Benjamin Franklin
American statesman, printer, scientist and writer, 1706-1790
99 quotes.
Quotes by Benjamin Franklin
- A cheerful face is nearly as good for an invalid as healthy weather.
- A good conscience is a continual Christmas.
- A little neglect may breed great mischief; 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.
- A little neglect may breed great mischief.
- A place for everything, everything in its place.
- A ploughman on his legs is higher than a gentleman on his knees.
- A small leak will sink a great ship.
- An investment in knowledge always pays the best interest.
- Anger is never without a Reason, but seldom with a good One.
- At the working-man's house hunger looks in, but dares not enter; nor will the bailiff or the constable enter; for industry pays debts as despair increaseth them.
- Be slow in choosing a friend, slower in changing.
- 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.
- Being ignorant is not so much a shame, as being unwilling to learn.
- Beware of little expenses; a small leak will sink a great ship.
- Buy what thou hast no need of, and ere long thou shalt sell thy necessaries.
- Christianity commands us to pass by injuries; policy, to let them pass by us.
- Constant dropping wears away stones; and by diligence and patience the mouse ate in two the cable; and little strokes fell great oaks.
- Content makes poor men rich; discontentment makes rich men poor.
- Diligence is the mother of good luck, and God gives all things to industry.
- Diligence is the mother of good luck, and God gives all things to industry. Then plough deep while sluggards sleep, and you shall have corn to sell and to keep.
- Do good to thy friend to keep him, to thy enemy to gain him.
- Doing an injury puts you below your enemy; revenging one makes you but even with him; forgiving, it sets you above him.
- Don’t put off until tomorrow what you can do today.
- Dost thou love life? then do not squander time, for that is the stuff life is made of.
- Drive thy business, let not that drive thee; and early to bed, and early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise.
- Drive thy business, let not that drive thee.
- Drive thy business or it will drive thee.
- Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing.
- Employ thy time well, if thou meanest to gain leisure; and, since thou art not sure of a minute, throw not away an hour.
- Energy and persistence conquer all things.
- Ere you consult fancy, consult your purse.
- Experience keeps a dear school, but fools will learn in no other.
- Experience keeps a dear school, but fools will learn in no other, and scarce in that; for it is true we may give advice, but we cannot give conduct.
- First, let honesty and industry be thy constant companions; and Secondly, spend one penny less than thy clear gains.
- Fools make feasts, and wise men eat them.
- Fools need Advice most, but wise Men only are the better for it.
- Fraud and deceit are ever in a hurry. Take time for all things. Great haste makes great waste.
- Frugality is a fair fortune; and habits of industry a good estate.
- God helps them that help themselves.
- He that can have patience, can have what he will.