Benjamin Franklin Quotes

510 Sourced Quotes

Speak with contempt of none, from slave to king, The meanest Bee hath, and will use, a sting.

Benjamin Franklin
A little Religion, and a little Honesty, goes a great way in Courts.

Benjamin Franklin
He gives twice that gives soon, i.e., he will soon be called to give again.

Benjamin Franklin
When you incline to have new clothes, look first well over the old ones, and see if you cannot shift with them another year, either by scouring, mending, or even patching if necessary. Remember, a patch on your coat, and money in your pocket, is better and more creditable, than a writ on your back, and no money to take it off.

Benjamin Franklin
A ploughman on his legs is higher than a gentleman on his knees.

Benjamin Franklin
Idleness is the Dead Sea that swallows all virtues. Be active in business, that temptation may miss her aim; the bird that sits is easily shot.

Benjamin Franklin
We may perhaps learn to deprive large masses of their gravity and give them absolute levity, for the sake of easy transport.

Benjamin Franklin
My dear friend, do not imagine that I am vain enough to ascribe our success [Revolution] to any superiority... 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 I had ever before been an atheist, I should now have been convinced of the being and government of a Deity!

Benjamin Franklin
Since I cannot govern my own tongue, though within my own teeth, how can I hope to govern the tongue of others?

Benjamin Franklin
Get what you can, and what you get hold; 'tis the Stone that will turn all your Lead into Gold.

Benjamin Franklin
I am about courting a girl I have had but little acquaintance with. How shall I come to a knowledge of her faults, and whether she has the virtues I imagine she has? Answer. Commend her among her female acquaintances.

Benjamin Franklin
The good or ill hap of a good or ill life, is the good or ill choice of a good or ill wife.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Benjamin Franklin