Authors - Benjamin Franklin
Brief Biography
Benjamin Franklin (January 17, 1706 - April 17, 1790) was one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. A noted polymath, Franklin was a leading author, printer, political theorist, politician, postmaster, scientist, musician, inventor, satirist, civic activist, statesman, and diplomat. As a scientist, he was a major figure in the American Enlightenment and the history of physics for his discoveries and theories regarding electricity. He invented the lightning rod, bifocals, the Franklin stove, a carriage odometer, and the glass 'armonica'. He formed both the first public lending library in America and the first fire department in Pennsylvania. - Wikipedia
Quotes by Benjamin FranklinBrowse all of these
Quote 1035by Anonymous on 09/01/2011
A man wrapped up in himself makes a very small bundle.
Quote 1058by Anonymous on 10/01/2011
The first mistake in public business is the going into it.
Quote 1087by Anonymous on 10/01/2011
There is no kind of dishonesty into which otherwise good people more easily and frequently fall than that of defrauding the government.
Quote 1100by Anonymous on 10/01/2011
Experience keeps a dear school, but fools will learn in no other.
Quote 1153by Anonymous on 10/01/2011
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.
Quote 1257by Anonymous on 11/01/2011
There is no such thing as a good war and there is no such thing as a bad peace.
Quote 1264by Anonymous on 11/01/2011
Absence sharpens love, presence strengthens it.
Quote 1341by Anonymous on 12/01/2011
Even peace may be purchased at too high a price.
Quote 1390by Anonymous on 12/01/2011
Creditors have better memories than debtors.
Quote 1600by Anonymous on 14/01/2011
Words may show a man's wit but actions his meaning.
Quote 1601by Anonymous on 14/01/2011
Rebellion against tyrants is obedience to God.
Quote 1637by Anonymous on 14/01/2011
They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.
Quote 1855by Anonymous on 16/01/2011
He that falls in love with himself will have no rivals.
Quote 1862by Anonymous on 18/01/2011
Experience is a dear teacher, but fools will learn at no other.
Quote 1886by Anonymous on 18/01/2011
Keep your eyes wide open before marriage, half shut afterwards.
Quote 1952by Anonymous on 19/01/2011
He that would live in peace and at ease must not speak all he knows or all he sees.
Quote 1966by Anonymous on 19/01/2011
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.
Quote 2022by Anonymous on 21/01/2011
The art of acting consists in keeping people from coughing.
Quote 2145by Anonymous on 22/01/2011
Marriage is the most natural state of man, and the state in which you will find solid happiness.
Quote 2162by Anonymous on 24/01/2011
There are three things extremely hard: steel, a diamond, and to know one's self.
Quote 2165by Anonymous on 24/01/2011
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.
Quote 2173by Anonymous on 24/01/2011
How many observe Christ's birthday! How few, his precepts! O! 'tis easier to keep holidays than commandments.
Quote 2402by Anonymous on 28/01/2011
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.
Quote 2471by Anonymous on 30/01/2011
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.
Quote 2483by Anonymous on 30/01/2011
The greatest monarch on the proudest throne is obliged to sit upon his own arse.
Quote 2538by Anonymous on 31/01/2011
Hide not your talents. They for use were made. What's a sundial in the shade.
Quote 2652by Anonymous on 03/02/2011
Many a long dispute among divines may be thus abridged: It is so. It is not so. It is so. It is not so.
Quote 2701by Anonymous on 03/02/2011
For the want of a nail, the shoe was lost; for the want of a shoe the horse was lost; 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.
Quote 2704by Anonymous on 03/02/2011
Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing.
Quote 2710by Anonymous on 03/02/2011
An investment in knowledge pays the best interest.
Quote 2726by Anonymous on 03/02/2011
Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch.
Quote 2775by Anonymous on 03/02/2011
If Jack's in love, he's no judge of Jill's beauty.
Quote 2788by Anonymous on 03/02/2011
Beware of little expenses. A small leak will sink a great ship.
Quote 3008by Anonymous on 03/02/2011
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.
Quote 3028by Anonymous on 03/02/2011
So convienent 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.
Quote 3060by Anonymous on 03/02/2011
If you would be loved, love and be lovable.
Quote 3144by Anonymous on 03/02/2011
Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both.
Quote 3240by Anonymous on 05/02/2011
To find out a girl's faults, praise her to her girl friends.
Quote 3369by Anonymous on 05/02/2011
Man will ultimately be governed by God or by tyrants.
Quote 3384by Anonymous on 05/02/2011
A good conscience is a continual Christmas.
Quote 3426by Anonymous on 06/02/2011
I saw few die of hunger; of eating, a hundred thousand.
Quote 3432by Anonymous on 06/02/2011
I have lived, Sir, a long time, and the longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this truth -- that God Governs the affairs of men. And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without His notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without His aid?
Quote 3465by Anonymous on 06/02/2011
Where there's marriage without love, there will be love without marriage.
Quote 3493by Anonymous on 06/02/2011
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.
Quote 3561by Anonymous on 07/02/2011
To succeed, jump as quickly at opportunities as you do at conclusions.
Quote 3612by Anonymous on 08/02/2011
Anger is one of the sinews of the soul; he that wants it hath a maimed mind.
