136 Benjamin Franklin Quotes

One of the famous figures of early American history, Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) was a statesman, author, publisher, scientist, inventor and and political philosopher. Born into a Boston family of modest means, Franklin had little formal education. Here are the famous Benjamin Franklin quotes to inspire you.

Benjamin Franklin Quotes

1. “Reading makes a full man, meditation a profound man, discourse a clear man.” ~ Benjamin Franklin

2. “Love your enemies, for they tell you your faults.” ~ Benjamin Franklin

3. “He that falls in love with himself will have no rivals.” ~ Benjamin Franklin

4. “Don’t throw stones at your neighbors, if your own windows are glass.” ~ Benjamin Franklin

5. “There never was a good war or a bad peace.” ~ Benjamin Franklin

6. “Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn.” ~ Benjamin Franklin

7. “I didn’t fail the test, I just found 100 ways to do it wrong.”~ Benjamin Franklin

8. “A good conscience is a continual Christmas.” ~ Benjamin Franklin

9. “An investment in knowledge pays the best interest.” ~ Benjamin Franklin
10. “Dost thou love life? Then do not squander time, for that’s the stuff that life is made of. ” ~ Benjamin Franklin

Ben Franklin Quotes

11. “The only thing that is more expensive than education is ignorance.” ~ Benjamin Franklin
12. “Beware of little expenses. A small leak will sink a great ship.” ~ Benjamin Franklin
13. “Tis a great confidence in a friend to tell him your faults; greater to tell him his.”~ Benjamin Franklin
14. “Never leave ’till tomorrow which you can do today.” ~ Benjamin Franklin
15. “He that can have patience can have what he will.”~ Benjamin Franklin
16. “Honesty is the best policy.” ~Benjamin Franklin
17. “Three may keep a secret if two of them are dead.”~ Benjamin Franklin
18. “Energy and persistence conquer all things.”~ Benjamin Franklin
19. “How few there are who have courage enough to own their faults, or resolution enough to mend them.” ~ Benjamin Franklin
20. “Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise.” ~ Benjamin Franklin

Famous Benjamin Franklin Quotes

21. “Be at war with your vices, at peace with your neighbors, and let every new year find you a better man.”~ Benjamin Franklin
22. “By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.” ~ Benjamin Franklin
23. “Without continual growth and progress, such words as improvement, achievement, and success have no meaning.” ~ Benjamin Franklin
24. “Do not anticipate trouble, or worry about what may never happen. Keep in the sunlight.”~ Benjamin Franklin
25. “Most men die from the neck up at age twenty-five because they stop dreaming.” ~ Benjamin Franklin
26. “How many observe Christ’s birthday! How few, His precepts!” ~ Benjamin Franklin
27. “Justice will not be served until those who are unaffected are as outraged as those who are.”~ Benjamin Franklin
28. “Without freedom of thought, there can be no such thing as wisdom – and no such thing as public liberty without freedom of speech.” ~ Benjamin Franklin
29. “They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” ~ Benjamin Franklin
30. “Happiness depends more on the inward disposition of mind than on outward circumstances.”~ Benjamin Franklin

Best Benjamin Franklin Quotes

31. “The Constitution only gives people the right to pursue happiness. You have to catch it yourself.” ~ Benjamin Franklin
32. “Whoever would overthrow the liberty of a nation must begin by subduing the freeness of speech.”~ Benjamin Franklin
33. “If a man could have half of his wishes, he would double his troubles.” ~ Benjamin Franklin
34. “Security without liberty is called prison.” ~ Benjamin Franklin
35. “He that rises late must trot all day” ~ Benjamin Franklin
36. “Fear not death for the sooner we die, the longer we shall be immortal.”~ Benjamin Franklin
37. “Wine is constant proof that God loves us and loves to see us happy.” ~ Benjamin Franklin
38. “In this world, nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.” ~ Benjamin Franklin
39. “Life’s tragedy is that we get old too soon and wise too late.” ~ Benjamin Franklin
40. “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.”~ Benjamin Franklin

Benjamin Franklin Inspiring Quotes

41. “Lost time is never found again.” ~ Benjamin Franklin
42. “All mankind is divided into three classes: those that are immovable, those that are movable, and those that move. ” ~ Benjamin Franklin
43. “For every minute spent in organizing, an hour is earned.” ~ Benjamin Franklin
44. “It is better to take many Injuries than to give one.” ~ Benjamin Franklin
45. “He that speaks much, is much mistaken.” ~ Benjamin Franklin
46. “The best way to see faith is to shut the eye of reason.” ~ Benjamin Franklin
47. “Do not squander time for that is the stuff life is made of.” ~ Benjamin Franklin
48. “Don’t cry over spilled milk” ~ Ben Franklin
49. “Content makes poor men rich; discontent makes rich men poor.” ~ Benjamin Franklin
50. “Pardoning the Bad, is injuring the Good.” ~ Benjamin Franklin

