Benjamin Franklin FRS FRSA FRSE was one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. He was an American polymath. Here we have shared Benjamin Franklin quotes on life, education, success, liberty, justice, democracy, happiness, beer.
He was a leading writer, printer, political philosopher, postmaster, politician, Freemason, scientist, inventor, statesman, humorist, civic activist, & diplomat. Benjamin Franklin was born on January 17, 1706, in Milk Street, Boston, Massachusetts, United States and died on April 17, 1790, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. His father’s name is Josiah Franklin. His father was a tallow chandler, soaper, and candlemaker. His mother’s name is Abiah Folger.
Benjamin Franklin Quotes
Whatever is begun in anger ends in shame. -Benjamin Franklin
He that is of the opinion money will do everything may well be suspected of doing everything for money. -Benjamin Franklin
They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. -Benjamin Franklin
Without freedom of thought, there can be no such thing as wisdom – and no such thing as public liberty without freedom of speech. -Benjamin Franklin
He that is good for making excuses is seldom good for anything else. -Benjamin Franklin
I conceive that the great part of the miseries of mankind are brought upon them by false estimates they have made of the value of things. -Benjamin Franklin
It takes many good deeds to build a good reputation, and only one bad one to lose it. -Benjamin Franklin
When in doubt, don’t. -Benjamin Franklin
The strictest law sometimes becomes the severest injustice. -Benjamin Franklin
There was never a good war or bad peace. -Benjamin Franklin
Experience keeps a dear school, but fools will learn in no other. -Benjamin Franklin
As we must account for every idle word, so must we account for every idle silence. -Benjamin Franklin
Without continual growth and progress, such words as improvement, achievement, and success have no meaning. -Benjamin Franklin
A man wrapped up in himself makes a very small bundle. -Benjamin Franklin
There are three things extremely hard: steel, a diamond, and to know one’s self. -Benjamin Franklin
I wake up every morning at nine and grab for the morning paper. Then I look at the obituary page. If my name is not on it, I get up. -Benjamin Franklin
In this world, nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes. -Benjamin Franklin
Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn. -Benjamin Franklin
Diligence is the mother of good luck. -Benjamin Franklin
I have never entered into any controversy in defense of my philosophical opinions; I leave them to take their chance in the world. If they are right, truth and experience will support them; if wrong, they ought to be refuted and rejected. Disputes are apt to sour one’s temper and disturb one’s quiet. -Benjamin Franklin
Beware the hobby that eats. -Benjamin Franklin
I saw few dies of hunger; of eating, a hundred thousand. -Benjamin Franklin
Rebellion against tyrants is obedience to God. -Benjamin Franklin
Genius without education is like silver in the mine. -Benjamin Franklin
Write injuries in dust, benefits in marble. -Benjamin Franklin
Never confuse motion with action. -Benjamin Franklin
Trouble springs from idleness, and grievous toil from needless ease. -Benjamin Franklin
The first mistake in public business is going into it. -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
Many foxes grow gray but few grow good. -Benjamin Franklin
Wealth is not his that has it, but his that enjoys it. -Benjamin Franklin
Admiration is the daughter of ignorance. -Benjamin Franklin
Savages we call them because their manners differ from ours. -Benjamin Franklin
A countryman between two lawyers is like a fish between two cats. -Benjamin Franklin
A place for everything, everything in its place. -Benjamin Franklin
All mankind is divided into three classes: those that are immovable, those that are movable, and those that move. -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
It is only when the rich are sick that they fully feel the impotence of wealth. -Benjamin Franklin
Games lubricate the body and the mind. -Benjamin Franklin
It is much easier to suppress the first desire than to satisfy those that follow. -Benjamin Franklin
At twenty years of age, the will reign; at thirty, the wit; and at forty, the judgment. -Benjamin Franklin
The art of acting consists of keeping people from coughing. -Benjamin Franklin
We are more thoroughly an enlightened people, with respect to our political interests than perhaps any other under heaven. Every man among us reads and is so easy in his circumstances as to have leisure for conversations of improvement and for acquiring information. -Benjamin Franklin
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. -Benjamin Franklin
He that composes himself is wiser than he that composes a book. -Benjamin Franklin
