Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790)

Quotes

• Write injuries in dust, benefits in marble.

• Three can keep a secret, if two of them are dead.

• Distrust and caution are the parents of security.

• The absent are never without fault, nor the present without excuse.

• The strictest law sometimes becomes the severest injustice.

• Our critics are our friends; they show us our faults.

• Whatever is begun in anger ends in shame.

• Plough deep while sluggards sleep.

• The sleeping fox catches no poultry.

• A little neglect may breed great mischief.

• Genius without education is like silver in the mine.

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

• Never confuse motion with action.

• I cannot conceive otherwise than that He, the Infinite Father, expects or requires no worship or praise from us, but that He is even infinitely above it.

• 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.

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

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

• 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.

• Money never made a man happy yet, nor will it. There is nothing in its nature to produce happiness. The more a man has, the more he wants. Instead of its filling a vacuum, it makes one. If it satisfies one want, it doubles and trebles that want another way. That was a true proverb of the wise man, rely upon it; "Better is little with the fear of the Lord, than great treasure, and trouble therewith.