Benjamin Franklin Quotes

510 Sourced Quotes

I made the greater progress, from that clearness of head and quicker apprehension which generally attend temperance in eating and drinking.

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

Benjamin Franklin
Serving God is doing good to man, but praying is thought an easier service and therefore more generally chosen.

Benjamin Franklin
But our great security lies, I think, in our growing strength, both in numbers and wealth; … unless, by a neglect of military discipline, we should lose all martial spirit …; for there is much truth in the Italian saying, Make yourselves sheep, and the wolves will eat you.

Benjamin Franklin
I believe long habits of virtue have a sensible effect on the countenance.

Benjamin Franklin
Idleness and Pride Tax with a heavier Hand than Kings and Parliaments; If we can get rid of the former we may easily bear the Latter.

Benjamin Franklin
In 1736 I lost one of my Sons, a fine Boy of 4 Years old, by the Smallpox taken in the common way. I long regretted bitterly and still regret that I had not given it to him by Inoculation. This I mention for the Sake of Parents who omit that Operation on the Supposition that they should never forgive themselves if a Child died under it; my Example showing that the Regret may be the same either way, and that therefore the safer should be chosen.

Benjamin Franklin
If time be of all things the most precious, wasting time must be the greatest prodigality.

Benjamin Franklin
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.

Benjamin Franklin
There's small Revenge in Words, but Words may be greatly revenged

Benjamin Franklin
Dangerous, therefore, is it to take shelter under a tree, during a thunder-gust. It has been fatal to many, both men and beasts.

Benjamin Franklin
The people heard it, and approved the doctrine, and immediately practiced the contrary.

Benjamin Franklin
Think What You Do When You Run in Debt: You Give to Another Power over Your Liberty

Benjamin Franklin
Avarice and happiness never saw each other, how then should they become acquainted.

Benjamin Franklin
Be at War with your Vices, at Peace with your Neighbours, and let every New-Year find you a better Man.

Benjamin Franklin
Many a man thinks he is buying pleasure, when he is really selling himself to it.

Benjamin Franklin
Sell not virtue to purchase wealth, nor liberty to purchase power.

Benjamin Franklin
The heart of a fool is in his mouth, but the mouth of a wise man is in his heart.

Benjamin Franklin
If you would know the value of money, go and try to borrow some.

Benjamin Franklin
Be temperate in wine, in eating, girls, & sloth; Or the Gout will seize you and plague you both.

Benjamin Franklin
Experience is a dear teacher, but fools will learn at no other.

Benjamin Franklin
Doing an injury puts you below your enemy; revenging one make you but even with him; forgiving it sets you above him.

Benjamin Franklin
Sin is not hurtful because it is forbidden,
but it is forbidden because it is hurtful.

Benjamin Franklin
If you wish information and improvement from the knowledge of others, and yet at the same time express yourself as firmly fix'd in your present opinions, modest, sensible men, who do not love disputation, will probably leave you undisturbed in the possession of your error.

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

Benjamin Franklin
But I must own that I am much in the Dark about Light. I am not satisfy'd with the doctrine that supposes particles of matter call'd light continually driven off from the Sun's Surface, with a Swiftness so prodigious!

Benjamin Franklin
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.

Benjamin Franklin
He that drinks his Cyder alone, let him catch his Horse alone.

Benjamin Franklin
A full Belly makes a dull Brain: The Muses starve in a Cook's Shop.

Benjamin Franklin
From a Child I was fond of Reading, and all the little Money that came into my Hands was ever laid out in Books.

Benjamin Franklin