Rather go to bed without dinner than to rise in debt. -Benjamin Franklin
Remember that credit is money. -Benjamin Franklin
Gain may be temporary and uncertain; but ever while you live, the expense is constant and certain: and it is easier to build two chimneys than to keep one in fuel. -Benjamin Franklin
By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail. -Benjamin Franklin
For my own part, I wish the bald eagle had not been chosen the representative of our country. He is a bird of bad moral character. He does not get his living honestly. -Benjamin Franklin
I should have no objection to going 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. -Benjamin Franklin
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. -Benjamin Franklin
Words may show a man’s wit but actions his meaning. -Benjamin Franklin
A penny saved is two pence clear. -Benjamin Franklin
Distrust and caution are the parents of security. -Benjamin Franklin
The doors of wisdom are never shut. -Benjamin Franklin
If you desire many things, many things will seem few. -Benjamin Franklin
We must, indeed, all hang together or, most assuredly, we shall all hang separately. -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
As we enjoy great advantages from the inventions of others, we should be glad of an opportunity to serve others by any invention of ours, and this we should do freely and generously. -Benjamin Franklin
A penny saved is a penny earned. -Benjamin Franklin
I guess I don’t so much mind being old, as I mind being fat and old. -Benjamin Franklin
Take time for all things: great haste makes great waste. -Benjamin Franklin
The use of money is all the advantage there is in having it. -Benjamin Franklin
Hear reason, or she’ll make you feel her. -Benjamin Franklin
Do not fear mistakes. You will know failure. Continue to reach out. -Benjamin Franklin
A house is not a home unless it contains food and fire for the mind as well as the body. -Benjamin Franklin
It is the eye of other people that ruin us. If I were blind I would want, neither fine clothes, fine houses or fine furniture. -Benjamin Franklin
It is a grand mistake to think of being great without goodness and I pronounce it as certain that there was never a truly great man that was not at the same time truly virtuous. -Benjamin Franklin
Life’s tragedy is that we get old too soon and wise too late. -Benjamin Franklin
Wine is constant proof that God loves us and loves to see us happy. -Benjamin Franklin
He that would live in peace and at ease must not speak all he knows or all he sees. -Benjamin Franklin
Beware of little expenses. A small leak will sink a great ship. -Benjamin Franklin
The U. S. Constitution doesn’t guarantee happiness, only the pursuit of it. You have to catch up with it yourself. –Benjamin Franklin
Tricks and treachery are the practice of fools, that don’t have brains enough, to be honest. -Benjamin Franklin
A false friend and a shadow attend only while the sun shines. -Benjamin Franklin
Who had deceived thee so often as thyself? -Benjamin Franklin
When you’re finished changing, you’re finished. -Benjamin Franklin
And whether you’re an honest man, or whether you’re a thief, depends on whose solicitor has given me my brief. -Benjamin Franklin
The discontented man finds no easy chair. -Benjamin Franklin
There is no kind of dishonesty into which otherwise good people more easily and frequently fall than that of defrauding the government. -Benjamin Franklin
Dost thou love life? Then do not squander time, for that is the stuff life is made of. -Benjamin Franklin
If passion drives you, let reason hold the reins. -Benjamin Franklin
A learned blockhead is a greater blockhead than an ignorant one. -Benjamin Franklin
When the well is dry, they know the worth of water. -Benjamin Franklin
He that has not got a wife is not yet a complete man. -Benjamin Franklin
The Constitution only gives people the right to pursue happiness. You have to catch it yourself. -Benjamin Franklin
An investment in knowledge pays the best interest. -Benjamin Franklin
He that lives upon hope will die fasting. -Benjamin Franklin
Creditors have better memories than debtors. -Benjamin Franklin
Some people die at 25 and aren’t buried until 75. -Benjamin Franklin
Nine men in ten are would-be suicides. -Benjamin Franklin
He that has done you a kindness will be more ready to do you another, than he whom you yourself have obliged. -Benjamin Franklin
Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing. -Benjamin Franklin
Beauty and folly are old companions. -Benjamin Franklin
Who is rich? He is content. Who is that? Nobody. -Benjamin Franklin
Even peace may be purchased at too high a price. -Benjamin Franklin
Half a truth is often a great lie. -Benjamin Franklin
Keep your eyes wide open before marriage, half shut afterward. -Benjamin Franklin
