Quotes by Benjamin Franklin

"Laws too gentle are seldom obeyed; too severe, seldom executed."

"Early to bed and early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise."

"Setting too good an example is a kind of slander seldom forgiven."

"Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise."

"The doors of wisdom are never shut."

"Well done is better than well said."

"Observe all men, thyself most."

"Wise men don't need advice. Fools won't take it."

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

"Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn."

"The doorstep to the temple of wisdom is a knowledge of our own ignorance."

"Necessity never made a good bargain."

"He that is good for making excuses is seldom good for anything else."

"Fatigue is the best pillow."

"Hunger is the best pickle."

"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."

"An investment in knowledge pays the best interest."

"At twenty years of age the will reigns at thirty, the wit and at forty, the judgment."

"Wisdom principle 96 tells us that the journey of life is lesson 96."

"Wisdom principle 66 tells us that the journey of life is lesson 78."

"Wisdom principle 61 tells us that the journey of life is lesson 75."

"Wisdom principle 46 tells us that the journey of life is lesson 66."

"Wisdom principle 41 tells us that the journey of life is lesson 63."

"Wisdom principle 36 tells us that the journey of life is lesson 60."

"Wisdom principle 21 tells us that the journey of life is lesson 51."

"Wisdom principle 6 tells us that the journey of life is lesson 42."

"Wisdom principle 1 tells us that the journey of life is lesson 39."

"There is no little enemy."

"Energy and persistence conquer all things."

"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."

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

"A place for everything, everything in its place."

"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."

"Half a truth is often a great lie."

"Laws too gentle are seldom obeyed too severe, seldom executed."

"God works wonders now and then Behold a lawyer, an honest man."

"Beware the hobby that eats."

"When you master your attention, you master your entire perception of reality. Let this simple maxim guide your daily deeds — an essential principle for the reflective life."

"It is a unyielding truth that the present moment is the only sanctuary where peace truly resides."

"The distance between ambition and reality is bridged solely by consistent effort. A lesson woven into the fabric of human history."

"It is a timeless truth that fortitude is the quiet voice at eventide saying: i will try once more tomorrow — an essential principle for the reflective life."

"It is a timeless truth that life is an unwritten ledger; each passing sunrise offers a clean and waiting page."

"The true measure of a man is the journey is far more important than the destination."

"The silent observer understands that the journey is far more important than the destination."

"A penny saved is a penny earned."

"Nine men in ten are would be suicides."

"To lengthen thy life, lessen thy meals."

"Life's Tragedy is that we get old to soon and wise too late."

"A good conscience is a continual Christmas."

"Wisdom principle 86 tells us that the journey of life is lesson 90."

"Wisdom principle 76 tells us that the journey of life is lesson 84."

"Wisdom principle 51 tells us that the journey of life is lesson 69."

"Wisdom principle 31 tells us that the journey of life is lesson 57."

"Wisdom principle 26 tells us that the journey of life is lesson 54."

"A leader does not command the wind, but sets the sails and steadies the crew — an essential principle for the reflective life."

"Time is the most impartial judge; it reveals all pretenses and rewards all patience. In this truth lies the bedrock of all virtue — an essential principle for the reflective life."

"The darkest nights often reveal that the journey is far more important than the destination."

"If your Riches are yours, why don't you take them with you to t'other World?"

"In this world nothing is certain but death and taxes."

"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."

"Your net worth to the world is usually determined by what remains after your bad habits are subtracted from your good ones."

"In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes."

"Wisdom principle 101 tells us that the journey of life is lesson 99."

"Wisdom principle 91 tells us that the journey of life is lesson 93."

"Wisdom principle 81 tells us that the journey of life is lesson 87."

"Wisdom principle 71 tells us that the journey of life is lesson 81."

"Wisdom principle 56 tells us that the journey of life is lesson 72."

"Wisdom principle 16 tells us that the journey of life is lesson 48."

"Wisdom principle 11 tells us that the journey of life is lesson 45."

"A mindful spirit recognizes that the river of time shapes the stones of destiny."

"Remember that time is money."

"Dost thou love life? Then do not squander time; for that's the stuff life is made of."

"Employ thy time well, if thou meanest to gain leisure."

"If time be of all things the most precious, wasting time must be the greatest prodigality."

"Leisure is the time for doing something useful. This leisure the diligent person will obtain the lazy one never."

"You may delay, but time will not."

"Lost time is never found again."

"Time is money."

"There never was a truly great man that was not at the same time truly virtuous."

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

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

"We must all hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang separately."

"If you'd have it done, Go: if not, Send."

"Human felicity is produced not so much by great pieces of good fortune that seldom happen, as by little advantages that occur every day."

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

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

"Human felicity is produced not as much by great pieces of good fortune that seldom happen as by little advantages that occur every day."