Benjamin Franklin Motivational Quotes

51. “Wish not so much to live long as to live well.” ~ Benjamin Franklin
52. “Well done is better than well said.” ~ Benjamin Franklin
53. “Never confuse motion with action.”~ Benjamin Franklin
54. “Words may show a man’s wit but actions his meaning.” ~ Benjamin Franklin
55. “We are all born ignorant, but one must work hard to remain stupid.” ~ Benjamin Franklin
56. “Remember not only to say the right thing in the right place, but far more difficult still, to leave unsaid the wrong thing at the tempting moment.”~ Benjamin Franklin
57. “He who can have patience can have what he will.” ~ Benjamin Franklin 
58. “When you’re testing to see how deep water is, never use two feet.”~ Ben Franklin
59. “To succeed, jump as quickly at opportunities as you do at conclusions.” ~ Benjamin Franklin
60. “To find out a girl’s faults, praise her to her girlfriends.”~ Benjamin Franklin

Short Benjamin Franklin Quotes

61. “One today is worth two tomorrows.” ~ Benjamin Franklin
62. “A false friend and a shadow attend only while the sun shines.” ~ Benjamin Franklin
63. “To lengthen thy life, lessen thy meals.” ~ Benjamin Franklin
64. “Speak little, do much.” ~ Benjamin Franklin
65. “You may delay, but time will not.” ~ Benjamin Franklin
66. “He that is good for making excuses is seldom good for anything else.” ~ Benjamin Franklin
67. “Search others for their virtues, thy self for thy vices.” ~ Benjamin Franklin
68. “The heart of a fool is in his mouth, but the mouth of a wise man is in his heart.” ~ Benjamin Franklin
69. “What more valuable than Gold? Diamonds. Than Diamonds?  ” ~ Benjamin Franklin
70. “We must all hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang separately.” ~ Benjamin Franklin

Benjamin Franklin Quotes

71. “What you seem to be, be really.” ~ Benjamin Franklin
72. “Happiness consists more in small conveniences or pleasures that occur every day, than in great pieces of good fortune that happen but seldom to a man in the course of his life.” ~ Benjamin Franklin
73. “If you would not be forgotten, as soon as you are dead and rotten, either write things worth reading or do things worth writing.” ~ Benjamin Franklin
74. “When you’re good to others, you’re best to yourself.” ~ Benjamin Franklin
75. “We do not stop playing because we grow old, we grow old because we stop playing!” ~ Benjamin Franklin
76. “Genius without education is like silver in the mine.” ~ Benjamin Franklin
77. “Those that won’t be counseled can’t be helped.” ~ Benjamin Franklin
78. “While we may not be able to control all that happens to us, we can control what happens inside us.” ~ Benjamin Franklin
79. “Many people die at twenty five and aren’t buried until they are seventy five.” ~ Benjamin Franklin
80. “Success has ruined many a man.” ~ Benjamin Franklin

Benjamin Franklin Famous Quotes

81. “Laziness travels so slowly that poverty soon overtakes him.” ~ Benjamin Franklin
82. “It takes many good deeds to build a good reputation, and only one bad one to lose it.” ~ Benjamin Franklin
83. “A new truth is a truth; an old error is an error.” ~ Benjamin Franklin
84. “A man of words and not of deeds is like a garden full of weeds.” ~ Benjamin Franklin
85. “A fat kitchen makes a lean will.” ~ Benjamin Franklin
86. “Be not sick too late, nor well too soon.” ~ Benjamin Franklin
87. “Fear to do ill, and you need fear naught else.” ~ Benjamin Franklin
88. “Don’t go to the doctor with every distemper, nor to the lawyer with every quarrel, nor to the pot for every thirst.” ~ Benjamin Franklin
89. “A great talker may be no fool, but he is one that relies on him.” ~ Benjamin Franklin
90. “Man and woman have each of them qualities and tempers in which the other is deficient, and which in union contribute to the common felicity.” ~ Benjamin Franklin

