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Benjamin Franklin Quotes

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Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both.
Benjamin Franklin  

All wars are follies, very expensive and very mischievous ones.
Benjamin Franklin  

and one more

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

Benjamin Franklin - Wikiquote

1. Government is not established merely by Power; there must be maintained
   a general Opinion of its Wisdom and Justice, to make it firm and
   durable.
      -- Benjamin Franklin
2. A countryman between two lawyers is like a fish between two cats. 
3. A good conscience is a continual Christmas. 
4. A slip of the foot you may soon recover, but a slip of the tongue you may never get over. 
5. All human situations have their inconveniences. We feel those of the present but neither see nor feel those of the future; and hence we often make troublesome changes without amendment, and frequently for the worse.  
6. All would live long, but none would be old.  
7. An investment in knowledge always pays the best interest. Anger is never without Reason, but seldom with a good One. At 20 years of age the will reigns, at 30 the wit, at 40 the judgment.  
8. Be civil to all; sociable to many; familiar with few; friend to one; enemy to none.  
9. Be slow in choosing a friend, slower in changing.  
10. Beware of the young doctor and the old barber.  
11. I am in the prime of senility. 
12. Do not anticipate trouble, or worry about what may never happen. Keep in the sunlight.  
13. Drive thy business or it will drive thee.  
14. Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise.  
15. Educate your children to self-control, to the habit of holding passion and prejudice and evil tendencies subject to an upright and reasoning will, and you have done much to abolish misery from their future and crimes from society.  
16. Employ thy time well, if thou meanest to get leisure.  
17. Energy and persistence conquer all things.  
18. Genius without education is like silver in the mine.  
19. Glass, china and reputation are easily cracked, and never well mended.  
20. God heals, and the doctor takes the fees.  
21. Having been poor is no shame, but being ashamed of it, is.  
22. He is ill clothed that is bare of virtue.  
23. He that blows the coals in quarrels that he has nothing to do with, has no right to complain if the sparks fly in his face.  
24. He that can have patience can have what he will.  
25. He that falls in love with himself will have no rivals.  
26. He that is good for making excuses is seldom good for anything else.  
27. He that is of the opinion money will do everything may well be suspected of doing everything for money.  
28. He that lives upon hope will die fasting. 
29. He that would live in peace and at ease, must not speak all he knows nor judge all he sees.  
30. Hide not your talents, they for use were made. What's a sun-dial in the shade?  
31. How many observe Christ's birthday! How few, his precepts! O! 'tis easier to keep Holidays than Commandments.  
32. If you know how to spend less than you get, you have the philosopher's stone.  
33. If you would be wealthy, think of saving as well as getting.  
34. If you would know the value of money, go try to borrow some; for he that goes a-borrowing goes a-sorrowing.
35. If you would persuade, you must appeal to interest rather than intellect.  
36. If you wouldst live long, live well, for folly and wickedness shorten life.  
37. If your head is wax, don't walk in the sun.  
38. Never leave that till tomorrow which you can do today.  
39. 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.  
40. Search others for their virtues, thyself for thy vices.  
41. Sloth makes all things difficult, but industry, all things easy. He that rises late must trot all day, and shall scarce overtake his business at night, while laziness travels so slowly that poverty soon overtakes him.  
42. 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.  
43. There is no kind of dishonesty into which otherwise good people more easily and frequently fall than that of defrauding the government.  
44. Three may keep a secret, if two of them are dead.  
45. Well done is better than well said.  
46. Who is rich? He that is content. Who is that? Nobody.  
47. You may delay, but time will not.  
48. Dost thou love life? Then do not squander time, for that's the stuff life is made of.  'Poor Richard's Almanack,' June 1746
49. They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.  Historical Review of Pennsylvania, 1759
50. But in this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.  Letter to Jean Baptiste Le Roy (1789)
51. Fish and visitors smell in three days.  Poor Richard's Almanack, 1736
52. To lengthen thy life, lessen thy meals.  Poor Richard's Almanack, 1737
53. Wish not so much to live long as to live well.  Poor Richard's Almanack, 1738
54. Creditors have better memories than debtors.  Poor Richard’s Almanac (1758)

Results from Cole's Quotables:

1. They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.
2. If you would not be forgotten, as soon as you are rotten,
   either write things worth reading or do things worth the writing.
3. The first mistake in public business is the going into it.
4. You may delay, but time will not.
5. 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 (1706 - 1790), letter to David Hartley, December 4, 1789
6. To the generous mind the heaviest debt is that of gratitude, when it is not in our power to repay it.
7. Necessity never made a good bargain.
8. Experience is a dear teacher, but fools will learn at no other.

