Benjamin Franklin Quotes

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My rule, in which I have always found satisfaction, is, never to turn aside in public affairs through views of private interest; but to go straight forward in doing what appears to me right at the time, leaving the consequences with Providence.

Benjamin Franklin
Why should Pennsylvania, founded by the English, become a Colony of Aliens, who will shortly be so numerous as to Germanize us instead of our Anglifying them, and will never adopt our Language or Customs, any more than they can acquire our Complexion...

Benjamin Franklin
Let our Fathers and Grandfathers be valued for their Goodness, ourselves for our own.

Benjamin Franklin
Let honesty be as the breath of thy soul; then shalt thou reach the point of happiness, and independence shall be thy shield and buckler, thy helmet and crown; then shall thy soul walk upright, nor stoop to the silken wretch because he hath riches, nor pocket an abuse because the hand which offers it wears a ring set with diamonds.

Benjamin Franklin
He's gone, and forgot nothing but to say farewell to his creditors

Benjamin Franklin
Give me yesterday's bread, this day's flesh, and last year's cider

Benjamin Franklin
Be not niggardly of what costs thee nothing, as courtesy, counsel, & countenance.

Benjamin Franklin
Kings have long arms, but Misfortune longer: let none think themselves out of her reach.

Benjamin Franklin
Can anything be constant in a world which is eternally changing?

Benjamin Franklin
Since they are our right, let us be vigilant to preserve them uninfringed, and free from encroachments. If animosities arise, and we should be obliged to resort to party, let each of us range himself on the side which unfurls the ensigns of public good. Faction will then vanish, which, if not timely suppressed, may overturn the balance, the palladium of liberty, and crush us under its ruins.

Benjamin Franklin
Whether a Commonwealth suffers more by hypocritical pretenders to religion or by the openly profane? The most dangerous hypocrite in a Commonwealth is one who leaves the gospel for the sake of the law. A man compounded of law and gospel is able to cheat a whole country with his religion and then destroy them under color of law.

Benjamin Franklin
The way to secure peace is to be prepared for war. They that are on their guard, and appear ready to receive their adversaries, are in much less danger of being attacked, than the supine, secure, and negligent.

Benjamin Franklin
Reader, I wish thee Health, Wealth, Happiness, And may kind Heaven thy Year's Industry bless.

Benjamin Franklin
Here is my Creed. I believe in one God, the Creator of the Universe. That He governs it by His Providence. That He ought to be worshipped.

Benjamin Franklin
Conceiving God to be the fountain of wisdom, I thought it right and necessary to solicit his assistance for obtaining it.

Benjamin Franklin
E'er you remark another's sin, bid your own conscience look within.

Benjamin Franklin
A wolf eats sheep but now and then, ten Thousands are devour'd by Men.

Benjamin Franklin
Avoid dishonest gain: no price can recompence the pangs of vice.

Benjamin Franklin
Virtue may not always make a Face handsome, but Vice will certainly make it ugly.

Benjamin Franklin
Men are subject to various inconveniences merely through lack of a small share of courage, which is a quality very necessary in the common occurrences of life, as well as in a battle. How many impertinences do we daily suffer with great uneasiness, because we have not courage enough to discover our dislike.

Benjamin Franklin
That which resembles most living one's life over again, seems to be to recall all the circumstances of it; and, to render this remembrance more durable, to record them in writing.

Benjamin Franklin
It's the easiest thing in the world for a man to deceive himself.

Benjamin Franklin
There has not been any science so much esteemed and honored as this of mathematics, nor with so much industry and vigilance become the care of great men, and labored in by the potentates of the world, viz... emperors, kings, princes, etc.

Benjamin Franklin
Christians are directed to have faith in Christ, as the effectual means of obtaining the change they desire.

Benjamin Franklin
If any form of government is capable of making a nation happy, ours I think bids fair now for producing that effect. But after all much depends upon the people who are governed.

Benjamin Franklin
Don't you know, that all wives are in the right? It may be you don't, for you are yet a young husband.

Benjamin Franklin
The good will of the governed will be starved if not fed by the good deeds of the governors.

Benjamin Franklin
Take Courage, Mortal; Death can't banish thee out of the Universe.

Benjamin Franklin
Virtue alone is sufficient to make a man great, glorious, and happy.

Benjamin Franklin
An enormous proportion of property vested in a few individuals is dangerous to the rights, and destructive of the common happiness of mankind, and, therefore, every free state hath a right by its laws to discourage the possession of such property.

Benjamin Franklin