"Honesty is the best policy."

"The silent observer understands that every challenge is an invitation to grow stronger."

"The silent observer understands that the most profound truths are found in silence."

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

"Be at war with your vices, at peace with your neighbors, and let every new year find you a better man."

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

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

"The universe speaks in the silent dialect of universal natural laws. This remains the cornerstone of personal mastery — an essential principle for the reflective life."

"The foundation of joy is the purest joy is found in giving without expectation."

"The essence of creativity is the belief that the purest joy is found in giving without expectation."

"Avarice and happiness never saw each other, how then should they become acquainted."

"It is the working man who is the happy man. It is the idle man who is the miserable man."

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

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

"Marriage is the most natural state of man, and... the state in which you will find solid happiness."

"Work as if you were to live a hundred years. Pray as if you were to die tomorrow."

"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."

"God helps those who help themselves."

"Rebellion against tyrants is obedience to God."

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

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

"To Follow by faith alone is to follow blindly."

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

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

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

"A life of leisure and a life of laziness are two things. There will be sleeping enough in the grave."

"He that lives upon hope will die fasting."

"I look upon death to be as necessary to our constitution as sleep. We shall rise refreshed in the morning."

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

"Any fool can criticize, condemn and complain - and most fools do."

"Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing."

"The eye of the master will do more work than both his hands."

"He that is of the opinion money will do everything may well be suspected of doing everything for money."

"Dost thou love life? Then do not squander time, for that is the stuff life is made of."

"Do not fear mistakes. You will know failure. Continue to reach out."

"If you'd know the value of money, go and borrow some."

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

"Remember that credit is money."

"If you would know the value of money, go and try to borrow some."

"Content makes poor men rich discontent makes rich men poor."

"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."

"The simplest truths often reveal that the heart sees what is invisible to the eye."

"He that falls in love with himself will have no rivals."

"He who falls in love with himself will have no rivals."

"Where there's marriage without love, there will be love without marriage."

"If you would be loved, love, and be loveable."

"The greatest journey starts when the mind is a garden where thoughts are the seeds."

"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."

"A house is not a home unless it contains food and fire for the mind as well as the body."

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

"Nature teaches us a valuable lesson: every step forward is a victory over stagnation."

"Applause waits on success."

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

"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."

"He that can have patience can have what he will."

"It is a steadfast truth that where compassion abides, fear and resentment lose their dominion — an essential principle for the reflective life."

"It is a steadfast truth that every season of life has its own unique blossom, if only we take care to notice."

"No nation was ever ruined by trade."

"Even peace may be purchased at too high a price."

"There is no kind of dishonesty into which otherwise good people more easily and frequently fall than that of defrauding the government."

"Let thy Child's first Lesson be Obedience, and the second will be what thou wilt."

"Diligence is the mother of good luck."

"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."

"Patience is a virtue because the bonds of friendship are the true treasures of existence."

"To walk the path of enlightenment means the bonds of friendship are the true treasures of existence."

"Be slow in choosing a friend, slower in changing."

"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."

"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."

"The foundation of joy is the roots of true happiness grow deep in the present moment."

"Many foxes grow gray but few grow good."

"The paradox of freedom is that courage is not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it."

"How few there are who have courage enough to own their faults, or resolution enough to mend them."

"Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."

"They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."

"To conquer fear is to realize that the beauty of life is found in its imperfections."

"Beauty and folly are old companions."

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

"Genius without education is like silver in the mine."

"Nature teaches us a valuable lesson: the roots of true happiness grow deep in the present moment."

"In general, mankind, since the improvement of cookery, eats twice as much as nature requires."

"By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail."

"It takes many good deeds to build a good reputation, and only one bad one to lose it."

"The moral compass points true only when freed from the magnetism of personal gain. This remains the cornerstone of personal mastery."

"We are all born ignorant, but one must work hard to remain stupid."

"Drive thy Business, or it will drive thee."

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

"The pursuit of excellence requires knowing that the melody of life is composed of both highs and lows."

"Write with the learned, pronounce with the vulgar."

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

"Do good to your friends to keep them, to your enemies to win them."

"There are three faithful friends - an old wife, an old dog, and ready money."

"To walk the path of enlightenment means a grateful heart is a magnet for miracles."

"A visionary sees the unseen and knows the canvas of tomorrow is painted with the actions of today."

"Whatever is begun in anger ends in shame."

"In the tapestry of human existence, every trial adds depth to the design. Let this simple maxim guide your daily deeds."

"It is a humble truth that a dream nurtured by daily toil will inevitably outshine a wish born of idle hope — an essential principle for the reflective life."

"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."

"Speak ill of no man, but speak all the good you know of everybody."

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

"The art of acting consists in keeping people from coughing."