Benjamin Franklin

General Summary

Also known as :	Ben Franklin
Date of birth :	17 January 1706
Place of birth :	Boston
Country of nationality :	United States of America
Gender :	Male
Profession :	Scientist, Writer, Politician, Printer, Librarian, Inventor
Religion :	Deism
Date of death :	17 April 1790
Cause of death :	Pneumonia
Place of death :	Philadelphia
Place of burial :	Christ Church Burial Ground

Biography

Benjamin Franklin (January 17, 1706 – April 17, 1790) was one of the Founding Fathers of the United States of America. A noted polymath, Franklin was a leading author and printer, satirist, political theorist, politician, scientist, inventor, civic activist, statesman, soldier, and diplomat....

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Professional Experience

1785 - 1788

President of the Supreme Executive Council of Pennsylvania

1782 - 1783

United States Ambassador to Sweden

1778 - 1785

United States Ambassador to France - United States of America

1778 - 1785

United States Ambassador to France

1775 - 1776

United States Postmaster General - United States Postal Service

1718 - 1723

Apprentice - James Franklin Printing Shop

1716 - 1718

Shopkeeper - Josiah Franklin

Educational Background

1718 - 1720

None - James Franklin Printing Shop

1714 - 1716

None - Boston Latin School

Quotes by 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.”
• “ Clearly spoken, Mr. Fogg; you explain English by Greek.”
• “ The sleeping fox catches no poultry.”