If a man empties his purse into his head, no one can take it from him. -Benjamin Franklin
When men and women die, as poets sang, his heart’s the last part moves, her last, the tongue. -Benjamin Franklin
Buy what thou hast no need of and ere long thou shalt sell thy necessities. -Benjamin Franklin
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. -Benjamin Franklin
Leisure is the time for doing something useful. This leisure the diligent person will obtain the lazy one never. -Benjamin Franklin
Where liberty is, there is my country. -Benjamin Franklin
Eat to please thyself, but dress to please others. -Benjamin Franklin
Observe all men, thyself most. -Benjamin Franklin
He that raises a large family does, indeed, while he lives to observe them, stand a broader mark for sorrow; but then he stands a broader mark for pleasure too. -Benjamin Franklin
There never was a truly great man that was not at the same time truly virtuous. -Benjamin Franklin
The way to see by Faith is to shut the Eye of Reason. -Benjamin Franklin
He that waits upon fortune, is never sure of a dinner. -Benjamin Franklin
A life of leisure and a life of laziness are two things. There will be sleeping enough in the grave. -Benjamin Franklin
The eye of the master will do more work than both his hands. -Benjamin Franklin
In general, mankind, since the improvement of cookery, eats twice as much as nature requires. -Benjamin Franklin
If you know how to spend less than you get, you have the philosopher’s stone. -Benjamin Franklin
Your net worth to the world is usually determined by what remains after your bad habits are subtracted from your good ones. -Benjamin Franklin
Employ thy time well, if thou meanest to gain leisure. -Benjamin Franklin
Most people return small favors, acknowledge medium ones, and repay greater ones – with ingratitude. -Benjamin Franklin
When befriended, remember it; when you befriend, forget it. -Benjamin Franklin
Guests, like fish, begin to smell after three days. -Benjamin Franklin
One today is worth two tomorrows. -Benjamin Franklin
God works wonders now and then; Behold a lawyer, an honest man. -Benjamin Franklin
He that’s secure is not safe. -Benjamin Franklin
He that can have patience can have what he will. -Benjamin Franklin
Necessity never made a good bargain. -Benjamin Franklin
It is the working man who is the happy man. It is the idle man who is a miserable man. -Benjamin Franklin
It is easier to prevent bad habits than to break them. -Benjamin Franklin
The doorstep to the temple of wisdom is a knowledge of our own ignorance. -Benjamin Franklin
He who falls in love with himself will have no rivals. -Benjamin Franklin
Since thou are not sure of a minute, throw not away an hour. -Benjamin Franklin
There are three faithful friends – an old wife, an old dog, and ready money. -Benjamin Franklin
Three can keep a secret if two of them are dead. -Benjamin Franklin
If time is of all things the most precious, wasting time must be the greatest prodigality. -Benjamin Franklin
Marriage is the most natural state of man, and… the state in which you will find solid happiness. -Benjamin Franklin
Many a man thinks he is buying pleasure when he is really selling himself to it. -Benjamin Franklin
If you would know the value of money, go and try to borrow some. -Benjamin Franklin
He that rises late must trot all day. -Benjamin Franklin
Laws too gentle are seldom obeyed; too severe, seldom executed. -Benjamin Franklin
If you would have a faithful servant, and one that you like, serve yourself. -Benjamin Franklin
Industry need not wish. -Benjamin Franklin
Applause waits on success. -Benjamin Franklin
Mine is better than ours. -Benjamin Franklin
A good conscience is a continual Christmas. -Benjamin Franklin
Who is rich? He rejoices in his portion. -Benjamin Franklin
For having lived long, I have experienced many instances of being obliged, by better information or fuller consideration, to change opinions, even on important subjects, which I once thought right but found to be otherwise. -Benjamin Franklin
Our necessities never equal our wants. -Benjamin Franklin
Where sense is wanting, everything is wanting. -Benjamin Franklin
If a man could have half of his wishes, he would double his troubles. -Benjamin Franklin
To Follow by faith alone is to follow blindly. -Benjamin Franklin
A great empire, like a great cake, is most easily diminished at the edges. -Benjamin Franklin
Having been poor is no shame, but being ashamed of it is. -Benjamin Franklin
Money has never made man happy, nor will it, there is nothing in its nature to produce happiness. The more of it one has the more one wants. -Benjamin Franklin
Where there’s marriage without love, there will be love without marriage. -Benjamin Franklin
In the affairs of this world, men are saved not by faith, but by the want of it. -Benjamin Franklin
I didn’t fail the test, I just found 100 ways to do it wrong. -Benjamin Franklin
