Top 1425 Quotes & Sayings by Benjamin Franklin - Page 4

He that has not got a wife is not yet a complete man.

I guess I don't so much mind being old, as I mind being fat and old.

Games lubricate the body and the mind.

He that's secure is not safe.

When men and woman die, as poets sung, his heart's the last part moves, her last, the tongue.

Hear reason, or she'll make you feel her.

All who think cannot but see there is a sanction like that of religion which binds us in partnership in the serious work of the world.

When will mankind be convinced and agree to settle their difficulties by arbitration?

When befriended, remember it; when you befriend, forget it.

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

Where there is a free government, and the people make their own laws by their representatives, I see no injustice in their obliging one another to take their own paper money.

Our necessities never equal our wants.

Many foxes grow gray but few grow good.

I have no private interest in the reception of my inventions by the world, having never made, nor proposed to make, the least profit by any of them.

Mine is better than ours.

Each year one vicious habit discarded, in time might make the worst of us good.

Tomorrow, every Fault is to be amended; but that Tomorrow never comes.

A child thinks 20 shillings and 20 years can scarce ever be spent.

Industry need not wish.

My elder brothers were all put apprentices to different trades. I was put to the grammar-school at eight years of age, my father intending to devote me, as the tithe of his sons, to the service of the Church.

He that composes himself is wiser than he that composes a book.

Where sense is wanting, everything is wanting.

He that sows thorns should never go barefoot.

The art of acting consists in keeping people from coughing.

No nation was ever ruined by trade.

Never take a wife till thou hast a house (and a fire) to put her in.

A penny saved is two pence clear.

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

Those who govern, having much business on their hands, do not generally like to take the trouble of considering and carrying into execution new projects. The best public measures are therefore seldom adopted from previous wisdom, but forced by the occasion.

Danger is sauce for prayers.

Those disputing, contradicting, and confuting people are generally unfortunate in their affairs. They get victory, sometimes, but they never get good will, which would be of more use to them.

I should have no objection to go over the same life from its beginning to the end: requesting only the advantage authors have, of correcting in a second edition the faults of the first.

There cannot be a stronger natural right than that of a man's making the best profit he can of the natural produce of his lands.

Since thou are not sure of a minute, throw not away an hour.

The use of money is all the advantage there is in having it.

The first mistake in public business is the going into it.

If you do tomorrow what you did today , you will get tomorrow what you got today

Little minds think and talk about people. Average minds think and talk about things and actions. Great minds think and talk about ideas.

Believe none of what you hear and half of what you see.

If everyone is thinking alike, then no one is thinking.

Security without liberty is called prison.

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

Instead of cursing the darkness, light a candle.

For every minute spent in organizing, an hour is earned.

You must always be prepared. Make sure to look at things from all angles. If you are not prepared you will fail.

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.

When you get into a tight place and everything goes against you, till it seems as though you could not hold on a minute longer, never give up then, for that is just the place and time that the tide will turn. When you're down to nothing, God is up to something. The faithful see the invisible, believe the incredible and then receive the impossible. Where liberty dwells there is my country.

He who would trade liberty for some temporary security, deserves neither liberty nor security.

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

This [the U.S. Constitution] is likely to be administered for a course of years and then end in despotism... when the people shall become so corrupted as to need despotic government, being incapable of any other.

Here is my Creed. I believe in one God, creator of the Universe. That he governs it by his Providence. That he ought to be worshiped. That the most acceptable service we render him is doing good to his other children. That the soul of Man is immortal, and will be treated with justice in another life respecting its conduct in this.

I never knew a man who was good at making excuses who was good at anything else.

There are two ways to increase your wealth. Increase your means or decrease your wants. The best is to do both at the same time.

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

Make yourself sheep and the wolves will eat you.

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

Genius is the ability to hold one's vision steady until it becomes reality

War is when the government tells you who the bad guy is. Revolution is when you decide that for yourself.

Only a virtuous people are capable of freedom. As nations become corrupt and vicious, they have more need of masters.

How do you become better tomorrow? By improving yourself, the world is made better. Be not afraid of growing too slowly. Be afraid of standing still. Forget your mistakes, but remember what they taught you. So how do you become better tomorrow? By becoming better today.