Poor Richard's Almanack Quotes

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

Lost time is never found again.

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

Love your Enemies, for they tell you your Faults.

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

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

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

Speak little, do much.

A friend in need is a friend indeed!

Clean your Finger, before you point at my Spots.

Fish and Visitors stink in 3 days.

Search others for their virtues, thyself for thy vices.

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

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

Content makes poor men rich; discontent makes rich men poor.

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

He that drinks his cider alone, let him catch his horse alone.

Today is Yesterday's Pupil.

He that's content, hath enough; He that complains, has too much.

Many a long dispute among divines may be thus abridged: It is so; It is not so. It is so; it is not so.

Wise Men learn by other's harms; Fools by their own.

The Proud hate Pride – in others.

Praise to the undeserving is severe satire.

Fools need Advice most, but wise Men only are the better for it.

Great Modesty often hides great Merit.

What you would seem to be, be really.

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]

If you would persuade, appeal to interest and not to reason

He’s a Fool that cannot conceal his Wisdom.

The World is full of fools and faint hearts; and yet every one has courage enough to bear the misfortunes, and wisdom enough to manage the Affairs of his neighbor.

We may give Advice, but we cannot give Conduct.

Fools multiply folly.

Ignorance leads men into a party, and shame keeps them from getting out again.

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.

The most exquisite Folly is made of Wisdom spun too fine.

Give me 26 lead soldiers and I will conquer the world.

The first Degree of Folly, is to conceit one’s self wise; the second to profess it; the third to despise Counsel.

The Sting of a Reproach, is the Truth of it.

Who is strong? He that can conquer his bad habits.

Be slow in choosing a friend, slower in changing. There are three faithful friends in our life,an old wife,an old dog and ready money. A real friend is one who always warms you. "Love is blind. Friendship close it eyes.

Of learned Fools I have seen ten times ten, Of unlearned wise men I have seen a hundred.

The Golden Age was never the present Age.

In fair weather, prepare for foul.

Keep Conscience clear, then never fear.

The Use of Money is all the Advantage there is in having Money.

If you would reap Praise you must sow the Seeds, Gentle Words and useful Deeds.

Learn of the skilful: He that teaches himself, hath a fool for his master.

Proclaim not all thou knowest, all thou owest, all thou hast, nor all thou canst.

At 20 years of age the Will reigns; at 30 the Wit; at 40 the Judgment.

Youth is pert and positive, Age modest and doubting: So Ears of Corn when young and light, stand bolt upright, but hang their Heads when weighty, full, and ripe.

He that drinks fast, pays slow.

God works wonders now & then; Behold! a Lawyer, an honest Man!

Three may keep a secret, if two of them are dead. —BEN FRANKLIN, POOR RICHARD’S ALMANACK T

Doing an Injury puts you below your Enemy; Revenging one makes you but even with him; Forgiving it sets you above him.

Men apt to promise, are apt to forget.

Nothing costs so much as what is given us.

Discontented Minds, and Fevers of the Body are not to be cured by changing Beds or Businesses.

Anoint a villain and he'll stab you, stab him & he'll anoint you.

Who has deceived thee as often as thyself?

He that best understands the world, least likes it.

Success has ruined many a man.

There’s many witty men whose brains can’t fill their bellies.

He that won’t be counselled, can’t be helped.

He that pays for work before it’s done has but a pennyworth for two pence.

A man is never so ridiculous by those qualities that are his own as by those that he affects to have.

Be at War with your Vices, at Peace with your Neighbours, and let every New-Year find you a better Man.

Wink at small faults; remember thou hast great ones.

Do not do that which you would not have known.

They who have nothing to trouble them will be troubled at nothing.

Mirth pleaseth some, to others 'tis offence, Some commend plain conceit, some profound sense; Somew ish a witty Jest, some dislike that, And most would have themselves they know not what. Then he that would please all, and himself too, Takes more in hand than he is like to do.

To be proud of Knowledge, is to be blind with Light.

Success has ruin’d many a Man. Industry, Perseverance, & Frugality, make Fortune yield.

Buy what thou has no need of and ere long thou shall sell thy necessaries.

The proud hate pride  –  in others.

Blame-all and Praise-all are two blockheads

The learned fool writes his nonsense in better languages than the unlearned; but still it is nonsense.

You can bear your own faults and why not a fault in your wife?

If what most men admire they would despise, It would look as if mankind were growing wise. He that would live in peace and ease Must not speak all he knows nor judge all he sees.

O! ‘tis easier to keep holidays than commandments.

Seek virtue, and of that possess, To providence resign the rest.

Tim was so learned that he could name a horse in nine languages. So ignorant that he bought a cow to ride on.

The same man cannot be both friend and flatterer.

nothing more bondage than too much liberty.

Each year one vicious habit rooted out, In time might make the worst man good throughout.

Tricks and treachery are the practice of fools that have not wit enough to be honest.

He that speaks much is much mistaken.

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

Most people return small favors, acknowledge middling ones, and repay great ones with ingratitude.

Would you persuade, speak of interest, not of reason.

Would you live with ease, do what you ought, not what you please.

You may be more happy than princes if you will be more virtuous.

Those who are feared are hated.

The eye of a master will do more work than his hand.

in the objects of all the other senses.

Richard Feynman as follows: “The first principle is that you must not fool yourself, and you’re the easiest person to fool.

Some guns were fired to give notice that the departure of the balloon was near. ... Means were used, I am told, to prevent the great balloon's rising so high as might endanger its bursting. Several bags of sand were taken on board before the cord that held it down was cut, and the whole weight being then too much to be lifted, such a quantity was discharged as would permit its rising slowly. Thus it would sooner arrive at that region where it would be in equilibrio with the surrounding air, and by discharging more sand afterwards, it might go higher if desired. Between one and two o'clock, all eyes were gratified with seeing it rise majestically from above the trees, and ascend gradually above the buildings, a most beautiful spectacle. When it was about two hundred feet high, the brave adventurers held out and waved a little white pennant, on both sides of their car, to salute the spectators, who returned loud claps of applause. The wind was very little, so that the object though moving to the northward, continued long in view; and it was a great while before the admiring people began to disperse. The persons embarked were Mr. Charles, professor of experimental philosophy, and a zealous promoter of that science; and one of the Messrs Robert, the very ingenious constructors of the machine. {While U.S. ambassador to France, writing about witnessing, from his carriage outside the garden of Tuileries, Paris, the first manned balloon ascent using hydrogen gas by Jacques Charles on the afternoon of 1 Dec 1783. A few days earlier, he had watched the first manned ascent in Montgolfier's hot-air balloon, on 21 Nov 1783.}

The sting of a reproach is the truth of it. Do me the favor to deny me at once. The most exquisite folly is made of wisdom spun too fine. A life of leisure and a life of laziness are two things. Mad kings and mad bulls are not to be held by treaties and packthread. A true great man will neither trample on a worm nor sneak to an emperor.

But we understand our liberty in a more positive sense as well, in the idea of opportunity and the subsidiary values that help realize opportunity—all those homespun virtues that Benjamin Franklin first popularized in Poor Richard's Almanack and that have continued to inspire our allegiance through successive generations. The values of self-reliance and self-improvement and risk-taking. The values of drive, discipline, temperance, and hard work. The values of thrift and personal responsibility. These values are rooted in a basic optimism about life and a faith in free will—a confidence that through pluck and sweat and smarts, each of us can rise above the circumstances of our birth. But these values also express a broader confidence that so long as individual men and women are free to pursue their own interests, society as a whole will prosper.