Benjamin Franklin Quotes

Go to heaven for the climate and hell for the company.

Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing.

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

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

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

He that can have patience can have what he will.

You may delay, but time will not.

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

A Penny Saved is a Penny Earned

In wine there is wisdom, in beer there is Freedom, in water there is bacteria.

Never ruin an apology with an excuse.

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

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

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

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

By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.

Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.

Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy. [misquote of a letter about wine, see quotes/831031]

How many observe Christ's birthday! How few, His precepts!

An investment in knowledge always pays the best interest.

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

Well done is better than well said.

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

Lost Time is never found again.

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

Dost thou love life? Then do not squander time, for that's the stuff life is made of.

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

Never confuse Motion with Action.

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

Whatever is begun in anger, ends in shame.

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

If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail!

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

Love your Enemies, for they tell you your Faults.

I am for doing good to the poor, but...I think the best way of doing good to the poor, is not making them easy in poverty, but leading or driving them out of it. I observed...that the more public provisions were made for the poor, the less they provided for themselves, and of course became poorer. And, on the contrary, the less was done for them, the more they did for themselves, and became richer.

Be slow in choosing a friend, slower in changing.

An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

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.

When you are finished changing, you're finished.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

For the want of a nail the shoe was lost, For the want of a shoe the horse was lost, For the want of a horse the rider was lost, For the want of a rider the battle was lost, For the want of a battle the kingdom was lost, And all for the want of a horseshoe-nail.

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.

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

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.

Never leave till tomorrow that which you can do today.

Most people die at 25 and aren’t buried until they’re 75.

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

Security without liberty is called prison.

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

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

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

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

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

My refusing to eat flesh occasioned an inconveniency, and I was frequently chided for my singularity, but, with this lighter repast, I made the greater progress, for greater clearness of head and quicker comprehension. Flesh eating is unprovoked murder.

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

Those things that hurt, instruct.

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

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

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

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.

Eat to live, don't live to eat.

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

...there will be sleeping enough in the grave....

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

Fools make feasts and wise men eat them.

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

Were I a Roman Catholic, perhaps I should on this occasion vow to build a chapel to some saint, but as I am not, if I were to vow at all, it should be to build a light-house. [Letter to his wife, 17 July 1757, after narrowly avoiding a shipwreck; often misquoted as "Lighthouses are more helpful than churches."]

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

He who can have patience can have what he will.

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

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

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

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

Speak little, do much.

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.

A good example is the best sermon.

Amy, Dan, and Nellie were sitting at a table in a conference room, examining reproductions of Franklin documents-some so rare, the librarians told her, the only copies existed in Paris. "Yeah, here's a rare grocery list," Dan muttered. "Wow.

I agree to this Constitution with all its faults, if they are such: because I think a General Government necessary for us, and there is no Form of Government but what may be a Blessing to the People if well-administred; and I believe farther that this is likely to be well administred for a Course of Years and can only end in Despotism as other Forms have done before it, when the People shall become so corrupted as to need Despotic Government, being incapable of any other.

If we look back into history for the character of present sects in Christianity, we shall find few that have not in their turns been persecutors, and complainers of persecution. The primitive Christians thought persecution extremely wrong in the Pagans, but practised it on one another. The first Protestants of the Church of England, blamed persecution in the Roman church, but practised it against the Puritans: these found it wrong in the Bishops, but fell into the same practice themselves both here and in New England. [Letter to the London Packet, 3 June 1772]

Slavery is such an atrocious debasement of human nature, that its very extirpation, if not performed with solicitous care, may sometimes open a source of serious evils. The unhappy man who has been treated as a brute animal, too frequently sinks beneath the common standard of the human species. The galling chains, that bind his body, do also fetter his intellectual faculties, and impair the social affections of his heart… To instruct, to advise, to qualify those, who have been restored to freedom, for the exercise and enjoyment of civil liberty… and to procure for their children an education calculated for their future situation in life; these are the great outlines of the annexed plan, which we have adopted. [For the Pennsylvania Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery, 1789]

