Benjamin Franklin Quotes

Discover the knowledge of Benjamin Franklin through 151 of his most insightful and inspiring quotes! I hope you enjoy reading these quotes filled with wisdom said by one of America’s Founding Fathers. Keep reading!

Image shows a picture of America's Founding Father Benjamin Franklin in black and white, in front of a dark green background. By Skip to my Lou. — Benjamin Franklin was truly inspiring!

“Stand firm, don’t flutter!”
“In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.”
“To succeed, jump as quickly at opportunities as you do at conclusions.”
“Life’s tragedy is that we get old too soon and wise too late.”
“Success has ruined many a man.”
“Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing.”
“Lost time is never found again.”
“Genius without education is like silver in the mine.”
“An investment knowledge pays the best interest.”
“Search others for their virtues, thy self for thy vices.”
“A man of words and not of deeds, is like a garden full of weeds.”
“An investment in knowledge pays the best interest.”
“Never leave that till tomorrow which you can do today.”
“When the well is dry, we know the worth of water.”
“When you’re testing to see how deep water is, never use two feet.”
“Genius is the ability to hold one’s vision steady until it becomes reality.”
“You may delay but time will not.”
“Any fool can criticize, condemn and complain – and most fools do.”
“Beware of little expenses. A small leak will sink a great ship.”
“Hope of gain lessens pain.”
“Energy and persistence conquer all things.”
“He who can have patience can have what he will.”
“Common sense is something that everyone needs, few have, and none think they lack.”
“Laziness travels so slowly that poverty soon overtakes him.”
“An Investment In Knowledge Pays The Best Interest”
“There are three things extremely hard: steel, a diamond, and to know one’s self.”
“When you are finished changing, you’re finished.”
“Never confuse motion with action.”
“Don’t value a man for the Quality he is of, but for the Qualities he possesses.”
“Who pleasure gives, Shall joy receive.”
“It is easier to prevent bad habits than to break them.”
“Many people die at twenty-five and aren’t buried until they are seventy-five.”
“A false friend and a shadow attend only while the sun shines.”
“Sell not virtue to purchase wealth, nor liberty to purchase power.”
“Tricks and treachery are the practice of fools, that don’t have brains enough to be honest.”
“Instead of cursing the darkness, light a candle.”
“Life biggest tragedy is that we get old too soon and wise too late.”
“An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.”
“Be civil to all, sociable to many, familiar with few, friend to one, enemy to none.”
“Don’t throw stones at your neighbors, if your own windows are glass.”
“If you would be wealthy, think of saving as well as getting.”
“A great talker may be no fool, but he is one that relies on him.”
“Energy and persistence conquer all things.”
“Do not fear mistakes. You will know failure. Continue to reach out.”
“You can do anything you set your mind to.”
“Rather go to bed without dinner than to rise in debt.”
“If Passion drives, let Reason hold the Reins.”
“A learned blockhead is a greater blockhead than an ignorant one.”
“Do not anticipate trouble, or worry about what may never happen. Keep in the sunlight.”
“Well done is better than well said.”
“To cease to think creatively is to cease to live.”
“Many people die at twenty five and aren’t buried until they are seventy five.”
“Common sense without education, is better than education without common sense.”
“Don’t misinform your Doctor nor your Lawyer.”
“Love your enemies, for they tell you your faults.”
“Reading makes a full man; meditation, a profound man; discourse, a clear man.”
“Those who beat their swords into plowshares usually end up plowing for those who didn’t.”
“He that can have patience can have what he will.”
“There never was a good war or a bad peace.”
“Employ your time well, if you mean to get leisure.”
“Tell me and I forget, teach me and I may remember, involve me and I learn.”
“If everyone is thinking alike, then no one is thinking.”
“Even peace be may purchased at too high a price.”
“If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail!”
“Do not fear mistakes. You will know failure. Continue to reach out.”
“The person who deserves most pity is a lonesome one on a rainy day who doesn’t know how to read.”
“It is the working man who is the happy man. It is the idle man who is the miserable man.”
“He does not possess wealth, it possesses him.”
“Empty the coins in your purse into your mind and your mind will fill your purse with coins.”
“Genius without education is like silver in the mine.”
“Trouble knocked at the door, but, hearing laughter, hurried away”
“Wine makes daily life easy, less hurried, with fewer tension and more tolerance”.
“We must all hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang separately.”
“Write injuries in dust, benefits in marble.”
“Our cause is the cause of all mankind…we are fighting for their liberty in defending our own.”
