Benjamin Franklin

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

— Benjamin Franklin

Words may show a man's wit but actions his meaning.

— Benjamin Franklin

Never confuse motion with action.

— Benjamin Franklin

Admiration is the daughter of ignorance.

— Benjamin Franklin

The proof of gold is fire...

— Benjamin Franklin

Wise men don't need advice. Fools won't take it.

— Benjamin Franklin

They that will not be counseled, cannot be helped. If you do not hear reason she will rap you on the knuckles.

— Benjamin Franklin

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

— Benjamin Franklin

Many foxes grow gray but few grow good.

— Benjamin Franklin

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

— Benjamin Franklin

If you wouldn't live long, live well; for folly and wickedness shorten life.

— Benjamin Franklin

An old young man, will be a young old man.

— Benjamin Franklin

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.

— Benjamin Franklin

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

— Benjamin Franklin

Ambition has its disappointments to sour us, but never the good fortune to satisfy us. Its appetite grows keener by indulgence and all we can gratify it with at present serves but the more to inflame its insatiable desires.

— Benjamin Franklin

We are more thoroughly an enlightened people, with respect to our political interests, than perhaps any other under heaven. Every man among us reads, and is so easy in his circumstances as to have leisure for conversations of improvement and for acquiring information.

— Benjamin Franklin

Whatever is begun in anger, ends in shame.

— Benjamin Franklin

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

— Benjamin Franklin

Those disputing, contradicting, and confuting people are generally unfortunate in their affairs. They get victory, sometimes, but they never get good will, which would be of more use to them.

— Benjamin Franklin

He that blows the coals in quarrels that he has nothing to do with, has no right to complain if the sparks fly in his face.

— Benjamin Franklin

That which resembles most living one's life over again, seems to be to recall all the circumstances of it; and, to render this remembrance more durable, to record them in writing.

— 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 teach a poor young man to shave himself, and keep his razor in order, you may contribute more to the happiness of his life than in giving him a thousand guineas. This sum may be soon spent, the regret only remaining of having foolishly consumed it; but in the other case, he escapes the frequent vexation of waiting for barbers, and of their sometimes dirty fingers, offensive breaths, and dull razors.

— Benjamin Franklin

Reading makes a full man, meditation a profound man, discourse a clear man.

— Benjamin Franklin

Read much, but not many books.

— Benjamin Franklin

If you would know the value of money try to borrow some.

— Benjamin Franklin

So much for industry, my friends, and attention to one's own business; but to these we must add frugality if we would make our industry more certainly successful. A man may, if he knows not how to save as he gets, keep his nose all his life to the grindstone, and die not worth a grout at last.

— Benjamin Franklin

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.

— Benjamin Franklin

Drive your business, let not your business drive you.

— Benjamin Franklin

Beware the hobby that eats.

— Benjamin Franklin

In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.

— Benjamin Franklin

Certainty? In this world nothing is certain but death and taxes.

— Benjamin Franklin

When you're finished changing, you're finished.

— Benjamin Franklin

A cheerful face is nearly as good for an invalid as healthy weather.

— 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

If passion drives you, let reason hold the reins.

— Benjamin Franklin

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

— Benjamin Franklin

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.

— Benjamin Franklin

Who is wise? He that learns from everyone. Who is powerful? He that governs his passions. Who is rich? He who is content. Who is that? Nobody.

— Benjamin Franklin

Content makes poor men rich; discontentment makes rich men poor.

— Benjamin Franklin

Drive thy business or it will drive thee.

— Benjamin Franklin

While we may not be able to control all that happens to us, we can control what happens inside us.

— Benjamin Franklin

The great secret of succeeding in conversation is to admire little, to hear much; always to distrust our own reason, and sometimes that of our friends; never to pretend to wit, but to make that of others appear as much as possibly we can; to hearken to what is said and to answer to the purpose.

— Benjamin Franklin

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

— Benjamin Franklin

If we do not hang together, we will all hang separately.

— Benjamin Franklin

Those that won't be counseled can't be helped.

— Benjamin Franklin

Remember that credit is money.

— Benjamin Franklin

If all printers were determined not to print anything till they were sure it would offend nobody, there would be very little printed.

— Benjamin Franklin

I look upon death to be as necessary to our constitution as sleep. We shall rise refreshed in the morning.

