Benjamin Franklin Quotes

510 Sourced Quotes

In other men we faults can spy,/ And blame the mote that dims their eye;/ Each little speck and blemish find;/ To our own stronger errors blind.

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

Benjamin Franklin
An iron rod being placed on the outside of a building from the highest part continued down into the moist earth, in any direction strait or crooked, following the form of the roof or other parts of the building, will receive the lightning at its upper end, attracting it so as to prevent it's striking any other part; and, affording it a good conveyance into the earth, will prevent its damaging any part of the building.

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

Benjamin Franklin
Wherever desirable superfluities are imported, industry is excited, and thereby plenty is produced. Were only necessaries permitted to be purchased, men would work no more than was necessary for that purpose.

Benjamin Franklin
You will see in this my notion of good works, that I am far from expecting to merit heaven by them. By heaven we understand a state of happiness, infinite in degree, and eternal in duration. I can do nothing to deserve such rewards... Even the mixed imperfect pleasures we enjoy in this world, are rather from God's goodness than our merit, how much more such happiness of heaven!

Benjamin Franklin
Singularity in the right hath ruined many; happy those who are convinced of the general opinion.

Benjamin Franklin
Thank God! we are in the full enjoyment of all these privileges. But can we be taught to prize them too much? or how can we prize them equal to their value, if we do not know their intrinsic worth, and that they are not a gift bestowed upon us by other men, but a right that belongs to us by the laws of God and nature?

Benjamin Franklin
If you'd be wealthy, think of saving, more than of getting: The Indies have not made Spain rich, because her Outgoes equal her Incomes.

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

Benjamin Franklin
You will observe with concern how long a useful truth may be known, and exist, before it is generally received and practiced on.

Benjamin Franklin
All the heavenly Bodies, the Stars and Planets, are regulated with the utmost Wisdom! And can we suppose less Care to be taken in the Order of the moral than in the natural System?

Benjamin Franklin
If you wou'd have Guests merry with your cheer, Be so your self, or so at least appear.

Benjamin Franklin
Don't think so much of your own Cunning, as to forget other Men's; a Cunning Man is overmatched by a cunning Man and a Half.

Benjamin Franklin
Rarely use Venery but for Health or Offspring; Never to Dulness, Weakness, or the Injury of your own or another's Peace or Reputation.

Benjamin Franklin
The greatest monarch on the proudest throne is obliged to sit upon his own arse.

Benjamin Franklin
He that is conscious of a stink in his breeches is [suspicious] of every wrinkle in another's nose.

Benjamin Franklin
After all, wedlock is the natural state of man. A bachelor is not a complete human being. He is like the odd half of a pair of scissors, which has not yet found its fellow, and therefore is not even half so useful as they might be together.

Benjamin Franklin
Certainlie these things agree, The Priest, the Lawyer, & Death all three: Death takes both the weak and the strong. The lawyer takes from both right and wrong, And the priest from living and dead has his Fee.

Benjamin Franklin
Truth and sincerity have a certain distinguishing native lustre about them which cannot be perfectly counterfeited; they are like fire and flame, that cannot be painted.

Benjamin Franklin
Justice is as strictly due between neighbor nations as between neighbor citizens.

Benjamin Franklin
The church, the state, and the poor, are 3 daughters which we should maintain, but not portion off.

Benjamin Franklin
We must not in the course of public life expect immediate approbation and immediate grateful acknowledgment of our services. But let us persevere through abuse and even injury. The internal satisfaction of a good conscience is always present, and time will do us justice in the minds of the people, even those at present the most prejudiced against us.

Benjamin Franklin
The usefulness of some particular parts of the mathematics in the common affairs of human life, has rendered some knowledge of them very necessary to a great part of mankind, and very convenient to all the rest that are any way conversant beyond the limits of their own particular callings.

Benjamin Franklin
Let every fart count as a peal of thunder for liberty. Let every fart remind the nation of how much it has let pass out of its control. It is a small gesture, but one that can be very effective - especially in a large crowd. So fart, and if you must, fart often. But always fart without apology. Fart for freedom, fart for liberty - and fart proudly.

Benjamin Franklin
Hope and faith may be more firmly built upon charity, than charity upon faith and hope.

Benjamin Franklin
Be not disturbed at trifles, or at accidents common or unavoidable.

Benjamin Franklin
He that pays for work before it's done, has but a pennyworth for two pence.

Benjamin Franklin
A father's a treasure; a brother's a comfort; a friend is both.

Benjamin Franklin
Cut the Wings of your Hens and Hopes, lest they lead you a weary Dance after them.

Benjamin Franklin