Benjamin Franklin Quotes

Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing

Three may keep a secret, if two of them are dead.

They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.

Tell me and I forget, teach me and I may remember, involve me and I learn.

He that can have patience can have what he will.

A Penny Saved is a Penny Earned

A Penny Saved is a Penny Earned

You may delay, but time will not.

Fear not death for the sooner we die, the longer we shall be immortal.

Many people die at twenty five and aren't buried until they are seventy five.

Never ruin an apology with an excuse.

We are all born ignorant, but one must work hard to remain stupid.

I didn't fail the test, I just found 100 ways to do it wrong.

Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy.

Justice will not be served until those who are unaffected are as outraged as those who are.

By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.

Those who surrender freedom for security will not have, nor do they deserve, either one.

Hide not your talents, they for use were made, What's a sundial in the shade?

Well done is better than well said.

Being ignorant is not so much a shame, as being unwilling to learn.

Instead of cursing the darkness, light a candle.Time is never found again.

It is the first responsibility of every citizen to question authority.

The Constitution only guarantees the American people the right to pursue happiness. You have to catch it yourself.

If all printers were determined not to print anything till they were sure it would offend nobody, there would be very little printed.

An investment in knowledge always pays the best interest.

Tis a great confidence in a friend to tell him your faults; greater to tell him his.

Be at war with your vices, at peace with your neighbors, and let every new year find you a better man.

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.

The person who deserves most pity is a lonesome one on a rainy day who doesn't know how to read.

Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise.

Never confuse Motion with Action.

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.was never a bad peace or a good war.

He that is good for making excuses is seldom good for anything else.

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

Whatever is begun in anger, ends in shame.

Do not anticipate trouble, or worry about what may never happen. Keep in the sunlight.

Be slow in choosing a friend, slower in changing.

A slip of the foot you may soon recover, but a slip of the tongue you may never get over.

When you are finished changing, you're finished.

Trouble knocked at the door, but, hearing laughter, hurried away.

When you're testing to see how deep water is, never use two feet.

In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.

To find out a girl's faults, praise her to her girlfriends.

We must all hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang separately.

If Jack's in love, he's no judge of Jill's beauty.

In the Affairs of this World Men are saved, not by Faith, but by the Lack of it.

Life biggest tragedy is that we get old too soon and wise too late.

Keep your eyes wide open before marriage, half shut afterwards.

Happiness depends more on the inward disposition of mind than on outward circumstances.

Love your Enemies, for they tell you your Faults.

Believe none of what you hear, and only half of what you see.

Whoever would overthrow the liberty of a nation must begin by subduing the freeness of speech.

If a man could have half of his wishes, he would double his troubles.

Be civil to all; sociable to many; familiar with few; friend to one; enemy to none.

While we may not be able to control all that happens to us, we can control what happens inside us.

Who is wise? He that learns from everyone. Who is powerful? He that governs his passions. Who is rich? He that is content. Who is that? Nobody.

When the people find that they can vote themselves money that will herald the end of the republic.

A house is not a home unless it contains food and fire for the mind as well as the body

Work as if you were to live a thousand years, play as if you were to die tomorrow.

peak ill of no man, but speak all the good you know of everybody.

Never leave till tomorrow that which you can do today.

We do not stop playing because we grow old, we grow old because we stop playing!

Contentment makes poor men rich, Discontent makes rich men poor.

The best thing to give to your enemy is forgiveness; to an opponent, tolerance; to a friend, your heart; to your child, a good example; to a father, deference; to your mother, conduct that will make her proud of you; to yourself, respect; to all others, charity.

An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

All mankind is divided into three classes: those that are immovable, those that are movable, and those that move.

When the well is dry, we know the worth of water.

Security without liberty is called prison.

The way to see by faith is to shut the eye of reason.

f you would not be forgotten, as soon as you are dead and rotten, either write things worth reading, or do things worth writing.

To be humble to superiors is a duty, to equals courtesy, to inferiors nobleness.

A Brother may not be a Friend, but a Friend will always be a Brother.

It takes many good deeds to build a good reputation, and only one bad one to lose it.

The only thing that is more expensive than education is ignorance.

Eat to live, don't live to eat.

Those things that hurt, instruct.

Fools make feasts and wise men eat them.

Words may show a man's wit, actions his meaning.

He that lieth down with Dogs, shall rise up with Fleas.

He who can have patience can have what he will.

For the best return on your money, pour your purse into your head.

Beware of little expenses; a small leak will sink a great ship.

A good example is the best sermon.

Genius without education is like silver in the mine.

All the little money that ever came into my hands was ever laid out in books.

No one cares what you know until they know that you care!

There are three things extremely hard: steel, a diamond, and to know one's self.

How few there are who have courage enough to own their faults, or resolution enough to mend them.

You will find the key to success under the alarm clock.

Reading makes a full man, meditation a profound man, discourse a clear man.

Women are books, and men the readers be.

There will be sleeping enough in the grave.

One today is worth two tomorrows.

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

You can do anything you set your mind to.

To cease to think creatively is to cease to live.

Happiness consists more in the small conveniences of pleasures that occur every day, than in great pieces of good fortune that happen but seldom to a man in the course of his life.

Absence sharpens love, presence strengthens it.

Tricks and treachery are the practice of fools that don't have brains enough to be honest.

