Benjamin Franklin Quotes

Truth and sincerity have a certain distinguishing native lustre about them which cannot be perfectly counterfeited; they are like fire and flame, that cannot be painted.

He that speaks much, is much mistaken.

If by the liberty of the press were understood merely the liberty of discussing the propriety of public measures and political opinions, let us have as much of it as you please: But if it means the liberty of affronting, calumniating and defaming one another, I, for my part, own myself willing to part with my share of it, whenever our legislators shall please so to alter the law and shall chearfully consent to exchange my liberty of abusing others for the privilege of not being abused myself.

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.

There never was a good war, or a bad peace.

I consent Sir, to this Constitution because I expect no better, and because I am not sure, that it is not the best.

Certainlie these things agree, The Priest, the Lawyer, & Death all three: Death takes both the weak and the strong. The lawyer takes from both right and wrong, And the priest from living and dead has his Fee.

An investment in education always pays the highest returns.

A Man of Knowledge like a rich Soil, feeds If not a world of Corn, a world of Weeds.

If all but myself were blind, I should want neither a fine house nor fine furniture.

It was said of him that he did not say much, but that when he did everyone stopped to listen.

Keep flax from fire, and youth from gaming.

A lonely man on a rainy night who cannot read.

An autobiography usually reveals nothing bad about its writer except his memory.

He that would travel much, should eat little.

The learned fool writes his nonsense in better language than the unlearned, but it is still nonsense.

My refusing to eat flesh occasioned an inconveniency, and I was frequently chid for my singularity.

Perhaps I was too saucy and provoking.

Do you love truth for truth's sake, and will you endeavor impartially to find and receive it yourself, and communicate it to others?

Most people die at 25 but are buried at 75.

In 1736 I lost one of my sons, a fine boy of four years old, by the small-pox, taken in the common way. I long regretted bitterly, and still regret that I had not given it to him by inoculation. This I mention for the sake of parents who omit that operation, on the supposition that they should never forgive themselves if a child died under it; my example showing that the regret may be the same either way, and that, therefore, the safer should be chosen.

A little Religion, and a little Honesty, goes a great way in Courts.

He that waits upon fortune, is never sure of a dinner.

Many dishes many diseases, Many medicines few cures.

Industry pays debts, while despair increases them.

There are more old drunkards than old doctors.

E'er you remark another's sin, bid your own conscience look within.

'Tis more noble to forgive, and more manly to despise, than to revenge an Injury.

A good conscience is a continual Christmas.

How many observe Christ's birthday! How few, His precepts!

It is foolish to lay out money for the purchase of repentance.

The way to see by Faith is to shut the Eye of Reason.

Those renowned generals [Alexander and Caesar] received more faithful service, and performed greater actions by means of the love their soldiers bore them, than they could possibly have done, if instead of being beloved and respected they had been hated and feared by those they commanded.

Most men die from the neck up at age twenty-five because they stop dreaming.

Lying rides upon debt's back.

What I am to be, I am now becoming.

What science can there be more noble, more excellent, more useful for men, more admirably high and demonstrative, than this of mathematics?

Those things that hurt, instruct.

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

I think that a young state, like a young virgin, should modestly stay at home, and wait the application of suitors for an alliance with her; and not run about offering her amity to all the world; and hazarding their refusal. Our virgin is a jolly one; and tho at present not very rich, will in time be a great fortune, and where she has a favorable predisposition, it seems to me well worth cultivating.

Don't think so much of your own Cunning, as to forget other Men's; a Cunning Man is overmatched by a cunning Man and a Half.

Grief for a dead Wife, and a troublesome Guest, Continues to the threshold, and there is at rest; But I mean such wives as are none of the best

One of the advantages of being a 'reasonable creature' is that one can find a reason for whatever one wants to do.

There seem to be but three ways for a nation to acquire wealth. The first is by war, as the Romans did, in plundering their conquered neighbors. This is robbery. The second by commerce, which is generally cheating. The third by agriculture, the only honest way, wherein man receives a real increase of the seed thrown into the ground, in a kind of continual miracle, wrought by the hand of God in his favor, as a reward for his innocent life and his virtuous industry.

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

If you teach a poor young man to shave himself, and keep his razor in order, you may contribute more to the happiness of his life than in giving him a thousand guineas. This sum may be soon spent, the regret only remaining of having foolishly consumed it; but in the other case, he escapes the frequent vexation of waiting for barbers, and of their sometimes dirty fingers, offensive breaths, and dull razors.

An Episcopalian divine once told the Pope that the only difference between their denominations was that "the Church of Rome is infallible and the Church of England is never in the wrong."

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