Benjamin Franklin Quotes - Page 2

If men are so wicked with religion what would they be without it?

O vitae Philosophia dux! O virtutum indagatrix expultrixque vitiorum! Unus dies, bene et ex praeceptis tuis actus, peccanti immortalitati est anteponendus.translation (non-literal):O philosophy, life’s guide! O searcher of virtues and expeller of vices! Just a single day lived well and according to your lessons is to be preferred to an eternity of errors.— Cicero, As quoted in Ben Franklin’s Autobiography

Never leave that till tomorrow which you can do today.

Never ruin an apology with an excuse.

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

Instead of cursing the darkness, light a candle.

The greatest monarch on the proudest throne is obliged to sit upon his own arse.

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

Keep your eyes wide open before marriage half shut afterwards.

Early to bed and early to rise Makes a man healthy wealthy and wise.

So convenient a thing to be a reasonable creature, since it enables one to find or make a reason for every thing one has a mind to do.

God heals and the doctor takes the fees.

... I think this Law, by which I am punished, is both unreasonable in itself, and particularly severe... Polly Baker

Today is yesterday's pupil.

If you desire many things many things will seem but a few.

Lost Time is never found again.

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

Great hopes make everything great possible.

All would live long but none would be old.

There never was a good war or a bad peace.

Take time for all things.

Love your Enemies, for they tell you your Faults.

You may delay, but time will not.

Success has ruined many a man.

If you would not be forgotten, as soon as you are dead and rotten, either write things worth reading, or do things worth writing.

Be slow in choosing a friend slower in changing.

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

One today is worth two tomorrows.

I am for doing good to the poor, but...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. I observed...that the more public provisions were made for the poor, the less they provided for themselves, and of course became poorer. And, on the contrary, the less was done for them, the more they did for themselves, and became richer.

Were I a Roman Catholic, perhaps I should on this occasion vow to build a chapel to some saint, but as I am not, if I were to vow at all, it should be to build a light-house.[Letter to his wife, 17 July 1757, after narrowly avoiding a shipwreck; often misquoted as "Lighthouses are more helpful than churches."]

Who is rich? He that rejoices in his portion.

The proud hate pride - in others.

Tell me and I forget, teach me and I may remember, involve me and I learn.

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

...as I am not fond of giving advice,having seldom seen it taken

Resistance to tyrants is obedience to God.

He who can have patience can have what he will.

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.

1. TEMPERANCE. Eat not to dullness; drink not to elevation. 2. SILENCE. Speak not but what may benefit others or yourself; avoid trifling conversation. 3. ORDER. Let all your things have their places; let each part of your business have its time. 4. RESOLUTION. Resolve to perform what you ought; perform without fail what you resolve. 5. FRUGALITY. Make no expense but to do good to others or yourself; i.e., waste nothing. 6. INDUSTRY. Lose no time; be always employ'd in something useful; cut off all unnecessary actions. 7. SINCERITY. Use no hurtful deceit; think innocently and justly, and, if you...

If principle is good for anything it is worth living up to.

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

If you wish information and improvement from the knowledge of others, and yet at the same time express yourself as firmly fix'd in your present opinions, modest, sensible men, who do not love disputation, will probably leave you undisturbed in the possession of your error.

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

Thirteen virtues necessary for true success: temperance silence order resolution frugality industry sincerity justice moderation cleanliness tranquility chastity and humility.

You can bear your own faults and why not a fault in your wife?

Genius is nothing but a greater aptitude for patience.

Imitate Jesus and Socrates

An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

Freedom is not a gift bestowed upon us by other men, but a right that belongs to us by the laws of God and nature.

Those things that hurt instruct.

Great beauty, great strength, and great riches are really and truly of no great use; a right heart exceeds all

If you want a thing done go - if not send.

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

You may delay but time will not.

We must all hang together else we shalFall hang separately.

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

The people heard it, and approved the doctrine, and immediately practiced the contrary.

Teach your child to hold his tongue He'll learn fast enough to speak.

A learned blockhead is a greater blockhead than an ignorant one.

A man of words and not of deeds, Is like a garden full of weeds.