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Ben Franklin Quotes

"If you'd know the power of money, go and borrow some."

"To be intimate with a foolish friend is like going to bed to a razor."

"No nation was ever ruined by trade."

"Drive thy Business, or it will drive thee."

"In this world nothing is certain but death and taxes."

"He that falls in love with himself will have no rivals."

"Let thy discontent be they secrets; if the world know them 't will despise thee and increase them."

"There is no little enemy."

"Setting too good an example is a kind of slander seldom forgiven."

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

"Avarice and happiness never saw each other, how then should they become acquainted."

"Human felicity is produced not so much by great pieces of good fortune that seldom happen, as by little advantages that occur every day."

"Where there is Marriage without Love, there will be Love without Marriage."

"Write with the learned, pronounce with the vulgar."

"Laws too gentle are seldom obeyed; too severe, seldom executed."

"God heals, and the doctors take the fee."

"A penny saved, is a penny earned."

"Necessity never made a good bargain."

"Let thy Child's first Lesson be Obedience, and the second will be what thou wilt."

"Three may keep a secret, if two of them are dead."

"Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."

"If you'd have it done; Go: if not, Send."

"Dost thou love life? Then do not squander time; for that's the stuff life is made of."

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

"There never was a good war or a bad peace."

"If you Riches are yours, why don't you take them with you to t'other World?" 

"Be slow in choosing a friend, slower in changing."

"There is no little enemy."

"Three can keep a secret, if two of them be dead."

"Early to bed and early to rise, makes a man healthy wealthy and wise."

"Don’t throw stones at your neighbors if your own windows are glass."

"The cat in gloves catches no mice."

"Lost time is never found again."

"Necessity never made a good bargain."

"The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results."

"Well done is better than well said."

"Better slip with foot than with tongue."

"Hide not your talents, they for use were made. What's a sundial in the shade?"

Who hath deceived thee so often as thyself?

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

"The Constitution only gives people the right to pursue happiness. You have to catch it yourself."

"Remember, that time is money."

"At twenty years of age, the ill reigns; at thirty, the wit; and at forty, the judgement."

"Does thou love life? Then do not squander time, for that’s the stuff life is made of."

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

"Whatever is begun in anger ends in shame."

"I haven't failed, I've found 10,000 ways that don't work."

"Energy and persistence conquer all thing. "

"Genius without education is like silver in the mine. "

"I think vital religion has always suffered when orthodoxy is more regarded than virtue. The scriptures assure me that at the last day we shall not be examined on what we thought but what we did."

"I wish it (Christianity) were more productive of good works ... I mean real good works ... not holy-day keeping, sermon-hearing ... or making long prayers, filled with flatteries and compliments despised by wise men, and much less capable of pleasing the Deity."

"If you would persuade, you must appeal to interest rather than intellect."

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

"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."

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

"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."

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

"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."

"Having been poor is no shame, but being ashamed of it, is."