More Quotes by Benjamin Franklin

Related People to Benjamin Franklin

Brother Joseph Franklin I Joseph Franklin I

Sister Mary Holmes Mary Holmes

Sibling John Franklin John Franklin

Brother Samuel Franklin Samuel Franklin

Show all related people to Benjamin Franklin (22) in Yatedo Family

Biography

Quotes

• “ 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.”
• “ Clearly spoken, Mr. Fogg; you explain English by Greek.”
• “ The sleeping fox catches no poultry.”
• “ A benevolent man should allow a few faults in himself, to keep his friends in countenance.”
• “ Love your enemies, for they tell you your faults.”
• “ Leisure is the time for doing something useful. This leisure the diligent person will obtain the lazy one never.”
• “ Being ignorant is not so much a shame as being unwilling to learn.”
• “ He that speaks much, is much mistaken.”
• “ Glass, china, and reputation are easily cracked, and never mended well.”
• “ If a man could have half of his wishes, he would double his troubles.”
• “ Three can keep a secret if two are dead.”
• “ He was so learned that he could name a horse in nine languages; so ignorant that he bought a cow to ride on.”
• “ An old young man, will be a young old man.”
• “ Never put off until tomorrow what you can do today.”
• “ Happiness consists more in small conveniences of 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.”
• “ 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.”
• “ What you seem to be, be really.”
• “ God heals and the doctor takes the fee.”
• “ Certainty? In this world nothing is certain but death and taxes.”
• “ The doors of wisdom are never shut.”
• “ When befriended, remember it; when you befriend, forget it.”
• “ 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.”
• “ Never confuse motion with action.”
• “ Who is wise? He that learns from every One. Who is powerful? He that governs his Passions. Who is rich? He that is content. Who is that? Nobody.”
• “ I have met the enemy, and it is the eyes of other people.”
• “ Most fools think they are only ignorant.”
• “ The way to see by Faith is to shut the Eye of Reason.”
• “ Early to bed and early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise.”
• “ Rich widows are the only secondhand goods that sell at first-class prices.”
• “ Eat to please thyself, but dress to please others.”
• “ Were it offered to my choice, I should have no objection to a repetition of the same life from its beginning, only asking the advantages authors have in a second edition to correct some faults in the first.”
• “ Your argument is sound, nothing but sound.”
• “ Singularity in the right hath ruined many; happy those who are convinced of the general opinion.”
• “ Energy and persistence alter all things.”
• “ We must all hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang separately.”
• “ The first mistake in public business is going into it.”
• “ Pride that dines on vanity, sups on contempt.”
• “ Who is rich? He that rejoices in his portion.”
• “ I believe there is one Supreme most perfect being.”
• “ In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.”
• “ 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.”
• “ 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.”
• “ Buy what thou hast no need of and ere long thou shalt sell thy necessities.”
• “ 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.”
• “ Beware the hobby that eats.”
• “ 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.”
• “ Learn of the skillful; he that teaches himself, has a fool for his master.”
• “ Each year one vicious habit discarded, in time might make the worst of us good.”
• “ Sloth makes all things difficult, but industry, all things easy. He that rises late must trot all day, and shall scarce overtake his business at night, while laziness travels so slowly that poverty soon overtakes him.”
• “ He does not posses wealth that allows it to possess him.”
• “ There have been as great souls unknown to fame as any of the most famous.”
• “ Drive your business, let not you're business drive you.”
• “ If all printers were determined not to print anything till they were sure it would offend nobody, there would be very little printed.”
• “ When I was a child of seven years old, my friends, on a holiday, filled my pocket with coppers. I went directly to a shop where they sold toys for children; and, being charmed with the sound of a whistle, that I met by the way in the hands of another boy, I voluntarily offered and gave all my money for one. I then came home, and went whistling all over the house, much pleased with my whistle, but disturbing all the family. My brothers, and sisters, and cousins, understanding the bargain I had made, told me I had given four times as much for it as it was worth; put me in mind what good things I might have bought with the rest of the money; and laughed at me so much for my folly, that I cried with vexation; and the reflection gave me more chagrin than the whistle gave me pleasure. This however was afterwards of use to me, the impression continuing on my mind; so that often, when I was tempted to buy some unnecessary thing, I said to myself, Dont give too much for the whistle; and I saved my money.”
• “ I have always thought that one man of tolerable abilities may work great changes, and accomplish great affairs among mankind, if he first forms a good plan, and, cutting off all amusements or other employments that would divert his attention, make the execution of that same plan his sole study and business.”
• “ Guests, like fish, begin to smell after three days.”
• “ 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.”
• “ There are three faithful friends, an old wife, an old dog, and ready money.”
