Benjamin Franklin > Quotes

“They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.”
― Benjamin Franklin

“He that can have patience can have what he will.”
― Benjamin Franklin

“A Penny Saved is a Penny Earned”
― Benjamin Franklin

“Fear not death for the sooner we die, the longer we shall be immortal.”
― Benjamin Franklin

“Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing.”
― Benjamin Franklin

“Tell me and I forget, teach me and I may remember, involve me and I learn.”
― Benjamin Franklin

“You may delay, but time will not.”
― Benjamin Franklin

“Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy.”
― Benjamin Franklin

“I didn't fail the test, I just found 100 ways to do it wrong.”
― Benjamin Franklin

“We are all born ignorant, but one must work hard to remain stupid.”
― Benjamin Franklin

“How many observe Christ's birthday! How few, His precepts!”
― Benjamin Franklin

“Never ruin an apology with an excuse.”
― Benjamin Franklin

“Hide not your talents, they for use were made,
What's a sundial in the shade?”
― Benjamin Franklin

“Well done is better than well said.”
― Benjamin Franklin

“Justice will not be served until those who are unaffected are as outraged as those who are.”
― Benjamin Franklin

“Many people die at twenty five and aren't buried until they are seventy five.”
― Benjamin Franklin

“The Constitution only guarantees the American people the right to pursue happiness. You have to catch it yourself.”
― Benjamin Franklin

“Three may keep a secret, if two of them are dead.”
― Benjamin Franklin

“By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.”
― Benjamin Franklin

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

“Tis a great confidence in a friend to tell him your faults; greater to tell him his.”
― Benjamin Franklin

“An investment in knowledge pays the best interest.”
― Benjamin Franklin

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

“There was never a bad peace or a good war.”
― Benjamin Franklin

“It is the first responsibility of every citizen to question authority.”
― Benjamin Franklin

“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.”
― Benjamin Franklin

“Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise.”
― Benjamin Franklin

“Never confuse Motion with Action.”
― Benjamin Franklin, Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin

“A slip of the foot you may soon recover, but a slip of the tongue you may never get over.”
― Benjamin Franklin

“Trouble knocked at the door, but, hearing laughter, hurried away”
― Benjamin Franklin

“When you are finished changing, you're finished.”
― Benjamin Franklin

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

“Being ignorant is not so much a shame, as being unwilling to learn.”
― Benjamin Franklin

“If everyone is thinking alike, then no one is thinking.”
― Benjamin Franklin

“When you're testing to see how deep water is, never use two feet.”
― Benjamin Franklin

“Certainty? In this world nothing is certain but death and taxes.”
― Benjamin Franklin

“energy and persistence conquers all things”
― Benjamin Franklin

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

“Man will occasionally stumble over the truth, but usually manages to pick himself up, walk over or around it, and carry on.”
― Benjamin Franklin

“The heart of a fool is in his mouth, but the mouth of a wise man is in his heart.”
― Benjamin Franklin

“Be slow in choosing a friend, slower in changing.”
― Benjamin Franklin

“If Jack's in love, he's no judge of Jill's beauty.”
― Benjamin Franklin

“Whatever is begun in anger, ends in shame.”
― Benjamin Franklin

“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.”
― 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

“Lost time is never found again”
― Benjamin Franklin

“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!!”
― Benjamin Franklin

“Lighthouses are more helpful than churches.”
― 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

“Any fool can criticize, condemn and complain and most fools do.”
― Benjamin Franklin