Results from Rand Lindsly's Quotations:

1. In rivers and bad governments, the lightest things swim at the top.
2. A countryman between two lawyers is like a fish between two cats.
3. God heals, and the doctor takes the fee.

Results from Poor Man's College:

1. It is the working man who is the happy man. It is the idle man who is the miserable man.
2. Where sense is wanting, everything is wanting,
3. He who multiplies riches multiplies cares.
4. Pride breakfasted with plenty, dined with poverty, and supped with infamy.
5. For the want of a nail, the shoe was lose; for the want of a shoe the horse was lose; and for the want of a horse the rider was lost, being overtaken and slain by the enemy, all for the want of care about a horseshoe nail.
6. Money never made a man happy yet, nor will it. There is nothing in its nature to produce happiness. The more a man has, the more he wants. Instead of its filling a vacuum, it makes one. If it satisfies one want, it doubles and trebles that want another way. That was a true proverb of the wise man, rely upon it; "Better is little with the fear of the Lord, than great treasure, and trouble therewith."
7. Five thousand balloons, capable of raising two men each, could not cost more than five ships of the line; and where is the prince who can afford so to cover his country with troops for its defense as that 10,000 men descending from the clouds might not in many places do an infinite deal of mischief before a force could be brought together to repel them?
8. To lengthen thy Life, lessen thy meals
9. Hide not your talents. They for use were made. What's a sundial in the shade.
10. To be thrown upon one's own resources, is to be cast into the very lap of fortune; for our faculties then undergo a development and display an energy of which they were previously unsusceptible.
11. Whoever feels pain in hearing a good character of his neighbor, will feel a pleasure in the reverse. And those who despair to rise in distinction by their virtues, are happy if others can be depressed to a level of themselves.
12. Early morning hath gold in its mouth.
13. Read much, but not many books.
14. They that will not be counseled, cannot be helped. If you do not hear reason she will rap you on the knuckles.

Results from Contributed Quotations:

1. Be slow in choosing a friend, slower in changing.
2. To be proud of virtue is to poison oneself with the antidote.
    

Benjamin Franklin (1706 - 1790), ?

I believe I shall,in some shape or other,always exist; and, with all the inconveniences human life is liable to, I shall not object to a new edition of mine, hoping, however, that the errata of the last may be corrected.

By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.

Passion governs, and she never governs wisely.

Benjamin Franklin (1706 - 1790), In response to the situation of the colonists

1. Who is rich? He who is content. Who is that? Nobody.
2. Three people can keep a secret so long as two of them are dead.
3. Think what you do when you run into debt; you give another power over your liberty.
4. A penny saved is a penny earned.
5. If you would not be forgotten as soon as you are dead, either write things worth reading, or do things worth writing.
6. Lost time is never found again.
7. He that has done you a kindness will be more ready to do you another, than he whom you yourself have obliged.
8. Laws too gentle are seldom obeyed; too severe, seldom executed.
9. To follow by faith alone is to follow blindly.
10. It is easier to prevent bad habits than to break them.
11. Write injuries in dust, benefits in marble.
12. Distrust and caution are the parents of security.
13. The absent are never without fault, nor the present without excuse.
14. The strictest law sometimes becomes the severest injustice.
15. Be civil to all; sociable to many; familiar with few; friend to one; enemy to none.
16. Our critics are our friends; they show us our faults.
17. I cannot conceive otherwise than that He, the Infinite Father, expects or requires no worship or praise from us, but that He is even infinitely above it.
18. Whatever is begun in anger ends in shame.
19. A democracy is two wolves and a small lamb voting on what to have for dinner. Freedom under a constitutional republic is a well armed lamb contesting the vote.
20. He is a fool that cannot conceal his wisdom.
21. A long life may not be good enough, but a good life is long enough. 

Quoted by Benjamin Franklin, Pearls of Wisdom, by Jerome Agel and Walter D. Glanze

1. We must indeed all hang together, or, most assuredly, we shall hang separately.
2. All cats are gray in the dark.
3. We'll either hang together or we'll hang separately.
4. When the people find that they can vote themselves money, that will herald the end of the republic. Sell not liberty to purchase power.
5. Dost thou love life? Than do not squander time, for it is the stuff life is made of.
6. The Constitution only guarantees the American people the right to pursue happiness. You have to catch it yourself.
7. Life's tragedy is that we get old too soon and wise too late.
8. The way to see by faith is to shut the eye of reason.
9. Rules too soft are seldomly followed; rules too harsh are seldomly executed.
10. Tell me....And I Forget,

    Teach me.....And I Learn,
    Involve Me.....And I Remember.

    Benjamin Franklin (1706 - 1790), Card

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