• “ There was never a good war or a bad peace.”
• “ Constant complaint is the poorest sort of pay for all the comforts we enjoy.”
• “ He that would live in peace and at ease must not speak all he knows or all he sees.”
• “ He that waits upon fortune, is never sure of a dinner.”
• “ Would you persuade, speak of interest, not of reason.”
• “ Be studious in your profession, and you will be learned. Be industrious and frugal, and you will be rich. Be sober and temperate, and you will be healthy. Be in general virtuous, and you will be happy. At least you will, by such conduct, stand the best chance for such consequences.”
• “ That it is better 100 guilty Persons should escape than that one innocent Person should suffer, is a Maxim that has been long and generally approved.”
• “ The Muses love the Morning.”
• “ 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.”
• “ A life of leisure and a life of laziness are two things. There will be sleeping enough in the grave.”
• “ There is much difference between imitating a man and counterfeiting him.”
• “ Do not squander time for that is the stuff life is made of.”
• “ Where there is marriage without love, there will be love without marriage.”
• “ 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.”
• “ Genius without education is like silver in the mine.”
• “ For the want of a nail, the shoe was lose; for the want of a shoe the horse was lose; and for the want of a horse the rider was lost, being overtaken and slain by the enemy, all for the want of care about a horseshoe nail.”
• “ Nothing is more fatal to health than an over care of it.”
• “ Without Freedom of Thought, there can be no such Thing as Wisdom; and no such Thing as publick Liberty, without Freedom of Speech.”
• “ I am lord of myself, accountable to none.”
• “ Do good to your friends to keep them, to your enemies to win them.”
• “ Tomorrow every fault is to be amended; but tomorrow never comes.”
• “ He that is good for making excuses is seldom good for anything else.”
• “ He that can have patience can have what he will.”
• “ Sloth, like rust, consumes faster than labor wears, while the used key is always bright.”
• “ Admiration is the daughter of ignorance.”
• “ If you wouldn't live long, live well; for folly and wickedness shorten life.”
• “ You may delay, but time will not, and lost time is never found again.”
• “ A spoonful of honey will catch more flies than a gallon of vinegar.”
• “ He that has done you a kindness will be more ready to do you another, than he whom you yourself have obliged.”
• “ A small leak can sink a great ship”
• “ Laws too gentle, are seldom obeyed; too severe, seldom executed.”
• “ 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.”
• “ He who multiplies riches, multiplies cares.”
• “ 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.”
• “ To lengthen thy Life, lessen thy meals.”
• “ 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.”
• “ 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 heart of a fool is in his mouth, but the mouth of a wise man is in his heart.”
• “ Our necessities never equal our wants.”
• “ They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.”
• “ 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.”
• “ God works wonders now and then; Behold a lawyer, an honest man.”
• “ Promises may fit the friends, but non-performance will turn them into enemies.”
• “ We assemble parliaments and councils, to have the benefit of their collected wisdom; but we necessarily have, at the same time, the inconvenience of their collected passions, prejudices, and private interests. By the help of these, artful men overpower their wisdom, and dupe its possessors; and if we may judge by the acts, arrets, and edicts, all the world over, for regulating commerce, an assembly of great men is the greatest fool upon earth.”
• “ Savages we call them because their manners differ from ours.”
• “ Never take a wife till thou hast a house (and a fire) to put her in.”
• “ My rule, in which I have always found satisfaction, is, never to turn aside in public affairs through views of private interest; but to go straight forward in doing what appears to me right at the time, leaving the consequences with Providence.”
• “ If passion drives you, let reason hold the reins.”
• “ Ambition has its disappointments to sour us...”
• “ There never was a truly great man that was not at the same time truly virtuous.”
• “ If we do not hang together, we will all hang separately.”
• “ Many foxes grow gray but few grow good.”
• “ If a man empties his purse into his head no one can take it away from him. An investment in knowledge always pays the best interest.”
• “ God helps them that help themselves”
• “ By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.”
• “ 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.”
• “ Has not the famous political Fable of the Snake, with two Heads and one Body, some useful Instruction contained in it? She was going to a Brook to drink, and in her Way was to pass thro a Hedge, a Twig of which opposed her direct Course; one Head chose to go on the right side of the Twig, the other on the left, so that time was spent in the Contest, and, before the Decision was completed, the poor Snake died with thirst.”
• “ Clean your finger before you point at my spots.”
• “ The small progress we have made after four or five weeks close attendance and continual reasonings with each other is, methinks, a melancholy proof of the imperfection of the human understanding. We indeed seem to feel our own want of political wisdom, since we have been running about in search of it. We have gone back to ancient history for models of government, and examined the different forms of those republics which, having been formed with seeds of their own dissolution, now no longer exist.”
