Benjamin Franklin Quotes



I hope you enjoy this beautiful collection of Benjamin Franklin quotes. The 6th president of the United states had lots of good advice contained in his quotes on such topics as money, friends, time and marriage.

Benjamin Franklin Quotes Index

Advice
Age
Anger
Being_Industrious
Being Lazy
Being Organized
Being Prepared
Eating
Faith
Family
Freedom
Friends
Happiness
Humorous
Insightful
Knowledge/Wisdom
Liberty
Marriage
Money
Profound
Self-Control
Success
Time
War
Warnings
Wealth
Your Words

Advice

"Be at war with your vices, at peace with your neighbors, and let every new year find you a better man."
~ Benjamin Franklin

"Each year one vicious habit discarded, in time might make the worst of us good."
~ Benjamin Franklin

"Games lubricate the body and the mind."
~ Benjamin Franklin

"He that would live in peace and at ease must not speak all he knows or all he sees."
~ Benjamin Franklin

"Hide not your talents. They for use were made. What's a sundial in the shade?"
~ Benjamin Franklin

"Honesty is the best policy."
~ Benjamin Franklin

"Necessity never made a good bargain."
~ Benjamin Franklin

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

"Well done is better than well said."
~ Benjamin Franklin

"When in doubt, don't."
~ Benjamin Franklin

"Write your injuries in dust, your benefits in marble."
~ Benjamin Franklin

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

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Age

"At twenty years of age the will reigns;
at thirty, the wit;
and at forty, the judgment."
~ Benjamin Franklin

"Life's Tragedy is that we get old too soon and wise too late."
~ Benjamin Franklin

"Many people die at twenty five and aren't buried until they are seventy five."
~ Benjamin Franklin

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Anger

"Whatever is begun in anger ends in shame."
~ Benjamin Franklin

"Anger is never without a reason, but seldom with a good one."
~ Benjamin Franklin

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Being Industrious

"It is the working man who is the happy man. It is the idle man who is the miserable man."
~ Benjamin Franklin

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Being Lazy

"A life of leisure and a life of laziness are two things. There will be sleeping enough in the grave."
~ Benjamin Franklin

"Trouble springs from idleness, and grievous toil from needless ease."
~ Benjamin Franklin

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Being Organized

"A place for everything, everything in its place."
~ Benjamin Franklin

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Being Prepared

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

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Eating

"To lengthen thy life, lessen thy meals."
~ Benjamin Franklin

"I saw few die of hunger; of eating, a hundred thousand. Eat to please thyself, but dress to please others."
~ Benjamin Franklin

"Eat to please thyself, but dress to please others."
~ Benjamin Franklin

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Faith

"The way to see by Faith is to shut the Eye of Reason."
~ Benjamin Franklin

"To Follow by faith alone is to follow blindly."
~ Benjamin Franklin

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Family

"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

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Freedom

"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

"Only a virtuous people are capable of freedom. As nations become more corrupt and vicious, they have more need of masters."
~ Benjamin Franklin

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Friends

Be slow in choosing a friend, slower in changing.
~ Benjamin Franklin

"Do good to your friends to keep them, to your enemies to win them."
~ Benjamin Franklin

"When befriended, remember it; when you befriend, forget it."
~ Benjamin Franklin

"There are three faithful friends - an old wife, an old dog, and ready money."
~ Benjamin Franklin

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Happiness

"There are two ways of being happy: We must either diminish our wants or augment our means - either may do - the result is the same and it is for each man to decide for himself and to do that which happens to be easier."
~ 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

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Humorous

"Guests, like fish, begin to smell after three days."
~ Benjamin Franklin

"Three can keep a secret, if two of them are dead."
~ Benjamin Franklin

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

"I didn't fail the test, I just found 100 ways to do it wrong."
~ Benjamin Franklin

"I wake up every morning at nine and grab for the morning paper. Then I look at the obituary page. If my name is not on it, I get up."
~ Benjamin Franklin

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Insightful

"God helps those who help themselves."
~ Benjamin Franklin

"Having been poor is no shame, but being ashamed of it, is."
~ Benjamin Franklin

"He that has done you a kindness will be more ready to do you another, than he whom you yourself have obliged."
~ Benjamin Franklin

"Half a truth is often a great lie."
~ Benjamin Franklin

"He that is good for making excuses is seldom good for anything else."
~ Benjamin Franklin

"How few there are who have courage enough to own their faults, or resolution enough to mend them."
~ Benjamin Franklin

"There never was a truly great man that was not at the same time truly virtuous."
~ Benjamin Franklin

"It takes many good deeds to build a good reputation, and only one bad one to lose it."
~ Benjamin Franklin

"Laws too gentle are seldom obeyed; too severe, seldom executed."
~ Benjamin Franklin

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

"When you're finished changing, you're finished."
~ Benjamin Franklin

"Words may show a man's wit but actions his meaning."
~ Benjamin Franklin

"Distrust and caution are the parents of security."
~ Benjamin Franklin

"Our necessities never equal our wants."
~ Benjamin Franklin

"The absent are never without fault, nor the present without excuse."
~ Benjamin Franklin

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

"The strictest law sometimes becomes the severest injustice."
~ Benjamin Franklin

"The discontented man finds no easy chair."
~ Benjamin Franklin

"Who is wise? He that learns from everyone. Who is powerful? He that governs his passions. Who is rich? He that is content. Who is that? Nobody."
~ Benjamin Franklin

"Your net worth to the world is usually determined by what remains after your bad habits are subtracted from your good ones."
~ Benjamin Franklin

