Best Benjamin Franklin Quotes And Thoughts

 

 

 

Benjamin Franklin was an American polymath and one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. Franklin was the main creator, printer, political scholar, politician, Freemason, postmaster, scientist, inventor, humorist, urban lobbyist, statesman, and ambassador. As a scientist, he was a noteworthy figure in the American Enlightenment and the history of physics for his disclosures and speculations in regards to power. As a designer, he is known for the lightning rod, bifocals, and the Franklin stove, among different innovations. He established numerous community associations, including the Library Company, Philadelphia’s first fire office and the University of Pennsylvania.

Motivational Benjamin Franklin Quotes

“Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing.” ~ Benjamin Franklin

“Having lived long, I have experienced many instances of being obliged by better information or fuller consideration to change opinions, even on important subjects, which I once thought right, but found to be otherwise.” ~ Benjamin Franklin

“The way to secure peace is to be prepared for war. They that are on their guard, and appear ready to receive their adversaries, are in much less danger of being attacked, than the supine, secure, and negligent.” ~ Benjamin Franklin

 

“A fat kitchen makes a lean will.” ~ Benjamin Franklin

“Don’t go to the doctor with every distemper, nor to the lawyer with every quarrel, nor to the pot for every thirst.” ~ Benjamin Franklin

“I never saw an oft-removed tree, 
nor yet an oft-removed family, 
that throve so well as those that settled be.” ~ Benjamin Franklin

“An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” ~ Benjamin Franklin

“The worship of God is a duty; the hearing and reading of sermons may be useful; but if men rest in hearing and praying, as too many do, it is as if a tree should value itself in being watered and putting forth leaves, tho’ it never produced any fruit.” ~ Benjamin Franklin

“Eat to live, and not live to eat.” ~ Benjamin Franklin

“A great talker may be no fool, but he is one that relies on him.” ~ Benjamin Franklin

“The wit of conversation consists more in finding it in others, than showing a great deal yourself. He who goes out of your company pleased with his own facetiousness and ingenuity, will the sooner come into it again.” ~ Benjamin Franklin

 

“When you incline to have new clothes, look first well over the old ones, and see if you cannot shift with them another year, either by scouring, mending, or even patching if necessary. Remember, a patch on your coat, and money in your pocket is better and more credible than a writ on your back, and no money to take it off.” ~ Benjamin Franklin

“Lost time is never found again.” ~ Benjamin Franklin

“When there is so much to be done for yourself, your family, and your country, be up by peep of the day! Let not the sun look down and say, ‘Inglorious here he lies!'” ~ Benjamin Franklin

“Don’t misinform your Doctor nor your Lawyer.” ~ Benjamin Franklin

“To expect people to be good, to be just, to be temperate, etc., without showing them how they should become so, seems like the ineffectual charity mentioned by the apostle, which consisted in saying to the hungry, the cold and the naked, be ye fed, be ye warmed, be ye clothed, without showing them how they should get food, fire or clothing.” ~ Benjamin Franklin

“He’s the best physician that knows the worthlessness of the most medicines.” ~ Benjamin Franklin

“Would you live with ease, do what you ought and not what you please.” ~ Benjamin Franklin Quotes

“Man and woman have each of them qualities and tempers in which the other is deficient, and which in union contribute to the common felicity.” ~ Benjamin Franklin

“God heals, and the Doctor takes the Fees.” ~ Benjamin Franklin

“There are two ways of being happy – we may either diminish our wants or augment our means – either will do, the result is the same; and it is for each man to decide for himself, and do that which happens to be the easiest. If you are idle or sick or poor, however hard it may be to diminish your wants, it will be harder to augment your means.” ~ Benjamin Franklin

 

“He that is known to pay punctually and exactly to the time he promises, may at any time, and on any occasion, raise all the money his friends can spare.” ~ Benjamin Franklin

“This is sometimes of great use.” ~ Benjamin Franklin

“When I am employed in serving others, I do not look upon myself as conferring favours, but as paying debts. I have received much kindness from men to whom I shall never have an opportunity of making the least direct returns; 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 show my gratitude for those mercies from God by a readiness to help His other children.” ~ Benjamin Franklin

“Early to bed and early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise.” ~ Benjamin Franklin

“Life, like a dramatic piece, should not only be conducted with regularity, but it should finish handsomely.” ~ Benjamin Franklin

