Benjamin Franklin Quotes

"Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."
―Benjamin Franklin, An Historical Review of the Constitution and Government of Pennsylvania, From Its Origin

Benjamin Franklin (January 17, 1706 - April 17, 1790), one of the founders of the United States of America, had barely attended school. His voracious reading kept him afloat and well-informed. A printer by profession, his intense curiosity lent him the fame of an inventor, while his critical interest in politics made him a statesman and political theorist.

At the age of 15, Franklin started working as an apprentice for his brother's newspaper The New England Courant.  As an attempt to write for the paper, he started writing letters under the fictional name of Silence Dogood. It was when these letters became a hit with the public that he realized his inclination as an author.

Later in life, while he was thriving at work, he started publishing Poor Richard's Almanack.  This work of his brought forth his popular play of words. It is also the source for most of his witty aphorisms that are quoted even today.

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

✿ "Content makes poor men rich; discontent makes rich men poor."

✿ "Fish and visitors stink in three days."

✿ "To err is human, to repent divine, to persist devilish."

✿ "He that is good for making excuses is seldom good for anything else."

✿ "Women are books, and men the readers be ..."

✿ "The proud hate pride ― in others."

✿ "Trust thyself and another shall not betray thee."

✿ "Success has ruined many a man."

✿ "God heals, and the doctor takes the fees."

✿ "Reading makes a full man, meditation a profound man, discourse a clear man."

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

✿ "Beware of meat twice boiled, and an old foe reconciled."

✿ "The most exquisite folly is made of wisdom spun too fine."

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

✿ "Love your enemies, for they tell you your faults."

✿ " Great Estates may venture more;
Little Boats must keep near Shore."

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

✿ "Drive thy business, or it will drive thee."

✿ "No nation was ever ruined by trade."
― Thoughts on Commercial Subjects

✿ "There was never a good war, or a bad peace."
― Letter to Quincey

✿ "In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes."
― Letter to Jean Baptiste Le Roy

✿ "Without freedom of thought, there can be no such thing as wisdom; and no such thing as public liberty, without freedom of speech."
― The New English Courant

✿ "Poverty often deprives a man of all spirit and virtue: 'Tis hard for an empty bag to stand upright."
― The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin

✿ "Courage, wisdom, integrity and honour are not to be measured by the sphere assigned them to act in, but by the trials they undergo, and the vouchers they furnish: And if so manifested, need neither robes, or titles to set them off."
― Memoirs of Benjamin Franklin

✿ "Pride that dines on vanity, sups on contempt."
― The Life and Essays of Dr. Benjamin Franklin

✿ "Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote!"

✿ "Tell me and I forget, teach me and I remember, involve me and I learn."

✿ "A house is not a home unless it contains food and fire for the mind as well as the body."

✿ "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."

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

✿ "All mankind is divided into three classes: those that are immovable, those that are movable, and those that move."

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

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

✿ "If you desire many things, many things will seem few."

✿ "I didn't fail the test, I just found 100 ways to do it wrong."

✿ "An investment in knowledge always pays the best interest."

Ben Franklin had once said, "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure." This too, like so many of the others, had a specific context. In case of this particular saying, he meant to stress on prevention of fires, when he founded Philadelphia's Union Fire Company in 1736.

In his autobiography, he wrote in his usual amusing manner, "We have an English proverb that says, 'He that would thrive, must ask his wife.' It was lucky for me that I had one as much disposed to industry and frugality as myself."

This again enhances the fact that there was more to his humorous personality than what made him famous. Let us hope that his quotes leave as much a good, lasting, and electrifying influence on you as his well-known experiments.