So convenient a thing to be a reasonable creature, since it enables one to find or make a reason for every thing one has a mind to do.

Anger is never without a reason, but seldom with a good one.

A false friend and a shadow attend only while the sun shines.

To lengthen thy life, lessen thy meals.

The way to wealth is as plain as the way to market. It depends chiefly on two words, industry and frugality: that is, waste neither time nor money, but make the best use of both. Without industry and frugality nothing will do, and with them everything.

You only have the right to pursue happiness; you have to catch it yourself.

There cannot be good living where there is not good drinking.

For every minute spent in organizing, an hour is earned.

Critics are our friends, they show us our faults.

An apple a day keeps the doctor away.

If Passion drives, let Reason hold the Reins.

The best way to see Faith is to shut the eye of Reason.

Genius is nothing but a greater aptitude for patience.

Reading was the only amusement I allowed myself.

Don't cry over spilled milk

Nothing ventured, nothing gained.

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.

A friend in need is a friend indeed!

A nation of well-informed men who have been taught to know and prize the rights which God has given them cannot be enslaved. It is in the region of ignorance that tyranny begins.

Glass, China, and Reputation, are easily cracked, and never well mended.

A man must have a good deal of vanity who believes, and a good deal of boldness who affirms, that all the doctrines he holds are true, and all he rejects are false.

Without continual growth and progress, such words as improvement, achievement, and success have no meaning.

Don't put off until tomorrow what you can do today.

He that speaks much, is much mistaken.

He that won't be counseled can't be helped.

If you would be loved, love, and be loveable.

It's better to swim in the sea below Than to swing in the air and feed the crow, Says jolly Ned Teach of Bristol.

Blessed is he who expects nothing, for he shall never be disappointed.

He that falls in love with himself will have no rivals.

A learned blockhead is a greater blockhead than an ignorant one.

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

Without Freedom of thought there can be no such thing as wisdom;and no such thing as public liberty, without freedom of speech.

Joy is not in things, it is in us.

The securest place is a prison cell, but there is no liberty.

If you give up your freedom for safety, you don't deserve either one.

Thinking aloud is a habit which is responsible for most of mankind's misery.

A place for everything, everything in its place.

Haste makes waste.

He that has once done you a kindness will be more ready to do you another, than he whom you yourself have obliged.

To all apparent beauties blind, each blemish strikes an envious mind.

Where there’s marriage without love, there will be love without marriage.

He that is the opinion money will do everything may well be suspected of doing everything for money.

There are two ways to increase your wealth. Increase your means or decrease your wants. The best is to do both at the same time.

He that lives upon hope will die fasting.

Motivation is when your dreams put on work clothes.

A man wrapped up in himself makes a very small bundle.

To follow by faith alone is to follow blindly

He that would live in peace and at ease, must not speak all he knows nor judge all he sees.

He that displays too often his wife and his wallet is in danger of having both of them borrowed.

To be proud of virtue, is to poison yourself with the Antidote.

God helps them that help themselves.

A countryman between two lawyers is like a fish between two cats.

All would live long, but none would be old.

Speak little, do much.

Even peace may be purchased at too high a price.

Make yourself sheep and the wolves will eat you.

Liberality is not giving much, but giving wisely.

Do not fear mistakes.

Do good to your friends to keep them,to your enemies to win them.

Wise men don't need advice. Fools won't take it.

Tis easier to suppress the first desire than to satisfy all that follow it.

Tricks and treachery are the practice of fools, that don't have brains enough to be honest.

I wake up every morning at nine and grab for the morning paper. Then I look at the obituary page. If my name is not on it, I get up.

Great beauty, great strength, and great riches are really and truly of no great use; a right heart exceeds all.

Only a virtuous people are capable of freedom.

Would you live with ease, Do what you ought, and not what you please.

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

To succeed, jump as quickly at opportunities as you do at conclusions.

Old boys have their playthings as well as young ones; the difference is only in the price.

Who is rich? He that is content. Who is that? Nobody.

Write your injuries in dust, your benefits in marble.

Perhaps I'm too saucy or provoking?

If you know how to spend less than you get, you have the philosopher's stone.

God heals, and the doctor takes the fees.

If you have a bald head don't walk out in the sun because you will get burned.

After three days men grow weary, of a wench, a guest, and weather rainy.

Money has never made man happy, nor will it; There is nothing in its nature to produce happiness. The more of it one has, the more one wants.

Experience keeps a dear school, but fools will learn in no other, and scarce in that.

The purpose of money was to purchase one's freedom to pursue that which is useful and interesting.

Be not sick too late, nor well too soon.

Savages we call them, because their manners differ from ours, which we think the perfection of civility; they think the same of theirs.

The doorstep to the temple of wisdom is a knowledge of our own ignorance.

I will speak ill of no man and speak all the good I know of everybody.

When nature gave us tears, She gave us leave to weep.

There are three faithful friends, an old wife, an old dog, and ready money.

The U.S. Constitution doesn't guarantee happiness, only the pursuit of it. Your have to catch up with it yourself.

Let thy discontents be thy secrets.

If you would have a faithful servant, and one that you like, serve yourself.

Read much, but not many books.

Originality is the art of concealing your sources.

It is hard for an empty sack to stand upright.

I believe in one God, Creator of the Universe in that He ought to be whipped from pilar to post and back again for His shameful actions toward Humanity.

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