• “ Dr. Franklin was for retaining the clause [on impeachment], as favorable to the executive. History furnishes one example only of a first magistrate being formally brought to public justice. Every body cried out against this as unconstitutional. What was the practice before this, in cases where the chief magistrate rendered himself obnoxious? Why, recourse was had to assassination, in which he was not only deprived of his life, but of the opportunity of vindicating his character. It would be the best way, therefore, to provide in the Constitution for the regular punishment of the executive, where his misconduct should deserve it, and for his honorable acquittal, where he should be unjustly accused.”
• “ Whilst the last members were signing [the Constitution], Doctor Franklin, looking towards the Presidents chair, at the back of which a rising sun happened to be painted, observed to a few members near him, that painters had found it difficult to distinguish in their art, a rising, from a setting, sun. I have, said he, often and often, in the course of the session, and the vicissitudes of my hopes and fears as to its issue, looked at that behind the President, without being able to tell whether it was rising or setting; but now at length, I have the happiness to know, that it is a rising, and not a setting sun.”
• “ To err is human, to repent divine.”
• “ A mob's a monster; heads enough but no brains.”
• “ Drive thy business or it will drive thee.”
• “ Well, Doctor, what have we gota Republic or a Monarchy?A Republic, if you can keep it.”
• “ In general, mankind, since the improvement of cookery, eats twice as much as nature requires.”
• “ When I reflect, as I frequently do, upon the felicity I have enjoyed, I sometimes say to myself, that were the offer made me, I would engage to run again, from beginning to end, the same career of life. All I would ask, should be the privilege of an author, to correct in a second edition, certain errors of the first.”
• “ He's a fool that makes his doctor his heir.”
• “ Proclaim not all thou knowest, all thou knowest, all thou hast, nor all thou cans't.”
• “ He that can take rest is greater than he that can take cities.”
• “ An undutiful daughter will prove an unmanageable wife.”
• “ Time is money.”
• “ Write injuries in dust, benefits in marble.”
• “ The learned fool writes his nonsense in better language than the unlearned, but it is still nonsense.”
• “ The things which hurt, instruct.”
• “ Wise men don't need advice. Fools won't take it.”
• “ Since thou are not sure of a minute, throw not away an hour.”
• “ He that hath a trade hath an estate; he that hath a calling hath an office of profit and honor.”
• “ The eye of the master will do more work than both his hands.”
• “ There is no kind of dishonesty into which otherwise good people more easily and frequently fall than that of defrauding the government.”
• “ Do not anticipate trouble, or worry about what may never happen. Keep in the sunlight.”
• “ There are three things extremely hard: steel, a diamond, and to know one's self.”
• “ 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.”
• “ Plough deep while sluggards sleep.”
• “ You will find the key to success under the alarm clock.”
• “ Where liberty is, there is my country.”
• “ The discontented man finds no easy chair.”
• “ Most people return small favors, acknowledge medium ones and repay greater ones -- with ingratitude.”
• “ Rather go to bed with out dinner than to rise in debt.”
• “ At twenty years of age the will reigns; at thirty, the wit; and at forty, the judgment.”
• “ 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.”
• “ Where sense is wanting, everything is wanting.”
• “ If you desire many things, many things will seem few.”
• “ 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.”
• “ Dost thou love life? Then do not squander time, for that is the stuff life is made of.”
• “ I have lived, Sir, a long time, and the longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this truththat God governs in the affairs of men. And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without his notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without his aid?”
• “ Content makes poor men rich; discontentment makes rich men poor.”
• “ Reading makes a full man, meditation a profound man, discourse a clear man.”
• “ The absent are never without fault. Nor the present without excuse.”
• “ 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.”
• “ No nation was ever ruined by trade.”
• “ A plural Legislature is as necessary to good Government as a single Executive. It is not enough that your Legislature should be numerous; it should also be divided. Numbers alone are not a sufficient Barrier against the Impulses of Passion, the Combinations of Interest, the Intrigues of Faction, the Haste of Folly, or the Spirit of Encroachment. One Division should watch over and controul the other, supply its Wants, correct its Blunders, and cross its Designs, should they be criminal or erroneous. Wisdom is the specific Quality of the Legislature, grows out of the Number of the Body, and is made up of the Portions of Sense and Knowledge which each Member brings to it.”
• “ He that rises late must trot all day.”
• “ Let the child's first lesson be obedience, and the second will be what thou wilt.”
• “ Resolve to perform what you ought; perform without fail what you resolve.”
• “ Nothing preaches better than the act.”
• “ God will certainly reward virtue and punish vice, either here or hereafter.”