— Benjamin Franklin

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

— Benjamin Franklin

Rather go to bed with out dinner than to rise in debt.

— Benjamin Franklin

Tricks and treachery are the practice of fools, that don't have brains enough to be honest.

— Benjamin Franklin

Who had deceived thee so often as thyself?

— Benjamin Franklin

It is much easier to suppress a first desire than to satisfy those that follow.

— Benjamin Franklin

If you desire many things, many things will seem few.

— Benjamin Franklin

Diligence is the mother of good luck.

— Benjamin Franklin

The discontented man finds no easy chair.

— Benjamin Franklin

Let thy discontents be thy secrets.

— Benjamin Franklin

All human situations have their inconveniences. We feel those of the present but neither see nor feel those of the future; and hence we often make troublesome changes without amendment, and frequently for the worse.

— Benjamin Franklin

What has become clear to you since we last met?

— Benjamin Franklin

God heals and the doctor takes the fee.

— Benjamin Franklin

No nation was ever ruined by trade.

— 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

I have met the enemy, and it is the eyes of other people.

— Benjamin Franklin

Love your enemies, for they tell you your faults.

— Benjamin Franklin

Promises may fit the friends, but non-performance will turn them into enemies.

— Benjamin Franklin

Energy and persistence alter all things.

— Benjamin Franklin

Nothing preaches better than the act.

— Benjamin Franklin

Well done, is better than well said.

— Benjamin Franklin

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

— Benjamin Franklin

Blessed is he who expects nothing, for he shall never be disappointed.

— Benjamin Franklin

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

— Benjamin Franklin

Experience keeps a school, yet fools will learn in no other.

— Benjamin Franklin

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

— 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

In the affairs of this world, men are saved not by faith, but by the want of it.

— Benjamin Franklin

The way to see by Faith is to shut the Eye of Reason.

— Benjamin Franklin

There have been as great souls unknown to fame as any of the most famous.

— Benjamin Franklin

If you would not be forgotten as soon as you are dead, either write things worth reading or do things worth writing.

— 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

There seem to be but three ways for a nation to acquire wealth. The first is by war, as the Romans did, in plundering their conquered neighbors. This is robbery. The second by commerce, which is generally cheating. The third by agriculture, the only honest way, wherein man receives a real increase of the seed thrown into the ground, in a kind of continual miracle, wrought by the hand of God in his favor, as a reward for his innocent life and his virtuous industry.

— Benjamin Franklin

Eat to please thyself, but dress to please others.

— Benjamin Franklin

A benevolent man should allow a few faults in himself, to keep his friends in countenance.

— Benjamin Franklin

One should eat to live, not live to eat.

— Benjamin Franklin

Most fools think they are only ignorant.

— Benjamin Franklin

The world is full of fools and faint hearts; and yet everyone has courage enough to bear the misfortunes, and wisdom enough to manage the affairs of his neighbor.

— Benjamin Franklin

Spinoza Experience keeps a dear school, but fools will learn in no other.

— Benjamin Franklin

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

— Benjamin Franklin

To be thrown upon one's own resources, is to be cast into the very lap of fortune; for our faculties then undergo a development and display an energy of which they were previously unsusceptible.

— Benjamin Franklin

There are three faithful friends, an old wife, an old dog, and ready money.

— Benjamin Franklin

Friends and neighbors, the taxes are indeed very heavy, and if those laid on by the government were the only ones we had to pay, we might more easily discharge them; but we have many others, and much more grievous to some of us. We are taxed twice as much by our idleness, three times as much by our pride, and four times as much by our folly; and from these taxes the commissioners cannot ease or deliver us by allowing abatement.

— Benjamin Franklin

Genius without education is like silver in the mine.

— Benjamin Franklin

Hide not your talents. They for use were made. What's a sundial in the shade.

— Benjamin Franklin

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

— Benjamin Franklin

Those who govern, having much business on their hands, do not generally like to take the trouble of considering and carrying into execution new projects. The best public measures are therefore seldom adopted from previous wisdom, but forced by the occasion.

— Benjamin Franklin

When befriended, remember it; when you befriend, forget it.

— Benjamin Franklin

Most people return small favors, acknowledge medium ones and repay greater ones -- with ingratitude.

— Benjamin Franklin

There never was a truly great man that was not at the same time truly virtuous.

— Benjamin Franklin

Guests, like fish, begin to smell after three days.

— Benjamin Franklin