“God helps them who help themselves.” ~ Benjamin Franklin Quotes

“Men are subject to various inconveniences merely through lack of a small share of courage, which is a quality very necessary in the common occurrences of life, as well as in a battle. How many impertinences do we daily suffer from great uneasiness, because we have not courage enough to discover our dislike.” ~ Benjamin Franklin

“The art of getting riches consists very much in thrift. All men are not equally qualified for getting money, but it is in the power of every one alike to practice this virtue.” ~ Benjamin Franklin

“Having been poor is no shame, being ashamed of it is.” ~ Benjamin Franklin

“Be not sick too late, nor well too soon.” ~ Benjamin Franklin

 

“If a man empties his purse into his head, no man can take it away from him. An investment in knowledge always pays the best interest.” ~ Benjamin Franklin

“If a sound body and a sound mind, which is as much as to say health and virtue, are to be preferred before all other considerations, ought not men, in choosing a business either for themselves or children, to refuse such as are unwholesome for the body, and such as make a man too dependent, too much obliged to please others, and too much subjected to their humour in order to be recommended and get a livelihood?” ~ Benjamin Franklin

“Our opinions are not in our own power; they are formed and governed much by circumstances that are often as inexplicable as they are irresistible.” ~ Benjamin Franklin

“Tricks and treachery are the practice of fools, that don’t have brains enough, to be honest.” ~ Benjamin Franklin

“After all, wedlock is the natural state of man. A bachelor is not a complete human being. He is like the odd half of a pair of scissors, which has not yet found its fellow, and therefore is not even half so useful as they might be together.” ~ Benjamin Franklin

“A penny saved is a penny earned.” ~ Benjamin Franklin Quotes

“I would advise you to read with a pen in hand and enter in a little book short hints of what you find that is curious, or that may be useful; for this will be the best method of imprinting such particulars in your memory.” ~ Benjamin Franklin

“By the collision of different sentiments, sparks of truth are struck out, and political light is obtained. The different factions, which at present divide us, aim all at the public good; the differences are only about the various modes of promoting it.” ~ Benjamin Franklin

“Reading makes a full man, meditation a profound man, discourse a clear man.” ~ Benjamin Franklin

“If you are active and prosperous, or young, or in good health, it may be easier for you to augment your means than to diminish your wants. But if you are wise, you will do both at the same time, young or old, rich or poor, sick or well; and if you are wise, you will do both in such a way as to augment the general happiness of society.” ~ Benjamin Franklin

 

“There are in life real evils enough, and it is folly to afflict ourselves with imaginary ones; it is time enough when the real ones arrive.” ~ Benjamin Franklin Quotes

“You may delay, but time will not.” ~ Benjamin Franklin

“Work as if you were to live a hundred years. Pray as if you were to die tomorrow.” ~ Benjamin Franklin

“Hope and faith may be more firmly built upon charity, than charity upon faith and hope.” ~ Benjamin Franklin

“If a man empties his purse into his head, no man can take it away from him. An investment in knowledge always pays the best interest.” ~ Benjamin Franklin

“One today is worth two tomorrows.” ~ Benjamin Franklin

“I look upon death to be as necessary to our constitution as sleep.” ~ Benjamin Franklin

“Life’s tragedy is that we get old too soon and wise too late.” ~ Benjamin Franklin

“We shall rise refreshed in the morning.” ~ Benjamin Franklin

“Fear to do ill, and you need fear naught else.” ~ Benjamin Franklin

 

 

 

50th of 100 Quotes By Benjamin Franklin

“We need a revolution every 200 years because all governments become stale and corrupt after 200 years.” ~ Benjamin Franklin

“The best thing to give to your enemy is forgiveness; to an opponent, tolerance; to a friend, your heart; to your child, a good example; to a father, deference; to your mother, conduct that will make her proud of you; to yourself, respect; to all others, charity.” ~ Benjamin Franklin

“Security without liberty is called prison.” ~ Benjamin Franklin

“The best of all medicines are rest and fasting.” ~ Benjamin Franklin

“When you’re finished changing, you’re finished.” ~ Benjamin Franklin

“Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn.” ~ Benjamin Franklin

“It seems to me, that if statesmen had a little more arithmetic, or were accustomed to calculation, wars would be much less frequent.” ~ Benjamin Franklin

“The most trifling actions of a man, in my opinion, as well as the smallest features and lineaments of the face give a nice observer some notion of his mind.” ~ Benjamin Franklin

