Benjamin Franklin Quotes

Benjamin Franklin quotes contain many helpful tips for self-improvement and life improvement along with advice on just getting along. I will list many of his best ones here. I have put them in categories that seem right to me.

Benjamin Franklin Quotes on Work and Wealth

A Penny saved is twopence clear.

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

The sleeping fox catches no poultry.

A used key is always bright.

He who lives on hope dies fasting.

Diligence is the mother of good luck.

He that pursues two hares at once does not catch one and lets the other go.

Haste makes waste.

Make haste slowly.

He who multiples riches multiplies cares.

Little Strokes fell great oaks

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

If two persons equal in judgment play for a considerable sum, he who loves money most shall lose; his anxiety for the success of the game confounds him.

A man is sometimes more generous when he has little money than when he has plenty, perhaps through fear of being thought to have but little.

The general foible of mankind is the pursuit of wealth to no end.

After getting the first hundred pound, it is more easy to get the second.

The rich do not work for one another.... Everything that they or their families use and consume is the produce of the laboring poor.

I fear the giving mankind a dependance on anything for support in age or sickness, besides industry and frugality during youth and health, tends to flatter our natural indolence, to encourage idleness and prodigality, and thereby to promote and increase poverty, the very evil it was intended to cure.

Men otherwise of very good sense have been drawn to this practice [ treasure hunting] through an overweening desire of sudden wealth, While the rational and almost certain methods of acquiring riches, being industry and frugality, are neglected.

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

Keep thy shop, and thy shop will keep thee.

He that hath a Trade, hath an Estate.

Hunger is the best pickle.

The sleeping Fox catches no poultry. Up! up!

A penny saved is a penny earned.

Benjamin Franklin Quotes on Character and Virtues

Three may keep a secret if two are dead

Work as if you were to live a hundred years,
Pray as if you were to die tomorrow.

He that lies down with dogs, will rise up with fleas.

Eat to live, not live to eat.

A good example is the best sermon.

Search others for their virtues, thy self for thy vices.

He's a fool who cannot hide his wisdom.

No pains, no gains.

Love your enemies, for they will tell you your faults.

The sting of a reproach is the truth of it.

There is a time to wink as well as to see.

Genius without education is like silver in the mine.

There was never a good knife made of bad steel.

Half the truth is often a great lie.

God helps those who help themselves.

Truth and sincerity have a certain distinguishing luster about them which cannot be perfectly counterfeited; they are like fire and flame, that cannot be painted.

Let all men know thee, but no man know thee thoroughly: Men freely ford that see the shallows.

Man is a sociable being.

He that drinks his cider alone, let him catch his horse alone.

Tis easy to see, hard to foresee.

What is serving God?
Tis doing Good to Man.

The poor have little,
Beggars none;
The rich too much
Enough not one.

After crosses and losses, men grow humbler and wiser.

He that speaks ill of the Mare, will buy her.

He that riseth late, must trot all day, and shall scarce overtake his business at night.

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

To err is human, to repent divine; to persist devilish.

Well done is better than well said.

Be slow in choosing a friend, slower in changing.

He that drinks fast, pays slow.

Who is rich? He that rejoices in his Portion.

What you seem to be, be really.

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

People who are wrapped up in themselves make small packages.

The discontented Man finds no easy Chair.

Read much, but not too many books.

He that speaks much, is much mistaken.

Glass, China, and Reputation, are easily crack'd, and never well mended.

To be proud of virtue, is to poison yourself with the Antidote.

Benjamin Franklin Quotes on Marriage

Keep your eyes wide open before marriage, half shut afterwards.

Where there is marriage without love, there will be love without marriage.

One good Husband is worth two good Wives; for the scarcer things are, the more they're valued.

Miscellaneous Benjamin Franklin Quotes

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

An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

The most acceptable service to God is doing good to man.

Fish and visitors stink in three days.

Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.

So convenient a thing it is to be a reasonable creature, since it enables one to find or make a reason for everything one has a mind to do.

Knowledge is obtained more by the use of the ear than of the tongue.

The riches of a country are to be valued by the quantity of labor its inhabitants are able to purchase, and not by the quantity of silver or gold they possess.

After three days men grow weary, of a wench, a guest, and weather rainy.

Necessity never made a good bargain.

The worst wheel of a cart makes the most noise.

Some are weatherwise, some are otherwise.

There are three faithful friends -- an old wife, an old dog, and ready money [cash].

If you would not be forgotten
As soon as you are dead and rotten,
Either write things worthy reading,
Or do things worth the writing.

Three good meals a day is bad living.

Silence is not always a Sign of Wisdom, but Babbling is ever a folly.

He that would Fish, must venture his bait.

Drink does not drown Care, but waters it, and makes it grow faster.

An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

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.

Remember that time is money.

There was never a good war or a bad peace.

Our new Constitution is now established, and has an appearance that promises permanency; but in the world nothing can be said to be certain except death and taxes.

Beer is living proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy.

Those who are feared are hated.

It's common for Men to give pretended Reasons instead of one real one.

There are no fools so troublesome as those that have wit.

A mob's a monster; heads enough but no brains.

Doing an injury puts you below your enemy; revenging one make you but even with him; forgiving it sets you above him.

Sell not virtue to purchase wealth, nor liberty to purchase power.

Old boys have their playthings as well as young ones; the difference is only in the price.

Sudden power is apt to be insolent, sudden liberty saucy; that behaves best which has grown gradually.

The way to see by faith is to shut the eye of reason.

As you can see there is quite a bit of wisdom and wit to Benjamin Franklin Quotes.

Which quote of Benjamin Franklin's do you like most? Which one do you think is most famous? Submit a comment!