"To find out a girl’s faults, praise her to her girl friends. Certainty? In this world nothing is certain but death and taxes."
~ Benjamin Franklin

"A good conscience is a continual Christmas."
~ Benjamin Franklin

"A great empire, like a great cake, is most easily diminished at the edges."
~ Benjamin Franklin

"A house is not a home unless it contains food and fire for the mind as well as the body."
~ Benjamin Franklin

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Knowledge/Wisdom

"An investment in knowledge pays the best interest."
~ Benjamin Franklin

"Being ignorant is not so much a shame, as being unwilling to learn."
~ Benjamin Franklin

"Genius without education is like silver in the mine."
~ Benjamin Franklin

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

"The doors of wisdom are never shut."
~ Benjamin Franklin

"The doorstep to the temple of wisdom is a knowledge of our own ignorance."
~ Benjamin Franklin

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

"Wise men don't need advice. Fools won't take it."
~ Benjamin Franklin

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Liberty

"They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."
~ Benjamin Franklin

"Where liberty is, there is my country."
~ 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

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Marriage

"Keep your eyes wide open before marriage, half shut afterwards."
~ Benjamin Franklin

"Marriage is the most natural state of man, and... the state in which you will find solid happiness."
~ Benjamin Franklin

"Never take a wife till thou hast a house (and a fire) to put her in."
~ Benjamin Franklin

"Where there's marriage without love, there will be love without marriage."
~ Benjamin Franklin

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Money

"A penny saved is a penny earned."
~ Benjamin Franklin

"Beware of little expenses. A small leak will sink a great ship."
~ Benjamin Franklin

"Creditors have better memories than debtors."
~ Benjamin Franklin

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

"Money has never made man happy, nor will it, there is nothing in its nature to produce happiness. The more of it one has the more one wants."
~ Benjamin Franklin

"Rather go to bed with out dinner than to rise in debt."
~ Benjamin Franklin

"Remember that credit is money."
~ Benjamin Franklin

"The use of money is all the advantage there is in having it."
~ Benjamin Franklin

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Profound

"Observe all men, thyself most."
~ Benjamin Franklin

"Content makes poor men rich; discontent makes rich men poor."
~ Benjamin Franklin

"Who had deceived thee so often as thyself?"
~ Benjamin Franklin

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

"I should have no objection to go over the same life from its beginning to the end: requesting only the advantage authors have, of correcting in a second edition the faults of the first."
~ Benjamin Franklin

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Self-Control

"He that composes himself is wiser than he that composes a book."
~ Benjamin Franklin

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Success

"Diligence is the mother of good luck."
~ Benjamin Franklin

"Energy and persistence conquer all things."
~ Benjamin Franklin

"He that can have patience can have what he will."
~ Benjamin Franklin

"To succeed, jump as quickly at opportunities as you do at conclusions."
~ Benjamin Franklin

"Without continual growth and progress, such words as improvement, achievement, and success have no meaning."
~ Benjamin Franklin

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Time

"Time is money."
~ Benjamin Franklin

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

"Take time for all things: great haste makes great waste."
~ Benjamin Franklin

"Employ thy time well, if thou meanest to gain leisure."
~ Benjamin Franklin

"Lost time is never found again."
~ Benjamin Franklin

"Never leave that till tomorrow which you can do today."
~ Benjamin Franklin

"Dost thou love life? Then do not squander time, for that is the stuff life is made of."
~ Benjamin Franklin

"One today is worth two tomorrows."
~ Benjamin Franklin

"Since thou are not sure of a minute, throw not away an hour."
~ Benjamin Franklin

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War

"There was never a good war, or a bad peace."
~ Benjamin Franklin

"Wars are not paid for in wartime, the bill comes later."
~ Benjamin Franklin

"When will mankind be convinced and agree to settle their difficulties by arbitration?"
~ Benjamin Franklin

"All wars are follies, very expensive and very mischievous ones."
~ Benjamin Franklin

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Warnings

"Buy what thou hast no need of and ere long thou shalt sell thy necessities."
~ Benjamin Franklin

"He that displays too often his wife and his wallet is in danger of having both of them borrowed."
~ Benjamin Franklin

"He that lives upon hope will die fasting."
~ Benjamin Franklin

"He that waits upon fortune, is never sure of a dinner."
~ Benjamin Franklin

"He that won't be counseled can't be helped."
~ Benjamin Franklin

"Hear reason, or she'll make you feel her."
~ Benjamin Franklin

"I conceive that the great part of the miseries of mankind are brought upon them by false estimates they have made of the value of things."
~ Benjamin Franklin

"It is the eye of other people that ruin us. If I were blind I would want, neither fine clothes, fine houses or fine furniture."
~ Benjamin Franklin

"He that lieth down with dogs shall rise up with fleas."
~ Benjamin Franklin

"He’s a fool who cannot conceal his wisdom."
~ Benjamin Franklin

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Wealth

"He does not possess wealth; it possesses him."
~ Benjamin Franklin

"It is only when the rich are sick that they fully feel the impotence of wealth."
~ Benjamin Franklin

"Wealth is not his that has it, but his that enjoys it."
~ Benjamin Franklin

"Who is rich? He that is content. Who is that? Nobody."
~ Benjamin Franklin

"Who is rich? He that rejoices in his portion."
~ Benjamin Franklin

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Your Words

"He that speaks much, is much mistaken."
~ Benjamin Franklin

"Remember not only to say the right thing in the right place, but far more difficult still, to leave unsaid the wrong thing at the tempting moment."
~ Benjamin Franklin

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

"As we must account for every idle word, so must we account for every idle silence."
~ Benjamin Franklin

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