioned upon it: But I do not take your Curiosity amiss, and shall endeavour in a few Words to gratify it ... I have, with most of the present Dissenters in England, some Doubts as to his [Jesus'] divinity; tho' it is a question I do not dogmatize upon, having never studied it, and I think it needless to busy myself with it now, when I expect soon an Opportunity of knowing the Truth with less Trouble.
[Letter to Ezra Stiles, March 9, 1790]

it is hard for an empty sack to stand upright

An Episcopalian divine once told the Pope that the only difference between their denominations was that "the Church of Rome is infallible and the Church of England is never in the wrong."

It is with great sincerity I join you in acknowledging and admiring the dispensations of Providence in our favor. America has only to be thankful and to persevere. God will finish his work and establish their freedom ... If it had not been for the justice of our cause, and the consequent interposition of Providence,in which we had faith, we must have been ruined. If had ever before been an atheist, I should now have been convinced of the being and government of a Deity! It is He who abases the proud and favors the humble. May we never forget His goodnes to us, and may our future conduct manifest our gratitude ... I believe in one God, Creator of the universe. That He governs it by his providence. That He ought to be worshiped.

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

When Knaves betray each other, one can scarce be blamed or the other pitied.

Some people are weatherwise, but most are otherwise.

Reading was the only amusement I allowed myself

Some men grow mad by studying much to know,
But who grows mad by studying good to grow.

A child I was fond of reading, and all the little money that came into my hands was ever laid out in books.

Necessity knows no law; I know some attorneys of the same.

Trouble Springs From Idleness.

I think vital religion has always suffered when orthodoxy is more regarded than virtue. The scriptures assure me that at the last day we shall not be examined on what we thought but what we did.

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

I have found Christian dogma unintelligible. Early in life, I absenteed myself from Christian assemblies.

Furnished as all Europe now is with Academies of Science, with nice instruments and the spirit of experiment, the progress of human knowledge will be rapid and discoveries made of which we have at present no conception. I begin to be almost sorry I was born so soon, since I cannot have the happiness of knowing what will be known a hundred years hence.

Never praise your cider or your horse

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

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

if the Mufti of Constantinople were to send a missionary to preach Mohammedanism to us, he would find a pulpit at his service.

Who judges best of a Man, his Enemies or himself?

Two passions have powerful influence on the affairs of men: the love of power and the love of money.

The way to secure peace is to be prepared for war. They that are on their guard, and appear ready to receive their adversaries, are in much less danger of being attacked, than the supine, secure, and negligent.

Contentment makes a poor person rich and discontent makes a rich person poor.

O powerful goodness! Bountiful Father! Merciful Guide! Increase in me that wisdom which discovers my truest interest. Strengthen my resolution to perform what that wisdom dictates. Accept my kind offices to thy other children as the only return in my power for thy continual favours to me.

As the chief ends of conversation are to inform or to be informed, to please or to persuade, I wish well-meaning, sensible men would not lessen their power of doing good by a positive, assuming manner, that seldom fails to disgust, tends to create opposition, and to defeat every one of those purposes for which speech was given to us, to wit, giving or receiving information or pleasure. For, if you would inform, a positive and dogmatical manner in advancing your sentiments may provoke contradiction and prevent a candid attention.

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

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.

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

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

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

The world is full of fools and faint hearts; and yet everyone has courage enough to bear the misfortunes, and wisdom enough to manage the affairs, of his neighbor.

Let thy vices die before thee.

Mankind naturally and generally love to be flatter'd.

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

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

The securest place is a prison cell, but there is no liberty

He that spends a Groat a day idly, spends idly above 6 l. a year, which is the Price of using 100 l.

Genius is the ability to hold one's vision steady until it becomes reality

Search others for their virtues, thyself for thy vices.

No nation has ever been ruined by trade.

This was, therefore, the first house I was in, or slept in, in Philadelphia.

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

Men differ daily about things which are subject to sense, is it likely then they should agree about things invisible.

Hunger never saw bad bread.

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

Can anything be constant in a world which is eternally changing?

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

The good will of the governed will be starved if not fed by the good deeds of the governors.

The good Education of Youth has been esteemed by wise Men in all Ages, as the surest Foundation of the Happiness both of private Families and of Common-wealths. Almost all Governments have therefore made it a principal Object of their Attention, to establish and endow with proper Revenues, such Seminaries of Learning, as might supply the succeeding Age with Men qualified to serve the Publick with Honour to themselves, and to their Country.

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

Would thou confound thy enemy, be good thyself.

It is therefore wish'd that all commerce were as free between all the nations of the world as it is between the several counties of England.

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

Prayers and Provender hinder no Journey.

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

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

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

When you are in debt, then you are a slave.

Nothing brings more pain than too much pleasure; nothing more bondage than too much liberty.

There are many roads to success, but only one sure road to failure; and that is to try to please everyone else.

The pleasures of this world are rather from God's goodness than our own merit.

Most people die at 25 and aren't buried until they're 75

The expenses required to prevent a war are much lighter than those that will, if not prevented, be absolutely necessary to maintain it.

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.

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

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

Handle your tools without mittens.

It is prodigious the quantity of good that may be done by one man if he will make a business of it.

The honest Man takes Pains, and then enjoys Pleasures; the knave takes Pleasure, and then suffers Pains.

Chess is so interesting in itself, as not to need the view of gain to induce engaging in it; and thence it is never played for money

Success is the residue of planning.

Our limited perspective, our hopes and fears become our measure of life, and when circumstances don't fit our ideas, they become our difficulties.

What is the use of a new-born child ?

By my rambling digressions I perceive myself to be growing old.

Diligence overcomes difficulties; sloth makes them.

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

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

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.

There is much truth in the Italian saying, 'Make yourselves sheep, and the wolves will eat you.'

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.

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.

Freedom is not a gift bestowed upon us by other men, but a right that belongs to us by the laws of God and nature.

Those who prefer security to liberty deserve neither.

Danger is sauce for prayers.

Britain was formerly the America of the Germans.

He who falls in love with himself will have no rivals