Benjamin Franklin: An American Life

by Walter Isaacson

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

Among the best are: He’s a fool that makes his doctor his heir . . . Eat to live, and not live to eat . . . He that lies down with dogs shall rise up with fleas . . . Where there’s marriage without love, there will be love without marriage . . . Necessity never made a good bargain . . . There’s more old drunkards than old doctors . . . A good example is the best sermon . . . None preaches better than the ant, and she says nothing . . . A Penny saved is Twopence clear . . . When the well’s dry we know the worth of water . . . The sleeping fox catches no poultry . . . The used key is always bright . . . He that lives on hope dies farting [he later wrote it as “dies fasting,” and the early version may have been a misprint] . . . Diligence is the mother of good luck . . . He that pursues two hares at once does not catch one and lets the other go . . . Search others for their virtues, thy self for thy vices . . . Kings and bears often worry their keepers . . . Haste makes waste . . . Make haste slowly . . . He who multiplies riches multiplies cares . . . He’s a fool that cannot conceal his wisdom . . . No gains without pains . . . Vice knows she’s ugly, so puts on her mask . . . The most exquisite folly is made of wisdom spun too fine . . . Love your enemies, for they will tell you your faults . . . The sting of a reproach is the truth of it . . . There’s a time to wink as well as to see . . . Genius without education is like silver in the mine . . . There was never a good knif...

Franklin's practcal witticisms.

“He snatched lightning from the sky and the scepter from tyrants.”

Franklin had been serving his country, as it headed toward revolution, in roles befitting a man of his age: diplomat, elder statesman, sage, and dozing delegate.

“There is some difference between them and sheep: Sheep will never make any insurrections.”

BJ, on slaves.

“He knew how to be impolite without being rude.”

A perfect French compliment.

As Claude-Anne Lopez notes, “In colonial America it was sinful to look idle, in France it was vulgar to look busy.”

Another time, he was playing with his equal, the Duchess of Bourbon, who made a move that inadvertently exposed her king. Ignoring the rules of the game, he promptly captured it. “Ah,” said the duchess, “we do not take Kings so.” Replied Franklin in a famous quip: “We do in America.”

BF on chess!

Eripuit cœlo fulmen sceptrumque tyrannis, he snatched lightning from the sky and the scepter from tyrants.