Popular Benjamin Franklin's Quotes And Sayings

He who would trade liberty for some temporary security, deserves neither liberty nor security.

War is when the government tells you who the bad guy is. Revolution is when you decide that for yourself.

If everyone is thinking alike, then no one is thinking.

Whoever would overthrow the liberty of a nation must begin by subduing the freeness of speech.

Speak little, do much.

A slip of the foot you may soon recover, but a slip of the tongue you may never get over.

We are all born ignorant, but one must work hard to remain stupid.

The only thing that is more expensive than education is ignorance.

There are many roads to success, but only one sure road to failure; and that is to try to please everyone else.

The best thing to give to your enemy is forgiveness; to an opponent, tolerance; to a friend, your heart; to your child, a good example; to a father, deference; to your mother, conduct that will make her proud of you; to yourself, respect; to all others, charity.

Make yourself sheep and the wolves will eat you.

It is the first responsibility of every citizen to question authority.

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.

Life's Tragedy is that we get old too soon and wise too late.

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

When you get into a tight place and everything goes against you, till it seems as though you could not hold on a minute longer, never give up then, for that is just the place and time that the tide will turn. When you're down to nothing, God is up to something. The faithful see the invisible, believe the incredible and then receive the impossible. Where liberty dwells there is my country.

Do not fear mistakes.

When you are good to others, you are best to yourself.

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.

Security without liberty is called prison.

Little minds think and talk about people. Average minds think and talk about things and actions. Great minds think and talk about ideas.

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

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

Genius is the ability to hold one's vision steady until it becomes reality

The heart of a fool is in his mouth, but the mouth of a wise man is in his heart.

To succeed, jump as quickly at opportunities as you do at conclusions.

Man will ultimately be governed by God or by tyrants.

All highly competent people continually search for ways to keep learning, growing, and improving. They do that by asking WHY. After all, the person who knows HOW will always have a job, but the person who knows WHY will always be the boss.

There are two ways to increase your wealth. Increase your means or decrease your wants. The best is to do both at the same time.

Being ignorant is not so much a shame, as being unwilling to learn.

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.

Common sense without education, is better than education without common sense.

Here is my Creed. I believe in one God, creator of the Universe. That he governs it by his Providence. That he ought to be worshiped. That the most acceptable service we render him is doing good to his other children. That the soul of Man is immortal, and will be treated with justice in another life respecting its conduct in this.

When the well is dry, we know the worth of water.

If you do tomorrow what you did today , you will get tomorrow what you got today

A good example is the best sermon.

You must always be prepared. Make sure to look at things from all angles. If you are not prepared you will fail.

This [the U.S. Constitution] is likely to be administered for a course of years and then end in despotism... when the people shall become so corrupted as to need despotic government, being incapable of any other.

Joy doesn't exist in the world, it exists in us.

Those who beat their swords into plowshares usually end up plowing for those who kept their swords.

Happiness depends more on the inward disposition of mind than on outward circumstances.

Believe none of what you hear and half of what you see.

The best of all medicines is resting and fasting

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

I never knew a man who was good at making excuses who was good at anything else.

The problem with doing nothing is not knowing when you're finished.

Change is the only constant in life. Ones ability to adapt to those changes will determine your success in life.

Thirteen virtues necessary for true success: temperance, silence, order, resolution, frugality, industry, sincerity, justice, moderation, cleanliness, tranquility, chastity, and humility.

God heals, and the doctor takes the fees.

Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing.

Fart for freedom, fart for liberty—and fart proudly.

A long life may not be good enough, but a good life is long enough.

Justice will not be served until those who are unaffected are as outraged as those who are.

A Brother may not be a Friend, but a Friend will always be a Brother.

Common sense is something that everyone needs, few have, and none think they lack.

For every minute spent in organizing, an hour is earned.

People are best convinced by things they themselves discover.

I am for doing good to the poor, but I differ in opinion about the means. I think the best way of doing good to the poor is not making them easy in poverty, but leading or driving them out of it.

Freedom of speech is a principal pillar of a free government; when this support is taken away, the constitution of a free society is dissolved, and tyranny is erected on its ruins. Republics and limited monarchies derive their strength and vigor from a popular examination into the action of the magistrates.

To lengthen thy life, lessen thy meals.

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

Never confuse motion with action.

The ordaining of laws in favor of one part of the nation, to the prejudice and oppression of another, is certainly the most erroneous and mistaken policy. An equal dispensation of protection, rights, privileges, and advantages, is what every part is entitled to, and ought to enjoy.

In free governments the rulers are the servants, and the people their superiors and sovereigns.

How do you become better tomorrow? By improving yourself, the world is made better. Be not afraid of growing too slowly. Be afraid of standing still. Forget your mistakes, but remember what they taught you. So how do you become better tomorrow? By becoming better today.

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

Take the money in your wallet and invest it in your mind. And in return, your mind will fill up your wallet!

Never ruin an apology with an excuse.

The world is run by the people who show up.

Fear God, and your enemies will fear you.

The best doctor gives the least medicines.

Do you love life? Then don't waste time, because time is life!

They that can give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.

The U. S. Constitution doesn't guarantee happiness, only the pursuit of it. You have to catch up with it yourself.

Well done is better than well said.

He that would live in peace and at ease, must not speak all he knows nor judge all he sees.

whatever you become be good at it

Two passions have powerful influence on the affairs of men: the love of power and the love of money.

Half the truth is often a great lie.

Beware of the young doctor and the old barber.

Instead of cursing the darkness, light a candle.

Women are books, and men the readers be.

Lost time is never found again.

The man who does things makes mistakes, but he doesn't make the biggest mistake of all-doing nothing.

It is better to let 100 criminals go free than to imprison 1 innocent man.

The man that walks wit crowd, will get no farther than the crowd. The man that walks alone, will reach places unknown.

To find out a girl's faults, praise her to her girlfriends.

Eat what you like, but dress for other people.

Without freedom of thought, there can be no such thing as wisdom; and no such thing as public liberty without freedom of speech; which is the right of every man as far as by it he does not hurt or control the right of another; and this is the only check it ought to suffer and the only bounds it ought to know.... Whoever would overthrow the liberty of a nation must begin by subduing the freedom of speech, a thing terrible to traitors.

If better is possible, good is not enough

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

Motivation is when your dreams put on work clothes

Beer is proof that God wants us to be happy

Any fool can criticize, condemn and complain - and most fools do.

Great beauty, great strength, and great riches are really and truly of no great use; a right heart exceeds all

Doing your best means never stop trying.

By improving yourself, the world is made better. Be not afraid of growing too slowly. Be afraid only of standing still.

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

The rapid progress of the sciences makes me sorry, at times, that I was born so soon. Imagine the power that man will have over matter, a few hundred years from now. We may learn how to remove gravity from large masses, and float them over great distances. Agriculture will double its produce with less labor. All diseases will surely be cured... even old age. If only the moral sciences could be improved as well. Perhaps men would cease to be wolves to one another... and human beings could learn to be human.

Rebellion against tyrants is obedience to God.