Inspirational Benjamin Franklin Quotes

91. “Glass, china, and reputation are easily cracked and never well mended.” ~ Benjamin Franklin
92. “Don’t misinform your Doctor nor your Lawyer.” ~ Benjamin Franklin
93. “An old young man will be a young old man.” ~ Benjamin Franklin
94. “A learned blockhead is a greater blockhead than an ignorant one.” ~ Benjamin Franklin
95. “It is a common error in friends, when they would extol their friends, to make comparisons, and to depreciate the merits of others.” ~ Benjamin Franklin
96. “Each year one vicious habit rooted out, in time might make the worst man good throughout.” ~ Benjamin Franklin
97. “He’s the best physician that knows the worthlessness of the most medicines.” ~ Benjamin Franklin
98. “If a man empties his purse into his head, no man can take it away from him. An investment in knowledge always pays the best interest.” ~ Benjamin Franklin
99. “Our opinions are not in our own power; they are formed and governed much by circumstances that are often as inexplicable as they are irresistible.” ~ Benjamin Franklin
100. “Tricks and treachery are the practice of fools, that don’t have brains enough to be honest.” ~ Benjamin Franklin

Benjamin Franklin Quotes

101. “A penny saved is a penny earned.” ~ Benjamin Franklin
102. “Hope and faith may be more firmly built upon charity, than charity upon faith and hope.” ~ Benjamin Franklin
103. “When you are finished changing, you’re finished.”~ Benjamin Franklin
104. “Having been poor is no shame, being ashamed of it is.” ~ Benjamin Franklin
105. “Work as if you were to live a hundred years. Pray as if you were to die tomorrow.” ~ Benjamin Franklin
106. “I look upon death to be as necessary to our constitution as sleep.” ~ Benjamin Franklin
107. “He that would live in peace & at ease, Must not speak all he knows or judge all he sees.” ~ Benjamin Franklin
108. “He who sacrifices freedom for security deserves neither.” ~ Benjamin Franklin
109. “Common sense is something that everyone needs, few have, and none think they lack.” ~ Benjamin Franklin
110. “Being ignorant is not so much a shame, as being unwilling to learn.” ~ Benjamin Franklin

Quotes by Benjamin Franklin

111. “The ancients tell us what is best; but we must learn of the moderns what is fittest.” ~ Benjamin Franklin
112. “I don’t believe in stereotypes. I prefer to hate people on a more personal basis.” ~ Benjamin Franklin
113. “Rather go to bed without dinner than to rise in debt.” ~ Benjamin Franklin
114. “He that is of the opinion money will do everything may well be suspected of doing everything for money.” ~ Benjamin Franklin
115. “Content makes poor men rich; discontentment makes rich men poor.” ~ Benjamin Franklin
116. “Employ your time well, if you mean to get leisure.” ~ Benjamin Franklin
117. “A true Friend is the best Possession.” ~ Benjamin Franklin
118. “If you would know the value of money, go try to borrow some; for he that goes a-borrowing goes a-sorrowing.” ~ Benjamin Franklin
119. “If you would persuade, you must appeal to interest rather than intellect.” ~ Benjamin Franklin
120. “The eye of the master will do more work than both his hands.” ~ Benjamin Franklin

Franklin Quotes

121. “Creditors have better memories than debtors.” ~ Benjamin Franklin
122. “Hide not your talents, they for use were made. What’s a sun-dial in the shade?” ~ Benjamin Franklin
123. “When the well’s dry, we know the worth of water.” ~ Benjamin Franklin
124. “To the generous mind the heaviest debt is that of gratitude, when it is not in our power to repay it.” ~ Benjamin Franklin
125. “A brother may not be a friend, but a friend will always be a brother.” ~ Benjamin Franklin
126. “It is the working man who is the happy man. It is the idle man who is the miserable man.” ~ Benjamin Franklin
127. “There is much difference between imitating a man and counterfeiting him.” ~ Benjamin Franklin
128. “If you know how to spend less than you get, you have the philosopher’s stone.” ~ Benjamin Franklin
129. “No nation was ever ruined by trade.” ~ Benjamin Franklin
130. “Better slip with foot than tongue.” ~ Benjamin Franklin

Benjamin Franklin Quotes

131. “Speak ill of no man, but speak all the good you know of everybody.” ~ Benjamin Franklin
132. “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.” ~ Benjamin Franklin
133. “There are three things extremely hard: steel, a diamond, and to know one’s self.” ~ Benjamin Franklin
134. “Where liberty is, there is my country.” ~ Benjamin Franklin
135. “To be content, look backward on those who possess less than yourself, not forward on those who possess more. If this does not make you content, you don’t deserve to be happy.” ~ Benjamin Franklin
136. “Haste makes Waste.” ~ Benjamin Franklin

Over to you

Thank you for reading this. Over to you now. Which Benjamin Franklin quote did you like the most in the above list? Please let us know your favorite Benjamin Franklin quote in the comments section.

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