Quotes by Polymaths - Page 3

The proud hate pride - in others.
Benjamin Franklin
I am fully conscious that, not being a literary man , certain presumptuous persons will think that they may reasonably blame me; alleging that I am not a man of letters. Foolish folks! do they not know that I might retort as Marius did to the Roman Patricians by saying: That they, who deck themselves out in the labours of others will not allow me my own. They will say that I, having no literary skill, cannot properly express that which I desire to treat of, but they do not know that my subjects are to be dealt with by experience rather than by words; and experience has been the mistress of those who wrote well. And so, as mistress, I will cite her in all cases.
Leonardo da Vinci
Tell me and I forget, teach me and I may remember, involve me and I learn.
Benjamin Franklin
Three may keep a secret, if two of them are dead.
Benjamin Franklin
...as I am not fond of giving advice,having seldom seen it taken
Benjamin Franklin
Just as courage imperils life fear protects it.
Leonardo da Vinci
Resistance to tyrants is obedience to God.
Benjamin Franklin
He who can have patience can have what he will.
Benjamin Franklin
A well-spent day brings happy sleep.
Leonardo da Vinci
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.
Benjamin Franklin
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...
Benjamin Franklin
If principle is good for anything it is worth living up to.
Benjamin Franklin
The U.S. Constitution doesn't guarantee happiness only the pursuit of it. You have to catch up with it yourself.
Benjamin Franklin
Although nature commences with reason and ends in experience it is necessary for us to do the opposite, that is to commence with experience and from this to proceed to investigate the reason.
Leonardo da Vinci
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.
Benjamin Franklin
Water is the driving force in nature.
Leonardo da Vinci
Being ignorant is not so much a shame, as being unwilling to learn.
Benjamin Franklin
Wisdom is the daughter of experience
Leonardo da Vinci
Obstacles cannot crush me every obstacle yields to stern resolve.
Leonardo da Vinci
Thirteen virtues necessary for true success: temperance silence order resolution frugality industry sincerity justice moderation cleanliness tranquility chastity and humility.
Benjamin Franklin
You can bear your own faults and why not a fault in your wife?
Benjamin Franklin
Genius is nothing but a greater aptitude for patience.
Benjamin Franklin
Imitate Jesus and Socrates
Benjamin Franklin
Make your work to be in keeping with your purpose
Leonardo da Vinci
An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.
Benjamin Franklin
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.
Benjamin Franklin
Like billowing clouds, Like the incessant gurgle of the brook,The longing of the spirit can never be stilled.
Hildegard of Bingen
Those things that hurt instruct.
Benjamin Franklin
Great beauty, great strength, and great riches are really and truly of no great use; a right heart exceeds all
Benjamin Franklin
If you want a thing done go - if not send.
Benjamin Franklin
We carry with us the wonders we seek without us.
Sir Thomas Browne
We must all hang together or assuredly we shall hang separately.
Benjamin Franklin
He who wishes to be rich within a day, will be hanged within a year.
Leonardo da Vinci
I abhor the supreme folly of those who blame the disciples of nature in defiance of those masters who were themselves her pupils
Leonardo da Vinci
You may delay but time will not.
Benjamin Franklin
We must all hang together else we shalFall hang separately.
Benjamin Franklin
Do not squander time for that is the stuff life is made of.
Benjamin Franklin
The people heard it, and approved the doctrine, and immediately practiced the contrary.
Benjamin Franklin
Teach your child to hold his tongue He'll learn fast enough to speak.
Benjamin Franklin
I love those who can smile in trouble...
Leonardo da Vinci
A learned blockhead is a greater blockhead than an ignorant one.
Benjamin Franklin
A man of words and not of deeds, Is like a garden full of weeds.
Benjamin Franklin
An investment in knowledge always pays the best interest.
Benjamin Franklin
For my own Part, when I am employed in serving others, I do not look upon myself as conferring Favours, but as paying Debts. In my Travels, and since my Settlement, I have received much Kindness from Men, to whom I shall never have any Opportunity of making the least direct Return. And numberless Mercies from God, who is infinitely above being benefited by our Services. Those Kindnesses from Men, I can therefore only Return on their Fellow Men; and I can only shew my Gratitude for these mercies from God, by a readiness to help his other Children and my Brethren. For I do not think that Thanks and Compliments, tho’ repeated weekly, can discharge our real Obligations to each other, and much less those to our Creator.
Benjamin Franklin
Content may dwell in all stations. To be low but above contempt may be high enough to be happy.
Sir Thomas Browne
Follow your bliss. -Joseph Campbell Resolve to perform what you ought. Perform without fail what you resolve.
Benjamin Franklin
I know not which lives more unnatural lives, obeying husbands, or commanding wives.
Benjamin Franklin
Little boats should keep near shore.
Benjamin Franklin
How much more than necessary do we spend in sleep, forgetting that the sleeping fox catches no poultry, and that there will be sleeping enough in the grave, as Poor Richard says.
Benjamin Franklin
Fear not death for the sooner we die, the longer we shall be immortal.
Benjamin Franklin
Were the offer made true 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.
Benjamin Franklin
The secret of success is constancy to purpose.
Benjamin Franklin
Energy and persistence conquer all things.
Benjamin Franklin
It is an acknowledged fact that we perceive errors in the work of others more readily than in our own.
Leonardo da Vinci
Fools make feasts and wise men eat them.
Benjamin Franklin
As iron rusts when not used, and water gets foul from standing or turns to ice when exposed to cold, so the intellect degenerates without exercise.-Leonard Da Vinci
Leonardo da Vinci
There seem to be but three ways for a nation to acquire wealth. The first is by war...This is robbery. The second by commerce, which is generally cheating. The third by agriculture, the only honest way, wherein man receives a real increase of the seed thrown into the ground, in a kind of continual miracle, wrought by the hand of God in his favor, as a reward for his innocent life and his virtuous industry.
Benjamin Franklin
It's better to swim in the sea belowThan to swing in the air and feed the crow,Says jolly Ned Teach of Bristol.
Benjamin Franklin
[I retained] only the Habit of expressing my self in Terms of modest Diffidence, never using when I advance any thing that may possibly be disputed, the Words 'Certainly, 'undoubtedly', or any others that I give the Air of Positiveness to an Opinion; but rather say 'I conceive', or 'I apprehend a Thing to be so or so', 'It appears to me', or 'I should think it so or so for such & such Reasons', or 'I imagine' it to be so or so, or 'it is so' if I am not mistaken.—This Habit I believe has been of great Advantage to me, when I have had occasion to inculcate my Opinions and persuade Men into Measures that I have been from time to time engag'd in promoting.—And as the chief Ends of Conversation are to inform, or to be informed, to please or to persuade, I wish well meaning sensible Men would not lessen their Power of doing Good by a Positive assuming Manner that seldom fails to disgust, tends to create Opposition, and to defeat every one of those purposes for which Speech was given to us, to wit, giving or receiving Information or Pleasure: For if you would inform, a positive dogmatical Manner in advancing your Sentiments, may provoke Contradiction & prevent a candid Attention.
Benjamin Franklin
Nothing strengthens authority so much as silence.
Leonardo da Vinci