• “ He that lives upon hope will die fasting.”
• “ Every accent, every emphasis, every modulation of voice, was so perfectly well turned and well placed, that, without being interested in the subject, one could not help being pleased with the discourse; a pleasure of much the same kind with that received from an excellent piece of music. This is an advantage itinerant preachers have over those who are stationary, as the latter can not well improve their delivery of a sermon by so many rehearsals.”
• “ Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing.”
• “ He that's secure is not safe.”
• “ The best is the cheapest.”
• “ Lying rides upon debt's back.”
• “ Idleness and pride tax with a heavier hand than kings and governments.”
• “ We must not in the course of public life expect immediate approbation and immediate grateful acknowledgment of our services. But let us persevere through abuse and even injury. The internal satisfaction of a good conscience is always present, and time will do us justice in the minds of the people, even those at present the most prejudiced against us.”
• “ He that won't be counseled can't be helped.”
• “ Don't throw stones at your neighbors , if your own windows are glass.”
• “ Would you live with ease, do what you should, and not what you please. Success has ruined many a man.”
• “ Early to bed and early to rise, makes a man happy wealthy and wise.”
• “ Wealth is not his that has it, but his that enjoys it.”
• “ He that is of the opinion money will do everything may well be suspected of doing everything for money.”
• “ Who had deceived thee so often as thyself?”
• “ One today is worth two tomorrows.”
• “ 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 acquaintance.”
• “ If you know how to spend less than you get, you have the philosopher's stone.”
• “ The proof of gold is fire...”
• “ Remember that credit is money.”
• “ To bear other people's afflictions, everyone has courage and enough to spare.”
• “ Dr. FRANKLIN mentioned the case of the Prince of Orange [William V], during the late war. An arrangement was made between France and Holland, by which their two fleets were to unite at a certain time and place. The Dutch fleet did not appear. Every body began to wonder at it. At length it was suspected that the stadtholder was at the bottom of the matter. This suspicion prevailed more and more. Yet, as he could not be impeached, and no regular examination took place, he remained in his office; and strengthening his own party, as the party opposed to him became formidable, he gave birth to the most violent animosities and contentions. Had he been impeachable, a regular and peaceful inquiry would have taken place, and he would, if guilty, have been duly punished”
• “ What vast additions to the conveniences and comforts of living might mankind have acquired, if the money spent in wars had been employed in works of public utility; what an extension of agriculture even to the tops of our mountains; what rivers rendered navigable, or joined by canals; what bridges, aqueducts, new roads, and other public works, edifices, and improvements might not have been obtained by spending those millions in doing good, which in the last war have been spent in doing mischief.”
• “ He that falls in love with himself will have no rivals.”
• “ When you're finished changing, you're finished.”
• “ She laughs at everything you say. Why? Because she has fine teeth.”
• “ 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!”
• “ Keep your eyes wide open before marriage, and half-shut afterwards.”
• “ We are taxed twice as much by our idleness, three times as much by our pride and four times as much by our foolishness.”
• “ Little strokes fell great oaks.”
• “ Industry need not wish.”
• “ Applause waits on success.”
• “ Furnished as all Europe now is with Academies of Science, with nice instruments and the spirit of experiment, the progress of human knowledge will be rapid and discoveries made of which we have at present no conception. I begin to be almost sorry I was born so soon, since I cannot have the happiness of knowing what will be known a hundred years hence.”
• “ When men and woman die, as poets sung, his heart's the last part moves, her last, the tongue.”
• “ Observe all men, thyself most.”
• “ 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.”
• “ Waste neither time nor money, but make the best use of both. Without industry and frugality, nothing will do, and with them everything.”
• “ Well done, is better than well said.”
• “ They that will not be counseled, cannot be helped. If you do not hear reason she will rap you on the knuckles.”
• “ A little neglect may breed great mischief.”
• “ One good husband is worth two good wives, for the scarcer things are, the more they are valued.”
• “ Industry, perseverance, and frugality make fortune yield.”
• “ We must, indeed, all hang together or, most assuredly, we shall all hang separately.”
• “ Those that won't be counseled can't be helped.”
• “ He who waits upon fortune is never sure of dinner.”
• “ Tricks and treachery are the practice of fools, that don't have brains enough to be honest.”
• “ Your net worth to the world is usually determined by what remains after your bad habits are subtracted from your good ones.”
• “ 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.”
• “ If you would know the value of money try to borrow some.”
• “ A learned blockhead is a greater blockhead than an ignorant one.”
• “ A cheerful face is nearly as good for an invalid as healthy weather.”
• “ If you would have a faithful servant, and one that you like, serve yourself.”
• “ Whatever is begun in anger, ends in shame.”
• “ Honesty is the best policy.”
