Benjamin Franklin Quotes (733 Quotes)

Best is the Tongue that feels the rein He that talks much, must talk in vain We from the wordy Torrent fly Who listens to the chattering Pye

Energy and persistence conquer all things.

I scarce ever heard or saw the introductory words, Without vanity I may say, etc., but some vain thing immediately followed.

Visit your Aunt, but not every Day and call at your Brother's, but not every night.

The Man who with undaunted toils, sails unknown seas to unknown soils, With various wonders feasts his Sight What stranger wonders does he write

Seek Virtue, and, of that possessed, To Providence, resign the rest.

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

The best of all medicines are rest and fasting.

Genius without education is like silver in the mine.

Where there is hunger, law is not regardedand where law is not regarded, there will be hunger.

When I reflect, as I frequently do, upon the felicity I have enjoyed, I sometimes say to myself, that were the offer made me, I would engage to run again, from beginning to end, the same career of life. All I would ask, should be the privilege of an author, to correct in a second edition, certain errors of the first.

Good sense is a thing all need, few have, and none think they want.

A Man without ceremony has need of great merit in its place.

God heals, and the doctor takes the fee.

When I was a child of seven years old, my friends, on a holiday, filled my pocket with coppers. I went directly to a shop where they sold toys for children and, being charmed with the sound of a whistle, that I met by the way in the hands of another boy,

Success has ruind many a man.

Men and melons are hard to know.

There are lazy Minds as well as lazy Bodies.

The cat in gloves catches no mice.

A single man has not nearly the value he would have in a state of union. He is an incomplete animal. He resembles the odd half of a pair of scissors.

Tricks and treachery are the practice of fools, that don't have brains enough to be honest.

He's the best physician that knows the worthlessness of the most medicines.

Some are weather-wise, some are otherwise.

Do not squander time for that is the stuff life is made of.

It is much easier to suppress a first desire than to satisfy those that follow.

You may delay, but time will not.

Those who desire to give up freedom in order to gain security will not have, nor do they deserve, either one.

He that has neither fools, whores nor beggars among his kindred, is the son of a thunder-gust

Pride breakfasted with Plenty, dined with Poverty, supped with Infamy.

Ill customs and bad advice are seldom forgotten.

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. . . .

To be proud of knowledge is to be blind with light.

A good conscience is a continued Christmas.

Drink Water, Put the Money in your Pocket, and leave the Dry-bellyach in the Punchbowl

Grace thou thy House, and let not that grace thee.

The man who does things makes many mistakes, but he never makes the biggest mistake of all doing nothing.

There is much money given to be laught at, though the purchasers don't know it witness A's fine horse, and B's fine house

If you would have a faithful servant, and one that you like, serve yourself.

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

Singularity in the right hath ruined many happy those who are convinced of the general opinion.

By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.

Early morning hath gold in its mouth.

Most fools think they are only ignorant.

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

Sloth makes all things difficult, but industry all easy And he that riseth late must trot all day, and shall scarce overtake his business at night while laziness travels so slowly that poverty soon overtakes him.

We are a kind of posterity in respect to them.

Up, sluggard, and waste not life in the grave will be sleeping enough

He that hath a trade hath an estate he that hath a calling hath an office of profit and honor.

Proclaim not all thou knowest, all thou hast, nor all thou canst.

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