Memorable Quotes and quotations from Benjamin FranklinBenjamin Franklin US author, diplomat, inventor, physicist, politician, & printer (1706 - 1790)Benjamin Franklin - - Genius without education is like silver in the mine. Benjamin Franklin - - He that falls in love with himself will have no rivals. Benjamin Franklin - - He that lives upon hope will die fasting. Benjamin Franklin - - Three can keep a secret, if two of them are dead. Benjamin Franklin - - A countryman between two lawyers is like a fish between two cats. Benjamin Franklin - - You may delay, but time will not. Benjamin Franklin - - An investment in knowledge still yields the best returns. Benjamin Franklin - - Do not anticipate trouble, or worry about what may never happen. Keep in the sunlight. Benjamin Franklin - - He that is of the opinion money will do everything may well be suspected of doing everything for money. Benjamin Franklin - - Employ thy time well, if thou meanest to get leisure. Benjamin Franklin - - In rivers and bad governments, the lightest things swim at the top. Benjamin Franklin - - At 20 years of age the will reigns, at 30 the wit, at 40 the judgment. Benjamin Franklin - - If you would be loved, love and be lovable. Benjamin Franklin - - There is no kind of dishonesty into which otherwise good people more easily and frequently fall than that of defrauding the government. Benjamin Franklin - - The Constitution only guarantees the American people the right to pursue happiness. You have to catch it yourself. Benjamin Franklin - - Critics are our friends, they tell us our faults. Benjamin Franklin - - He that would live in peace and at ease, must not speak all he knows nor judge all he sees. Benjamin Franklin - - Well done is better than well said. Benjamin Franklin - - By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail. Benjamin Franklin - - Necessity never made a good bargain. Benjamin Franklin - - Employ thy time well, if thou meanest to get leisure. Benjamin Franklin - - Educate your children to self-control, to the habit of holding passion and prejudice and evil tendencies subject to an upright and reasoning will, and you have done much to abolish misery from their future and crimes from society. Benjamin Franklin - - All human situations have their inconveniences. We feel those of the present but neither see nor feel those of the future; and hence we often make troublesome changes without amendment, and frequently for the worse. Benjamin Franklin - - Beware of the young doctor and the old barber. Benjamin Franklin - - Early morning hath gold in its mouth. Benjamin Franklin - - An investment in knowledge always pays the best interest. Benjamin Franklin - Poor Richard?s Almanac (1758) - Creditors have better memories than debtors. Benjamin Franklin - - Whatever is begun in anger ends in shame. Benjamin Franklin - - Dost thou love life? Then do not squander time, for that is the stuff life is made of. Benjamin Franklin - - They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. Benjamin Franklin - - It is the working man who is the happy man. It is the idle man who is the miserable man. Benjamin Franklin - - Rules too soft are seldomly followed; rules too harsh are seldomly executed. Benjamin Franklin - - Read much, but not many books. Benjamin Franklin - - Three people can keep a secret so long as two of them are dead. Benjamin Franklin - - Money never made a man happy yet, nor will it. There is nothing in its nature to produce happiness. The more a man has, the more he wants. Instead of its filling a vacuum, it makes one. If it satisfies one want, it doubles and trebles that want another way. That was a true proverb of the wise man, rely upon it; "Better is little with the fear of the Lord, than great treasure, and trouble therewith." Benjamin Franklin - - He that is good for making excuses is seldom good for anything else. Benjamin Franklin - - Drive thy business or it will drive thee. Benjamin Franklin - - Laws too gentle are seldom obeyed; too severe, seldom executed. Benjamin Franklin - letter to David Hartley, December 4, 1789 - God grant that not only the love of liberty but a thorough knowledge of the rights of man may pervade all the nations of the earth, so that a philosopher may set his foot anywhere on its surface and say: "This is my country." Benjamin Franklin - - You may delay, but time will not. Benjamin Franklin - - Genius without education is like silver in the mine. Benjamin Franklin - - Never leave that till tomorrow which you can do today. Benjamin Franklin - - If you would be wealthy, think of saving as well as getting. Benjamin Franklin - - Do not anticipate trouble, or worry about what may never happen. Keep in the sunlight. Benjamin Franklin - - He that can have patience can have what he will. Benjamin Franklin - - To follow by faith alone is to follow blindly. Benjamin Franklin - - Distrust and caution are the parents of security. Benjamin Franklin - - Be slow in choosing a friend, slower in changing. Benjamin Franklin - - Be civil to all; sociable to many; familiar with few; friend to one; enemy to none. Benjamin Franklin - - Energy and persistence conquer all things. Benjamin Franklin - - He that is of the opinion money will do everything may well be suspected of doing everything for money. Benjamin Franklin - - He that blows the coals in quarrels that he has nothing to do with, has no right to complain if the sparks fly in his face Benjamin Franklin - - The strictest law sometimes becomes the severest injustice. Benjamin Franklin - - A penny saved is a penny earned. Benjamin Franklin - - A slip of the foot you may soon recover, but a slip of the tongue you may never get over. Benjamin Franklin - - Glass, china and reputation are easily cracked, and never well mended. Benjamin Franklin - - Dost thou love life? Than do not squander time, for it is the stuff life is made of. 