When will mankind be convinced and agree to settle their difficulties by arbitration? -Benjamin Franklin
I look upon death to be as necessary to our constitution as sleep. We shall rise refreshed in the morning. -Benjamin Franklin
Any fool can criticize, condemn, and complain – and most fools do. -Benjamin Franklin
He that speaks much, is much mistaken. -Benjamin Franklin
Content makes poor men rich; discontent makes rich men poor. -Benjamin Franklin
She laughs at everything you say. Why? Because she has fine teeth. -Benjamin Franklin
To lengthen thy life, lessen thy meals. -Benjamin Franklin
Fatigue is the best pillow. -Benjamin Franklin
Work as if you were to live a hundred years. Pray as if you were to die tomorrow. -Benjamin Franklin
Human felicity is produced not as much by great pieces of good fortune that seldom happen as by little advantages that occur every day. -Benjamin Franklin
He that won’t be counseled can’t be helped. -Benjamin Franklin
All wars are follies, very expensive and very mischievous ones. -Benjamin Franklin
The worst wheel of the cart makes the most noise. -Benjamin Franklin
Never take a wife till thou hast a house (and a fire) to put her in. -Benjamin Franklin
Speak ill of no man, but speak all the good you know of everybody. -Benjamin Franklin
Anger is never without a reason, but seldom with a good one. -Benjamin Franklin
Energy and persistence conquer all things. -Benjamin Franklin
Wars are not paid for in wartime, the bill comes later. -Benjamin Franklin
God helps those who help themselves. -Benjamin Franklin
Tomorrow, every Fault is to be amended; but that Tomorrow never comes. -Benjamin Franklin
Do good to your friends to keep them, to your enemies to win them. -Benjamin Franklin
Each year one vicious habit discarded, in time might make the worst of us good. -Benjamin Franklin
Those disputing, contradicting, and confuting people are generally unfortunate in their affairs. They get the victory, sometimes, but they never get goodwill, which would be of more use to them. -Benjamin Franklin
No nation was ever ruined by trade. -Benjamin Franklin
Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise. -Benjamin Franklin
He that sows thorns should never go barefoot. -Benjamin Franklin
Blessed is he that expects nothing, for he shall never be disappointed. -Benjamin Franklin
An egg today is better than a hen to-morrow. -Benjamin Franklin
A child thinks 20 shillings and 20 years can scarce ever be spent. -Benjamin Franklin
In reality, there is, perhaps, no one of our natural passions so hard to subdue as pride. -Benjamin Franklin
Let all your things have their places; let each part of your business have its time. -Benjamin Franklin
He that displays too often his wife and his wallet are in danger of having both of them borrowed. -Benjamin Franklin
Hide not your talents. They for use were made. What’s a sundial in the shade? -Benjamin Franklin
God grant that not only the love of liberty but a thorough knowledge of the rights of man may pervade all the nations of the earth, so that a philosopher may set his foot anywhere on its surface and say: ‘This is my country.’ -Benjamin Franklin
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. -Benjamin Franklin
Being ignorant is not so much a shame, as being unwilling to learn. -Benjamin Franklin
To succeed, jump as quickly at opportunities as you do at conclusions. -Benjamin Franklin
So convenient a thing it is to be a reasonable creature since it enables one to find or make a reason for everything one has a mind to do. -Benjamin Franklin
How few there are who have courage enough to own their faults, or resolution enough to mend them. -Benjamin Franklin
Don’t throw stones at your neighbors if your own windows are glass. -Benjamin Franklin
There are two ways of being happy: We must either diminish our wants or augment our means – either may do – the result is the same and it is for each man to decide for himself and to do that which happens to be easier. -Benjamin Franklin
I am for doing good to the poor, but I differ in opinion about the means. 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. -Benjamin Franklin
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. -Benjamin Franklin
Those have a short Lent who owes money to be paid at Easter. -Benjamin Franklin
The danger is sauce for prayers. -Benjamin Franklin
In my youth, I traveled much, and I observed in different countries, 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
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. -Benjamin Franklin
From a child, I was fond of reading, and all the little money that came into my hands was ever laid out in books. Pleased with the ‘Pilgrim’s Progress,’ my first collection was of John Bunyan’s works in separate little volumes. -Benjamin Franklin
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