Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790)

Quotes

• Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch.

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

• Some are weather-wise, some are otherwise.

• Drive thy business or it will drive thee.

• Be civil to all; sociable to many; familiar with few; friend to one; enemy to none.

• Employ thy time well, if thou meanest to get leisure.

• Educate your children to self-control, to the habit of holding passion and prejudice and evil tendencies subject to an upright and reasoning will, and you have done much to abolish misery from their future and crimes from society.

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

• I am a strong believer in luck and I find the harder I work the more I have of it.

• There is no such thing as a good war and there is no such thing as a bad peace.

• When the well's dry, we know the worth of water.

• I have lived, Sir, a long time, and the longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this truth -- that God Governs 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?

• 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.

• Man will ultimately be governed by God or by tyrants.

• There are three things extremely hard: steel, a diamond, and to know one's self.

• Would you live with ease? Do what you ought, not what you please.

• He that cannot obey, cannot command.

• 'Tis a common observation here that our cause is the cause of all mankind, and that we are fighting for their liberty in defending our own.

• A false friend and a shadow attend only while the sun shines.

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