“Take time for all things: great haste makes great waste.”
“Success is the residue of planning.”
“Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn.”
“All wars are follies, very expensive and mischievous ones.”
“Be not sick too late, nor well too soon.”
“At twenty years of age the will reigns; at thirty, the wit; and at forty, the judgment.”
“Diligence is the mother of good luck.”
“A countryman between two lawyers is like a fish between two cats.”
“There are three things extremely hard: steel, a diamond, and to know one’s self.”
“Lost time is never found again.”
“Without continual growth and progress, such words as improvement, achievement, and success have no meaning.”
“The doors of wisdom are never shut.”
“A policy of life insurance is the cheapest and safest mode of making a certain provision for one’s family.”
“Use no hurtful deceit; think innocently and justly; speak accordingly.”
“A slip of the foot you may soon recover, but a slip of the tongue you may never get over.”
“They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.”
“Half a truth is often a great lie.”
“The borrower is slave to the lender and the debtor to the creditor.”
“Industry, perseverance, and frugality make fortune yield.”
“Three may keep a secret, if two of them are dead.”
“Words may show a man’s wit but actions his meaning.”
“Hope of gain lessens pain.”
“He that can have patience can have what he will.”
“Wise men don’t need advice. Fools won’t take it.”
“Be civil to all; sociable to many; familiar with few; friend to one; enemy to none.”
“How few there are who have courage enough to own their faults, or resolution enough to mend them.”
“One today is worth two tomorrows.”
“In wine there is wisdom, in beer there is Freedom, in water there is bacteria.”
“Life is a kind of chess.”
“A fat kitchen makes a lean will.”
“The way to see by faith is to shut the eye of reason.”
“To be humble to superiors is a duty, to equals courtesy, to inferiors nobleness.”
“It is the first responsibility of every citizen to question authority.”
“A new truth is a truth, an old error is an error.”
“Reading makes a full man, meditation a profound man, discourse a clear man.”
“Tomorrow, every Fault is to be amended; but that Tomorrow never comes.”
“Early to bed and early to rise, makes a man healthy wealthy and wise.”
“In reality, there is, perhaps, no one of our natural passions so hard to subdue as pride.”
“Originality is the art of concealing your sources.”
“Content makes poor men rich; discontent makes rich men poor.”
“Experience keeps a dear school, but fools will learn in no other.”
“We do not stop playing because we grow old, we grow old because we stop playing!”
“Eat to please yourself, but dress to please others.”
“The Golden Age was never the present age.”
“Order – Let all your things have their places; let each part of your business have its time.”
“Great Modesty often hides great Merit.”
“Even peace may be purchased at too high a price.”
“If you’re going through hell, keep going.”
“God works wonders now and then; Behold a lawyer, an honest man.”
“Where liberty is, there is my country.”
“If you desire many things, many things will seem few.”
“If everyone is thinking alike, then no one is thinking.”
“If you would persuade, you must appeal to interest rather than intellect.”
“Life’s Tragedy is that we get old too soon and wise too late.”
“If you do tomorrow what you did today , you will get tomorrow what you got today.”
“Whatever is begun in anger, ends in shame.”
“The proof of gold is fire.”
“Believe none of what you hear and half of what you see.”
“He that goes a borrowing goes a sorrowing.”
“An investment in knowledge always pays the best interest.”
“No nation was ever ruined by trade.”
“Joy doesn’t exist in the world, it exists in us.”
“He’s the best physician that knows the worthlessness of the most medicines.”
“Necessity never made a good bargain.”
“We may give advice, but we cannot give conduct.”
“Life’s biggest tragedy is that we get old too soon and wise too late.”
“Tis a great confidence in a friend to tell him your faults; greater to tell him his.”
“It takes many good deeds to build a good reputation, and only one bad one to lose it.”
“A right Heart exceeds all.”
“Our new Constitution is now established, and has an appearance that promises permanency; but in this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes!”
“The heart of a fool is in his mouth, but the mouth of a wise man is in his heart.”
“Without freedom of thought there can be no such thing as wisdom; and no such thing as public liberty, without freedom of speech.”
“Freedom of speech is a principal pillar of a free government; when this support is taken away, the constitution of a free society is dissolved, and tyranny is erected on its ruins. Republics…derive their strength and vigor from a popular examination into the action of the magistrates.”
“A true Friend is the best Possession.”
“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.”
“Do not squander time for that is the stuff life is made of.”

Thousands More Quotes For Any Occasion

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