Quote 3626by Anonymous on 08/02/2011
Dost thou love life? Then do not squander time; for that's the stuff life is made of.
Quote 3686by Anonymous on 09/02/2011
'Tis a common observation here that our cause is the cause of all mankind, and that we are fighting for their liberty in defending our own.
Quote 3873by Anonymous on 12/02/2011
Laws too gentle are seldom obeyed; too severe, seldom executed.
Quote 3891by Anonymous on 12/02/2011
The doorstep to the temple of wisdom is a knowledge of our own ignorance.
Quote 3921by Anonymous on 12/02/2011
Beer is living proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy.
Quote 3977by Anonymous on 12/02/2011
I am a strong believer in luck and I find the harder I work the more I have of it.
Quote 4002by Anonymous on 12/02/2011
Wealth is not his that has it, but his that enjoys it.
Quote 4073by Anonymous on 13/02/2011
All mankind is divided into three classes: those that are immovable, those that are movable, and those that move.
Quote 4082by Anonymous on 14/02/2011
If you would persuade, you must appeal to interest rather than intellect.
Quote 4137by Anonymous on 15/02/2011
Employ thy time well, if thou meanest to get leisure.
Quote 4280by Anonymous on 18/02/2011
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.
Quote 4328by Anonymous on 19/02/2011
Life's Tragedy is that we get old to soon and wise too late.
Quote 4333by Anonymous on 20/02/2011
The Constitution only gives people the right to pursue happiness. You have to catch it yourself.
Quote 4347by Anonymous on 20/02/2011
He does not possess wealth; it possesses him.
Quote 4388by Anonymous on 20/02/2011
Would you live with ease? Do what you ought, not what you please.
Quote 4410by Anonymous on 21/02/2011
If a man empties his purse into his head, no one can take it from him.
Quote 4442by Anonymous on 21/02/2011
Genius without education is like silver in the mine.
Quote 4599by Anonymous on 25/02/2011
He that is of the opinion money will do everything may well be suspected of doing everything for money.
Quote 4607by Anonymous on 25/02/2011
Be civil to all; sociable to many; familiar with few; friend to one; enemy to none.
Quote 4631by Anonymous on 25/02/2011
In this world nothing is certain but death and taxes.
Quote 4767by Anonymous on 27/02/2011
Money can help you to get medicines but not health. Money can help you to get soft pillows, but not sound sleep. Money can help you to get material comforts, but not eternal bliss. Money can help you to get ornaments, but not beauty. Money will help you to get an electric earphone, but not natural hearing. Attain the supreme wealth, wisdom, and you will have everything.
Quote 4840by Anonymous on 01/03/2011
When the well's dry, we know the worth of water.
Quote 5134by Anonymous on 23/05/2011
Having been poor is no shame, but being ashamed of it, is.
Quote 5484by Anonymous on 06/07/2011
Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise.
Quote 5589by Anonymous on 25/07/2011
At 20 years of age the will reigns, at 30 the wit, at 40 the judgment.
Quote 6022by Anonymous on 12/09/2011
If you would know the value of money, go try to borrow some; for he that goes a-borrowing goes a-sorrowing.
Quote 6233by Anonymous on 16/09/2011
All would live long, but none would be old.
Quote 6406by Anonymous on 19/09/2011
Glass, china, and reputation are easily cracked, and never well mended.
Quote 6662by Anonymous on 03/10/2011
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.
Quote 6823by Anonymous on 10/10/2011
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.
Quote 7175by Anonymous on 26/10/2011
A countryman between two lawyers is like a fish between two cats.
Quote 7302by Anonymous on 02/11/2011
Never leave that till tomorrow which you can do today.
Quote 7386by Anonymous on 08/11/2011
He that is good for making excuses is seldom good for anything else.
Quote 7688by Anonymous on 19/01/2012
There are three faithful friends - an old wife, an old dog, and ready money.
Quote 8633by Anonymous on 21/05/2012
In the affairs of this world, men are saved not by faith, but by the want of it.
Quote 8816by Anonymous on 30/05/2012
Every goal, every action, every thought, every feeling one experiences, whether it be consciously or unconsciously known, is an attempt to increase one's level of peace of mind.
Quote 9084by Anonymous on 17/06/2012
Your net worth to the world is usually determined by what remains after your bad habits are subtracted from your good ones.
Quote 9208by Anonymous on 27/06/2012
Chicken fat, beef fat, fish fat, fried foods - these are the foods that fuel our fat genes by giving them raw materials for building body fat.
Quote 9505by Anonymous on 01/08/2012
Be slow in choosing a friend, slower in changing.
Quote 10290by Anonymous on 26/09/2012
In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.
Quote 10311by Anonymous on 27/09/2012
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.
Quote 10521by Anonymous on 09/10/2012
Wine is constant proof that God loves us and loves to see us happy.
Quote 10623by Anonymous on 13/10/2012
Old boys have their playthings as well as young ones; the difference is only in the price.
Quote 11511by Anonymous on 06/01/2013
He that can have patience can have what he will.
Quote 11825by Anonymous on 25/01/2013
There was never a good war, or a bad peace.
Quote 12763by Anonymous on 18/05/2013
A slip of the foot you may soon recover, but a slip of the tongue you may never get over.
Quote 13276by Anonymous on 04/07/2013
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.
