Benjamin Franklin Quotes
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The absent are never without fault. Nor the present without excuse.
They that will not be counseled, cannot be helped. If you do not hear reason she will rap you on the knuckles.
Those who love deeply never grow old; they may die of old age, but they die young.
I think that a young state, like a young virgin, should modestly stay at home, and wait the application of suitors for an alliance with her; and not run about offering her amity to all the world; and hazarding their refusal. Our virgin is a jolly one; and tho at present not very rich, will in time be a great fortune, and where she has a favorable predisposition, it seems to me well worth cultivating.
Whatever is begun in anger, ends in shame.
Read much, but not many books.
If you can't pay for a thing, don't buy it. If you can't get paid for it, don't sell it. Do this, and you will have calm and drowsy nights, with all of the good business you have now and none of the bad. If you have time, don't wait for time.
When you're finished changing, you're finished.
If passion drives you, let reason hold the reins.
Content makes poor men rich; discontentment makes rich men poor.
We must, indeed, all hang together or, most assuredly, we shall all hang separately.
If all printers were determined not to print anything till they were sure it would offend nobody, there would be very little printed.
Tricks and treachery are the practice of fools, that don't have brains enough to be honest.
Diligence is the mother of good luck.
What has become clear to you since we last met?
I have met the enemy, and it is the eyes of other people.
Well done, is better than well said.
Beware of little expenses. A small leak will sink a great ship.
The way to see by Faith is to shut the Eye of Reason.
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.
He that waits upon fortune, is never sure of a dinner.
Hide not your talents. They for use were made. What's a sundial in the shade.
Most people return small favors, acknowledge medium ones and repay greater ones -- with ingratitude.
Your net worth to the world is usually determined by what remains after your bad habits are subtracted from your good ones.
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.
The heart of a fool is in his mouth, but the mouth of a wise man is in his heart.
Trouble springs from idleness, and grievous toil from needless ease.
Being ignorant is not so much a shame as being unwilling to learn.
Write your injuries in dust, your benefits in marble.
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!
The things which hurt, instruct.
Employ thy time well, if thou meanest to gain leisure.
Lying rides upon debt's back.
He that falls in love with himself will have no rivals.
An undutiful daughter will prove an unmanageable wife.
When men and woman die, as poets sung, his heart's the last part moves, her last, the tongue.
The use of money is all the advantage there is in having money.
Necessity never made a good bargain.
Plough deep while sluggards sleep.
There never was a good war or a bad peace.
He's the best physician that knows the worthlessness of the most medicines.
Many a man thinks he is buying pleasure, when he is really selling himself to it.
Work as if you were to live a hundred years. Pray as if you were to die tomorrow.
Idleness and pride tax with a heavier hand than kings and governments.
Never leave that till tomorrow which you can do today.
Glass, china, and reputation are easily cracked, and never mended well.
He who multiplies riches, multiplies cares.
He that's secure is not safe.
He who falls in love with himself will have no rivals.
I am about courting a girl I have had but little acquaintance with. How shall I come to a knowledge of her faults, and whether she has the virtues I imagine she has? Answer. Commend her among her female acquaintances.
We are all born ignorant, but one must work hard to remain stupid.
A spoonful of honey will catch more flies than a gallon of vinegar.
Human felicity is produced not as much by great pieces of good fortune that seldom happen as by little advantages that occur every day.
If time be of all things the most precious, wasting time must be the greatest prodigality.
Most people dislike vanity in others, whatever share they have of it themselves; but I give it fair quarter, wherever I meet with it, being persuaded that it is often productive of good to the possessor, and to others who are within his sphere of action: and therefore, in many cases, it would not be altogether absurd if a man were to thank God for his vanity among the other comforts of life.
Money never made a man happy yet, nor will it. The more a man has, the more he wants. Instead of filling a vacuum, it makes one.
He does not posses wealth that allows it to possess him.
The doors of wisdom are never shut.
Never take a wife till thou hast a house (and a fire) to put her in.