“He who sacrifices freedom for security deserves neither.” ~ Benjamin Franklin

“Some to make themselves considerable, pursue learning; others grasp at wealth; some aim at being thought witty; and others are only careful to make the most of a handsome person; but what is wit, or wealth, or form, or learning, when compared with virtue? It is true we love the handsome, we applaud the learned, and we fear the rich and powerful, but we even worship and adore the virtuous.” ~ Benjamin Franklin

 

“I never knew a man who was good at making excuses who was good at anything else.” ~ Benjamin Franklin

“Common sense is something that everyone needs, few have, and none think they lack.” ~ Benjamin Franklin

“Rather go to bed without dinner than to rise in debt.” ~ Benjamin Franklin

“Most men die from the neck up at age twenty-five because they stop dreaming.” ~ Benjamin Franklin

“The ancients tell us what is best, but we must learn of the moderns what is fittest.” ~ Benjamin Franklin

“I don’t believe in stereotypes. I prefer to hate people on a more personal basis.” ~ Benjamin Franklin

“To lengthen thy Life, lessen thy Meals.” ~ Benjamin Franklin

“Do not anticipate trouble, or worry about what may never happen. Keep in the sunlight.” ~ Benjamin Franklin

“He that is of the opinion money will do everything may well be suspected of doing everything for money.” ~ Benjamin Franklin

“A learned blockhead is a greater blockhead than an ignorant one.” ~ Benjamin Franklin

 

“Content makes poor men rich; discontentment makes rich men poor.” ~ Benjamin Franklin

“Employ your time well, if you mean to get leisure.” ~ Benjamin Franklin

“Well done is better than well said.” ~ Benjamin Franklin

“Energy and persistence conquer all things.” ~ Benjamin Franklin

“If you would know the value of money, go try to borrow some; for he that goes a-borrowing goes a-sorrowing.” ~ Benjamin Franklin

“If you would persuade, you must appeal to interest rather than intellect.” ~ Benjamin Franklin

“The eye of the master will do more work than both his hands.” ~ Benjamin Franklin

“Creditors have better memories than debtors.” ~ Benjamin Franklin

“Hide not your talents, they for use were made. What’s a sun-dial in the shade?” ~ Benjamin Franklin

“It is a common error in friends, when they would extol their friends, to make comparisons, and to depreciate the merits of others.” ~ Benjamin Franklin

 

“When the well’s dry, we know the worth of water.” ~ Benjamin Franklin

“To the generous mind, the heaviest debt is that of gratitude, when it is not in our power to repay it.” ~ Benjamin Franklin

“A brother may not be a friend, but a friend will always be a brother.” ~ Benjamin Franklin

“It is the working man who is the happy man. It is the idle man who is a miserable man.” ~ Benjamin Franklin

“Words may show a man’s wit but actions his meaning.” ~ Benjamin Franklin

“There is much difference between imitating a man and counterfeiting him.” ~ Benjamin Franklin

“If you know how to spend less than you get, you have the philosopher’s stone.” ~ Benjamin Franklin

“No nation was ever ruined by trade.” ~ Benjamin Franklin

“Happiness consists more in small conveniences or pleasures that occur every day, than in great pieces of good fortune that happen but seldom to a man in the course of his life.” ~ Benjamin Franklin

“Each year one vicious habit rooted out, in time might make the worst man good throughout.” ~ Benjamin Franklin

 

“Speak ill of no man, but speak all the good you know of everybody.” ~ Benjamin Franklin

“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.” ~ Benjamin Franklin

“There are three things extremely hard: steel, a diamond, and to know one’s self.” ~ Benjamin Franklin

“Where liberty is, there is my country.” ~ Benjamin Franklin

 

“By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.” ~ Benjamin Franklin

“We are all born ignorant, but one must work hard to remain stupid.” ~ Benjamin Franklin

“To be content, look backward on those who possess less than yourself, not forward on those who possess more. If this does not make you content, you don’t deserve to be happy.” ~ Benjamin Franklin

“He that falls in love with himself, will have no Rivals.” ~ Benjamin Franklin

“Wink at small faults; remember thou hast great ones.” ~ Benjamin Franklin

“A new truth is a truth, an old error is an error.” ~ Benjamin Franklin

 

 

 

100th of 100 Best Benjamin Franklin Quotes

 

 

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