Benjamin Franklin Quotes

A good conscience is a continual Christmas.

~ Benjamin Franklin

Admiration is the daughter of ignorance.

~ Benjamin Franklin

An investment in knowledge pays the best interest.

~ Benjamin Franklin

He that is good for making excuses is seldom good for anything else.

~ Benjamin Franklin

Well done is better that well said.

~ Benjamin Franklin

You cannot pluck roses without fear of thorns, nor enjoy a fair wife without danger of horns.

~ Benjamin Franklin

The absent are never without fault. Nor the present without excuse.

~ Benjamin Franklin

He that won't be counselled can't be helped.

~ Benjamin Franklin

To bear other people's afflictions, everyone has courage and enough to spare.

~ Benjamin Franklin

At 20 years of age the will reigns; at 30 the wit; at 40 the judgment.

~ Benjamin Franklin

Clearly spoken, Mr. Fogg; you explain English by Greek.

~ Benjamin Franklin

Do not anticipate trouble, or worry about what may never happen. Keep in the sunlight.

~ Benjamin Franklin

A single man has not nearly the value he would have in a state of union. He is an incomplete animal. He resembles the odd half of a pair of scissors.

~ 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

Let the child's first lesson be obedience, and the second will be what thou wilt.

~ Benjamin Franklin

Constant complaint is the poorest sort of pay for all the comforts we enjoy.

~ Benjamin Franklin

Singularity in the right hath ruined many; happy those who are convinced of the general opinion.

~ Benjamin Franklin

I confess that there are several parts of this Constitution which I do not at present approve, but I am not sure I shall never approve them. For 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

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

Remember that credit is money.

~ Benjamin Franklin

'Tis against some men's principle to pay interest, and seems against others' interest to pay the principle.

~ Benjamin Franklin

Rather go to bed supperless than rise in debt.

~ Benjamin Franklin

We must, indeed, all hang together or, most assuredly, we shall all hang separately.

~ Benjamin Franklin

Despair ruins some, presumption many.

~ Benjamin Franklin

The discontented man finds no easy chair.

~ Benjamin Franklin

Diligence is the mother of good luck.

~ Benjamin Franklin

The cat in gloves catches no mice.

~ Benjamin Franklin

Eat to please thyself, but dress to please others.

~ Benjamin Franklin

Many a one, for the sake of finery on the back, has gone with a hungry belly, and half-starved their families. "Silks and satins, scarlets and velvets, put out the kitchen fire," as Poor Richard says.

~ Benjamin Franklin

Beware of little expenses; a small leak will sink a great ship.

~ Benjamin Franklin

A penny saved is two pence clear,
A pin a day's a groat a year.

~ Benjamin Franklin

Ere you consult your fancy, consult your purse.

~ Benjamin Franklin

Let honesty and industry be thy constant companions, and spend one penny less than thy clear gains; then shall thy pocket begin to thrive; creditors will not insult, nor want oppress, nor hungerness bite, nor nakedness freeze thee.

~ 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

There is no little enemy.

~ Benjamin Franklin

The eye of the master will do more work than both his hands.

~ Benjamin Franklin

He that raises a large family does, indeed, while he lives to observe them, stand a broader mark for sorrow; but then he stands a broader mark for pleasure too.

~ Benjamin Franklin

He that waits upon fortune, is never sure of a dinner.

~ Benjamin Franklin

Genius without education is like silver in the mine.

~ Benjamin Franklin

In general, mankind, since the improvement of cookery, eats twice as much as nature requires.

~ Benjamin Franklin

One should eat to live, not live to eat.

~ Benjamin Franklin

Each year, one vicious habit rooted out, in time ought to make the worst man good.

~ Benjamin Franklin

The US Constitution does not guarantee happiness, only the pursuit of it. You have to catch up with it yourself.

~ Benjamin Franklin

Take time for all things: great haste makes great waste.

~ Benjamin Franklin

The heart of a fool is in his mouth, but the mouth of the wise man is in his heart.

~ Benjamin Franklin

He that lives upon hope will die fasting.

~ Benjamin Franklin

Clean your finger before you point at my spots.

~ Benjamin Franklin

Sloth, like rust, consumes faster than labor wears, while the used key is always bright.

~ Benjamin Franklin

There is much difference between imitating a good man and counterfeiting him.

~ Benjamin Franklin

[I am] lord of myself, accountable to none.

~ Benjamin Franklin

The sleeping fox catches no poultry.

~ Benjamin Franklin

To find out a girl's faults, praise her to her girlfriends.

~ Benjamin Franklin