• “ Diligence is the mother of good luck.”
• “ The way to wealth depends on just two words, industry and frugality.”
• “ Life's tragedy is that we get old too soon and wise too late”
• “ Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.”
• “ If time be of all things the most precious, wasting time must be the greatest prodigality.”
• “ Creditors have better memories than debtors.”
• “ 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.”
• “ Work as if you were to live a hundred years. Pray as if you were to die tomorrow.”
• “ One should eat to live, not live to eat.”
• “ if innocent, restored to the confidence of the public.”
• “ Human felicity is produced not as much by great pieces of good fortune that seldom happen as by little advantages that occur every day.”
• “ Trouble springs from idleness, and grievous toil from needless ease.”
• “ It is easier to prevent bad habits than to break them.”
• “ Vice knows that she is ugly, so she puts on her mask.”
• “ Half wits talk much, but say little.”
• “ In the affairs of this world, men are saved not by faith, but by the want of it.”
• “ We must all hang together, or most assuredly we shall all hang separately.”
• “ 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.”
• “ He who falls in love with himself will have no rivals.”
• “ 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.”
• “ Never leave that till tomorrow which you can do today.”
• “ Words may show a man's wit but actions his meaning.”
• “ Spinoza Experience keeps a dear school, but fools will learn in no other.”
• “ Laziness travels so slowly that poverty soon overtakes him.”
• “ 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.”
• “ It is foolish to lay out money for the purchase of repentance.”
• “ Teach your child to hold his tongue; he'll learn fast enough to speak.”
• “ Blessed is he who expects nothing, for he shall never be disappointed.”
• “ Beware of little expenses. A small leak will sink a great ship.”
• “ Employ thy time well, if thou meanest to gain leisure.”
• “ Necessity never made a good bargain.”
• “ Let thy discontents be thy secrets.”
• “ Having been poor is no shame, but being ashamed of it, is.”
• “ What has become clear to you since we last met?”
• “ Read much, but not many books.”
• “ For want of a Nail the Shoe was lost; for want of a Shoe the Horse was lost; and for want of a Horse the Rider was lost; being overtaken and slain by the Enemy, all for want of Care about a Horse-shoe Nail.”
• “ 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.”
• “ To be humble to superiors is duty, to equals courtesy, to inferiors nobleness.”
• “ If you would not be forgotten as soon as you are dead, either write things worth reading or do things worth writing.”
• “ Don't judge men's wealth or godliness by their Sunday appearance.”
• “ 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.”
• “ We are all born ignorant, but one must work hard to remain stupid.”
• “ While we may not be able to control all that happens to us, we can control what happens inside us.”
• “ It is the working man who is the happy man. It is the idle man who is the miserable man.”
• “ Many people die at twenty five and aren't buried until they are seventy five.”
• “ The use of money is all the advantage there is in having money.”
• “ Write your injuries in dust, your benefits in marble.”
• “ 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.”
• “ Some punishment seems preparing for a people who are ungratefully abusing the best constitution and the best King any nation was ever blessed with, intent on nothing but luxury, licentiousness, power, places, pensions, and plunder; while the ministry, divided in their counsels, with little regard for each other, worried by perpetual oppositions, in continual apprehension of changes, intent on securing popularity in case they should lose favor, have for some years past had little time or inclination to attend to our small affairs, whose remoteness makes them appear even smaller.”
• “ Experience keeps a school, yet fools will learn in no other.”
• “ They who give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.”
• “ Take time for all things; great haste makes great waste.”
• “ Hide not your talents. They for use were made. What's a sundial in the shade.”
• “ Love well, whip well.”
• “ 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.”
• “ 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.”
• “ There are no gains without pains.”
• “ In these sentiments, sir, I agree to this Constitution, with all its faults, if they are such; because I think a General Government necessary for us, and there is no form of government, but what may be a blessing to the people if well administered; and believe further, that this is likely to be well administered for a course of years, and can only end in despotism, as other forms have done before it, when the people shall become so corrupted as to need despotic government, being incapable of any other.”
• “ They that are on their guard and appear ready to receive their adversaries, are in much less danger of being attacked than the supine, secure and negligent.”
• “ Nothing is certain except death and taxes.”
• “ There never was a good war or a bad peace.”
• “ If you would persuade, you must appeal to interest rather than intellect.”
• “ It is much easier to suppress a first desire than to satisfy those that follow.”
• “ If your riches are yours, why don't you take them with to the other world?”
• “ I look upon death to be as necessary to our constitution as sleep. We shall rise refreshed in the morning.”
• “ Love thy neighbor -- but don't pull down your hedge.”

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