In all your Amours you should prefer old Women to young ones. You call this a Paradox, and demand my Reasons. They are these: 1. Because as they have more Knowledge of the World and their Minds are better stor’d with Observations, their Conversation is more improving and more lastingly agreable. 2. Because when Women cease to be handsome, they study to be good. To maintain their Influence over Men, they supply the Diminution of Beauty by an Augmentation of Utility. They learn to do a 1000 Services small and great, and are the most tender and useful of all Friends when you are sick. Thus they continue amiable. And hence there is hardly such a thing to be found as an old Woman who is not a good Woman. 3. Because there is no hazard of Children, which irregularly produc’d may be attended with much Inconvenience. 4. Because thro’ more Experience, they are more prudent and discreet in conducting an Intrigue to prevent Suspicion. The Commerce with them is therefore safer with regard to your Reputation. And with regard to theirs, if the Affair should happen to be known, considerate People might be rather inclin’d to excuse an old Woman who would kindly take care of a young Man, form his Manners by her good Counsels, and prevent his ruining his Health and Fortune among mercenary Prostitutes. 5. Because in every Animal that walks upright, the Deficiency of the Fluids that fill the Muscles appears first in the highest Part: The Face first grows lank and wrinkled; then the Neck; then the Breast and Arms; the lower Parts continuing to the last as plump as ever: So that covering all above with a Basket, and regarding only what is below the Girdle, it is impossible of two Women to know an old from a young one. And as in the dark all Cats are grey, the Pleasure of corporal Enjoyment with an old Woman is at least equal, and frequently superior, every Knack being by Practice capable of Improvement. 6. Because the Sin is less. The debauching a Virgin may be her Ruin, and make her for Life unhappy. 7. Because the Compunction is less. The having made a young Girl miserable may give you frequent bitter Reflections; none of which can attend the making an old Woman happy. 8thly and Lastly They are so grateful!!

Tom Paine has almost no influence on present-day thinking in the United States because he is unknown to the average citizen. Perhaps I might say right here that this is a national loss and a deplorable lack of understanding concerning the man who first proposed and first wrote those impressive words, 'the United States of America.' But it is hardly strange. Paine's teachings have been debarred from schools everywhere and his views of life misrepresented until his memory is hidden in shadows, or he is looked upon as of unsound mind. We never had a sounder intelligence in this Republic. He was the equal of Washington in making American liberty possible. Where Washington performed Paine devised and wrote. The deeds of one in the Weld were matched by the deeds of the other with his pen. Washington himself appreciated Paine at his true worth. Franklin knew him for a great patriot and clear thinker. He was a friend and confidant of Jefferson, and the two must often have debated the academic and practical phases of liberty. I consider Paine our greatest political thinker. As we have not advanced, and perhaps never shall advance, beyond the Declaration and Constitution, so Paine has had no successors who extended his principles. Although the present generation knows little of Paine's writings, and although he has almost no influence upon contemporary thought, Americans of the future will justly appraise his work. I am certain of it. Truth is governed by natural laws and cannot be denied. Paine spoke truth with a peculiarly clear and forceful ring. Therefore time must balance the scales. The Declaration and the Constitution expressed in form Paine's theory of political rights. He worked in Philadelphia at the time that the first document was written, and occupied a position of intimate contact with the nation's leaders when they framed the Constitution. Certainly we may believe that Washington had a considerable voice in the Constitution. We know that Jefferson had much to do with the document. Franklin also had a hand and probably was responsible in even larger measure for the Declaration. But all of these men had communed with Paine. Their views were intimately understood and closely correlated. There is no doubt whatever that the two great documents of American liberty reflect the philosophy of Paine. ...Then Paine wrote 'Common Sense,' an anonymous tract which immediately stirred the fires of liberty. It flashed from hand to hand throughout the Colonies. One copy reached the New York Assembly, in session at Albany, and a night meeting was voted to answer this unknown writer with his clarion call to liberty. The Assembly met, but could find no suitable answer. Tom Paine had inscribed a document which never has been answered adversely, and never can be, so long as man esteems his priceless possession. In 'Common Sense' Paine flared forth with a document so powerful that the Revolution became inevitable. Washington recognized the difference, and in his calm way said that matters never could be the same again. It must be remembered that 'Common Sense' preceded the declaration and affirmed the very principles that went into the national doctrine of liberty. But that affirmation was made with more vigor, more of the fire of the patriot and was exactly suited to the hour... Certainly [the Revolution] could not be forestalled, once he had spoken. {The Philosophy of Paine, June 7, 1925}