Benjamin Franklin Quotes (733 Quotes)

Hope of gain lessens pain.

Time is an herb that cures all Diseases.

If you would not be forgotten, As soon as you are dead and rotten, Either write things worth reading, Or do things worth the writing.

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

For age and want save while you may, No morning sun lasts a whole day

He that sells upon Credit, expects to lose 5 per Cent. by bad Debts therefore he charges, on all he sells upon Credit, an Advance that shall make up that Deficiency.

As we must account for every idle word, so must we account for every idle silence.

The noblest question in the world is 'What good may I do in it'

The King's cheese is half wasted in parings But no matter, 'tis made of the people's milk

Pride is said to be the last vice the good man gets clear of.

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

Since I cannot govern my own tongue, tho' within my own teeth, how can I hope to govern the tongues of others

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

An old young man, will be a young old man.

When the people find they can vote themselves money, that will herald the end of the republic.

Were it offered to my choice, I should have no objection to a repetition of the same life from its beginning, only asking the advantages authors have in a second edition to correct some faults in the first

Nothing is more fatal to health than an over care of it.

The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.

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

The strictest law sometimes becomes the severest injustice.

If it be the design of Providence to extirpate these savages in order to make room for the cultivation of the earth, it seems not improbable that rum may be the appointed means.

No man ever was glorious, who was not laborious.

A fat kitchen, a lean will.

You cannot pluck roses without fear of thorns, Nor enjoy a fair wife without danger of horns.

Mad kings and mad bulls are not to be held by treaties and packthread.

Quarrels never could last long, If on one side only lay the wrong.

Plough deep while sluggards sleep.

He that idly loses 5 s. worth of time, loses 5 s. might as prudently throw 5 s. in the River.

Rebellion against tyrants is obedience to God.

A little well-gotten will do us more good, Than lordships and scepters by Rapine and Blood.

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

I have lived, Sir, a long time, and the longer I live the more convincing proof I see of this truththat God governs the affairs of men.

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

Honesty is the best policy.

Promises may fit the friends, but non-performance will turn them into enemies.

An ounce of wit that is bought, Is worth a pound that is taught.

When Death puts out our Flame, the Snuff will tell, If we were Wax, or Tallow by the Smell. At a great Pennyworth, pause a while.

If your riches are yours, why don't you take them with you to the other world.

Lost time is never found again.

A penny saved is twopence dear A pin a day 's a groat a year.

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

Old Hob was lately married in the Night, What needed Day, his fair young Wife is light.

I wish Christianity were more productive of good works ... I mean real good works ... not holy-day keeping, sermon-hearing ... or making long prayers, filled with flatteries and compliments despised by wise men, and much less capable of pleasing the

He that drinks fast, pays slow.

It would be thought a hard Government that should tax its People one tenth Part of their Time, to be employed in its Service.

There is no little enemy.

Admiration is the daughter of ignorance.

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

And have we now forgotten that powerful Friend Or do we imagine we no longer need His assistance I have lived a long time and the longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this truth that God governs in the affairs of men. And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without His notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without His aid We have been assured, Sir, in the Sacred Writings, that except the Lord build the House, they labor in vain that build it. I firmly believe this and I also believe that, without His concurring aid, we shall succeed in this political building no better than the builders of Babel.

Rather go to bed with out dinner than to rise in debt.