Benjamin Franklin Quotes

510 Sourced Quotes

Is there anything men take more pains about than to render themselves unhappy?

Benjamin Franklin
He that by the Plough would thrive, Himself must either hold or drive.

Benjamin Franklin
What more valuable than Gold? Diamonds. Than Diamonds? Virtue.

Benjamin Franklin
Evils come not, then our fears are vain; And if they do fear but augments the pain.

Benjamin Franklin
All philosophical Experiments that let Light into the Nature of Things, tend to increase the Power of Man over Matter, and multiply the Conveniences of Pleasure of Life.

Benjamin Franklin
The busy man has few idle visitors; to the boiling pot the flies come not.

Benjamin Franklin
Suspicion may be no fault, but showing it may be a great one.

Benjamin Franklin
I believe that Man is not the most perfect Being but One, rather that as there are many Degrees of Beings his Inferiors, so there are many Degrees of Beings superior to him.

Benjamin Franklin
That the vegetable creation should restore the air which is spoiled by the animal part of it, looks like a rational system, and seems to be of a piece with the rest.

Benjamin Franklin
O Lazy bones! Dost thou think God would have given thee arms and legs, if he had not design'd thou should'st use them?

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

Benjamin Franklin
Let thy discontents be thy secrets; if the world knows them 'twill despise thee and increase them.

Benjamin Franklin
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.

Benjamin Franklin
Women are books, and men the readers be, Who sometimes in those books erratas see; Yet oft the reader's raptured with each line, Fair print and paper, fraught with sense divine; Tho' some, neglectful, seldom care to read, And faithful wives no more than bibles heed. Are women books? says Hodge, then would mine were An Almanack, to change her every year.

Benjamin Franklin
Christianity commands us to pass by injuries; policy, to let them pass by us.

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

Benjamin Franklin
Evil, as evil, can never be chosen; and though evil is often the effect of our own choice, yet we never desire it but under the appearance of an imaginary good.

Benjamin Franklin
A temperate Diet frees from Diseases; such are seldom ill, but if they are surprised with Sickness, they bear it better, and recover sooner; for most Distempers have their Original from Repletion.

Benjamin Franklin
Prodigality of Time produces Poverty of Mind as well as of Estate.

Benjamin Franklin
Hast thou virtue? acquire also the graces and beauties of virtue.

Benjamin Franklin
Taxes are indeed very heavy -
We are taxed twice as much by our Idleness.
Three times as much by our Pride.
And four times as much by our Folly.

Benjamin Franklin
Men's minds do not die with their bodies but are made more happy or miserable after this life according to their actions.

Benjamin Franklin
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.

Benjamin Franklin
When you speak to a man, look on his eyes; when he speaks to you, look on his mouth.

Benjamin Franklin
If the new Universal History were also read, it would give a connected idea of human affairs, so far as it goes, which should be followed by the best modern histories, particularly of our mother country; then of these colonies; which should be accompanied with observations on their rise, increase, use to Great Britain, encouragements and discouragements, the means to make them flourish, and secure their liberties.

Benjamin Franklin
The ancients tell us what is best; but we must learn of the moderns what is fittest.

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

Benjamin Franklin
Epitaph on a scolding wife by her husband: Here my poor Bridget's corpse doth lie, she is at rest - and so am I!

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

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

Benjamin Franklin