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 - Historical Review of Pennsylvania, 1759 - They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. Benjamin Franklin - - A good conscience is a continual Christmas. Benjamin Franklin - - Lost time is never found again. Benjamin Franklin - - He is ill clothed that is bare of virtue. Benjamin Franklin - - Beware of the young doctor and the old barber. Benjamin Franklin - - I believe I shall,in some shape or other,always exist; and, with all the inconveniences human life is liable to, I shall not object to a new edition of mine, hoping, however, that the errata of the last may be corrected. Benjamin Franklin - - Write injuries in dust, benefits in marble. Benjamin Franklin - - If you would not be forgotten, as soon as you are rotten, either write things worth reading or do things worth the writing. Benjamin Franklin - - A countryman between two lawyers is like a fish between two cats. Benjamin Franklin - - Think what you do when you run into debt; you give another power over your liberty. Benjamin Franklin - - Pride breakfasted with plenty, dined with poverty, and supped with infamy. Benjamin Franklin - - God heals, and the doctor takes the fee. Benjamin Franklin - - Five thousand balloons, capable of raising two men each, could not cost more than five ships of the line; and where is the prince who can afford so to cover his country with troops for its defense as that 10,000 men descending from the clouds might not in many places do an infinite deal of mischief before a force could be brought together to repel them? Benjamin Franklin - - Search others for their virtues, thyself for thy vices. Benjamin Franklin - - If you wouldst live long, live well, for folly and wickedness shorten life. Benjamin Franklin - - To the generous mind the heaviest debt is that of gratitude, when it is not in our power to repay it. Benjamin Franklin - - Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise. Benjamin Franklin - - So convenient a thing it is to be a reasonable creature, since it enables one to find or make a reason for everything one has a mind to do. Benjamin Franklin - - The way to see by faith is to shut the eye of reason. Benjamin Franklin - - Where sense is wanting, everything is wanting, Benjamin Franklin - - We must hang together, gentlemen...else, we shall most assuredly hang separately. Benjamin Franklin - - Any fool can criticize, condemn and complain and most fools do. Benjamin Franklin - - He who multiplies riches multiplies cares. Benjamin Franklin - Card - Tell me....And I Forget, Teach me.....And I Learn, Involve Me.....And I Remember. Benjamin Franklin - - Be slow in choosing a friend, slower in changing. Benjamin Franklin - - Experience is a dear teacher, but fools will learn at no other. Benjamin Franklin - - All would live long, but none would be old. Benjamin Franklin - - All cats are gray in the dark. Benjamin Franklin - - When the people find that they can vote themselves money, that will herald the end of the republic. Sell not liberty to purchase power. Benjamin Franklin - - Having been poor is no shame, but being ashamed of it, is. Benjamin Franklin - - For the want of a nail, the shoe was lose; for the want of a shoe the horse was lose; and for the want of a horse the rider was lost, being overtaken and slain by the enemy, all for the want of care about a horseshoe nail. Benjamin Franklin - - He that has done you a kindness will be more ready to do you another, than he whom you yourself have obliged. Benjamin Franklin - - Our critics are our friends; they show us our faults. Benjamin Franklin - - God heals, and the doctor takes the fees. Benjamin Franklin - - I am in the prime of senility. Benjamin Franklin - - Who is rich? He who is content. Who is that? Nobody. Benjamin Franklin - - A democracy is two wolves and a small lamb voting on what to have for dinner. Freedom under a constitutional republic is a well armed lamb contesting the vote. Benjamin Franklin - Letter to Jean Baptiste Le Roy (1789) - But in this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes. Benjamin Franklin - - The first mistake in public business is the going into it. Benjamin Franklin - ? - To be proud of virtue is to poison oneself with the antidote. Benjamin Franklin - - Remember not only to say the right thing in the right place, but far more difficult still, to leave unsaid the wrong thing at the tempting moment. Benjamin Franklin - - I cannot conceive otherwise than that He, the Infinite Father, expects or requires no worship or praise from us, but that He is even infinitely above it. Benjamin Franklin - - He that is good at making excuses is seldom good at anything else. Benjamin Franklin - - Be civil to all; sociable to many; familiar with few; friend to one; enemy to none. Benjamin Franklin - - If you would persuade, you must appeal to interest rather than intellect. Benjamin Franklin - - He is a fool that cannot conceal his wisdom. Benjamin Franklin - In response to the situation of the colonists - Passion governs, and she never governs wisely. Benjamin Franklin - - We must indeed all hang together, or, most assuredly, we shall hang separately. Benjamin Franklin - - Sloth makes all things difficult, but industry, all things easy. He that rises late must trot all day, and shall scarce overtake his business at night, while laziness travels so slowly that poverty soon overtakes him. Benjamin Franklin - - The absent are never without fault, nor the present without excuse. Benjamin Franklin - 1759 - Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote! Benjamin Franklin - - If you would not be forgotten as soon as you are dead, either write things worth reading, or do things worth writing. Benjamin Franklin - - Three may keep a secret, if two of them are dead. Benjamin Franklin - - A penny saved is a penny earned. Benjamin Franklin - - Who is rich? He that is content. Who is that? Nobody. Benjamin Franklin - - It is easier to prevent bad habits than to break them. Benjamin Franklin - - They that will not be counseled, cannot be helped. If you do not hear reason she will rap you on the knuckles. Benjamin Franklin - - To lengthen thy Life, lessen thy meals |
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