Benjamin Franklin Quotes

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

Lost time is never found again.

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

A ploughman on his legs is higher than a gentleman on his knees.

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

I saw few die of hunger; of eating, a hundred thousand.

We stand at the crossroads, each minute, each hour, each day, making choices. We choose the thoughts...

Slavery is such an atrocious debasement of human nature, that its very extirpation, if not performed...

An investment in knowledge always pays the best interest.

Vessels large may venture more, But little boats should keep near shore.

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

If you will not hear reason, she'll rap your knuckles.

If we look back into history for the character of present sects in Christianity, we shall find few t...

1. TEMPERANCE. Eat not to dullness; drink not to elevation. 2. SILENCE. Speak not but what may benef...

O vitae Philosophia dux! O virtutum indagatrix expultrixque vitiorum! Unus dies, bene et ex praecept...

If you wish information and improvement from the knowledge of others, and yet at the same time expre...

[I retained] only the Habit of expressing my self in Terms of modest Diffidence, never using when I ...

A perfect character might be attended with the inconvenience of being envied and hated; and that a b...

In reality, there is, perhaps, no one of our natural passions so hard to subdue as pride. Disguise i...

A man being sometimes more generous when he has but a little money than when he has plenty, perhaps ...

How much more than necessary do we spend in sleep, forgetting that the sleeping fox catches no poult...

I think all the heretics I have known have been virtuous men. They have the virtue of fortitude, or ...

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

A Swedish minister having assembled the chiefs of the Susquehanna Indians, made a sermon to them, ac...

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

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

Lost Time is never found again.

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

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

Love your Enemies, for they tell you your Faults.

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

They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty n...

Were I a Roman Catholic, perhaps I should on this occasion vow to build a chapel to some saint, but ...

They who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Lib...

Fools make feasts and wise men eat them.

He that lives upon hope will die farting.

A man of words and not of deeds, Is like a garden full of weeds.

Never confuse Motion with Action.

A man must have a good deal of vanity who believes, and a good deal of boldness who affirms, that al...

But if you will not take this Counsel, and persist in thinking a Commerce with the Sex inevitable, t...

He that can take rest is greater than he that can take cities.

Even peace may be purchased at too high a price.

You may delay, but time will not.

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

Does't thou love life? Then do not squander time for that is the stuff life is made of.

Keep flax from fire youth from gaming.

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

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

Wine is constant proof that God loves us and loves to see us happy.

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

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

He that raises a large family does, indeed, while he lives to observe them, stand a broader mark for...

An investment in knowledge pays the best interest.

In the affairs of this world, men are saved not by faith, but by the want of it.

Would you persuade speak of interest not of reason.

The strictest law sometimes becomes the severest injustice.

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

Those have a short Lent who owe money to be paid at Easter.

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

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

But in this world nothing is sure but death and taxes.

If you want a thing done go - if not send.

That bodies should be lent us, while they can afford us pleasure, assist us in acquiring knowledge, ...

The greatest monarch on the proudest throne is obliged to sit upon his own arse.

Eat to please thyself but dress to please others.

A cheerful face is nearly as good for an invalid as healthy weather.

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

Some are weather-wise some are otherwise.

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

Who is wise? He that learns from everyone. Who is powerful? He that governs his passions. Who is ric...

The secret of success is constancy to purpose.

There never was a good war or a bad peace.

After crosses and losses men grow humbler and wiser.

Take time for all things: great haste makes great waste.

Ohne Gedankenfreiheit gibt es keine Weisheit. Und ohne Redefreiheit keine öffentliche Freiheit.

A single man has not nearly the value he would have in a state of union. He is an incomplete animal....

A great empire, like a great cake, is most easily diminished at the edges.

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

Whatever is begun in anger ends in shame.

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

If you desire many things many things will seem but a few.

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

He that would live in peace and at ease must not speak all he knows or all he sees.

Little strokes fell great oaks.

Resistance to tyrants is obedience to God.

Without Freedom of Thought, there can be no such Thing as Wisdom; and no such Thing as publick Liber...

Do not squander time for that is the stuff life is made of.

Human felicity is produced not so much by great pieces of good fortune that seldom happen as by litt...

A wise man will desire no more than what he may get justly use soberly distribute cheerfully and ...

If a man empties his purse into his head no one can take it from him.

There seem to be but three ways for a nation to acquire wealth. The first is by war...This is robber...

Laws too gentle are seldom obeyed too severe seldom executed.

Ambition has its disappointments to sour us but never the good fortune to satisfy us.

If time be of all things most precious wasting time must be the greatest prodigality since lost ti...

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

Games lubricate the body and mind.

A little neglect may breed great mischief. ... For want of a nail the shoe was lost for want of a ...

A man who would sacrifice freedom for security deserves neither.

Freedom is not a gift bestowed upon us by other men, but a right that belongs to us by the laws of G...

You may delay but time will not.

Some people die at 25 and aren't buried until 75.