Benjamin franklin quotes

The U. S. Constitution doesn't guarantee happiness, only the pursuit of it. You have to catch up with it yourself.

Justice will not be served until those who are unaffected are as outraged as those who are.

When the well is dry, we know the worth of water.

Who is strong? He that can conquer his bad habits.

He who would trade liberty for some temporary security, deserves neither liberty nor security.

To find out a girl's faults, praise her to her girlfriends.

The heart of a fool is in his mouth, but the mouth of a wise man is in his heart.

The best doctor gives the least medicines.

When you get into a tight place and everything goes against you, till it seems as though you could not hold on a minute longer, never give up then, for that is just the place and time that the tide will turn. When you're down to nothing, God is up to something. The faithful see the invisible, believe the incredible and then receive the impossible. Where liberty dwells there is my country.

A good example is the best sermon.

The rapid progress of the sciences makes me sorry, at times, that I was born so soon. Imagine the power that man will have over matter, a few hundred years from now. We may learn how to remove gravity from large masses, and float them over great distances. Agriculture will double its produce with less labor. All diseases will surely be cured... even old age. If only the moral sciences could be improved as well. Perhaps men would cease to be wolves to one another... and human beings could learn to be human.

Half the truth is often a great lie.

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

The problem with doing nothing is not knowing when you're finished.

The height of foolishness is to discard an opportunity without full investigation

The best tranquilizer is a clear conscience.

Little minds think and talk about people. Average minds think and talk about things and actions. Great minds think and talk about ideas.

When you're finished changing, you're finished.

When you are good to others, you are best to yourself.

whatever you become be good at it

Life's Tragedy is that we get old too soon and wise too late.

Success is the residue of planning.

You must always be prepared. Make sure to look at things from all angles. If you are not prepared you will fail.

The learned fool writes his nonsense in better language than the unlearned, but it is still nonsense.

For every minute spent in organizing, an hour is earned.

Beer is proof that God wants us to be happy

There are many roads to success, but only one sure road to failure; and that is to try to please everyone else.

The way to secure peace is to be prepared for war. They that are on their guard, and appear ready to receive their adversaries, are in much less danger of being attacked, than the supine, secure, and negligent.

All highly competent people continually search for ways to keep learning, growing, and improving. They do that by asking WHY. After all, the person who knows HOW will always have a job, but the person who knows WHY will always be the boss.

Common sense is something that everyone needs, few have, and none think they lack.

Money has never made man happy, nor will it, there is nothing in its nature to produce happiness. The more of it one has the more one wants.

The world is run by the people who show up.

Common sense without education, is better than education without common sense.

Trusting too much to others care is the ruin of many.

Instead of cursing the darkness, light a candle.

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

A people who chose security over liberty will receive neither nor deserve either.

Never ruin an apology with an excuse.

Take the money in your wallet and invest it in your mind. And in return, your mind will fill up your wallet!

Be cheerful -- the problems that worry us most are those that never arrive.

A good spouse and health is a person's best wealth.

I am for doing good to the poor, but I differ in opinion about the means. I think the best way of doing good to the poor is not making them easy in poverty, but leading or driving them out of it.

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

Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing.

If better is possible, good is not enough

A nation of well-informed men who have been taught to know and prize the rights which God has given them cannot be enslaved. It is in the region of ignorance that tyranny begins.” Benjamin Franklin

If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail!

Love your Enemies, for they tell you your Faults.

Most men die at 25, we just don't bury them until they are 70.

The ordaining of laws in favor of one part of the nation, to the prejudice and oppression of another, is certainly the most erroneous and mistaken policy. An equal dispensation of protection, rights, privileges, and advantages, is what every part is entitled to, and ought to enjoy.

How few there are who have courage enough to own their faults, or resolution enough to mend them.

Being ignorant is not so much a shame, as being unwilling to learn.

History affords us many instances of the ruin of states, by the prosecution of measures ill suited to the temper and genius of their people. The ordaining of laws in favor of one part of the nation, to the prejudice and oppression of another, is certainly the most erroneous and mistaken policy. ... These measures never fail to create great and violent jealousies and animosities between the people favored and the people oppressed; whence a total separation of affections, interests, political obligations, and all manner of connections, by which the whole state is weakened.

Well done is better than well said.

Security without liberty is called prison.

Without freedom of thought, there can be no such thing as wisdom; and no such thing as public liberty without freedom of speech; which is the right of every man as far as by it he does not hurt or control the right of another; and this is the only check it ought to suffer and the only bounds it ought to know.... Whoever would overthrow the liberty of a nation must begin by subduing the freedom of speech, a thing terrible to traitors.

Those who laugh often never grow old.

Man will ultimately be governed by God or by tyrants.

Two passions have powerful influence on the affairs of men: the love of power and the love of money.

Who is wise? He that learns from everyone. Who is powerful? He that governs his passions. Who is rich? He that is content. Who is that? Nobody.

Only a virtuous people are capable of freedom. As nations become corrupt and vicious, they have more need of masters.

A Brother may not be a Friend, but a Friend will always be a Brother.

The best thing to give to your enemy is forgiveness; to an opponent, tolerance; to a friend, your heart; to your child, a good example; to a father, deference; to your mother, conduct that will make her proud of you; to yourself, respect; to all others, charity.

Money makes money. And the money that makes money makes more money.

Motivation is when your dreams put on work clothes

I never knew a man who was good at making excuses who was good at anything else.

Those who beat their swords into plowshares usually end up plowing for those who kept their swords.

If everyone is thinking alike, then no one is thinking.

Fart for freedom, fart for liberty—and fart proudly.

He that displays too often his wife and his wallet is in danger of having both of them borrowed.

Make yourself sheep and the wolves will eat you.

In free governments the rulers are the servants, and the people their superiors and sovereigns.

Believe none of what you hear and half of what you see.

How do you become better tomorrow? By improving yourself, the world is made better. Be not afraid of growing too slowly. Be afraid of standing still. Forget your mistakes, but remember what they taught you. So how do you become better tomorrow? By becoming better today.

The only thing that is more expensive than education is ignorance.

Tricks and treachery are the practice of fools, that don't have brains enough to be honest.

The man that walks wit crowd, will get no farther than the crowd. The man that walks alone, will reach places unknown.

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

The noblest question in the world is: 'What good may I do in it?'

Whoever would overthrow the liberty of a nation must begin by subduing the freeness of speech.

Freedom of speech is a principal pillar of a free government; when this support is taken away, the constitution of a free society is dissolved, and tyranny is erected on its ruins. Republics and limited monarchies derive their strength and vigor from a popular examination into the action of the magistrates.

By improving yourself, the world is made better. Be not afraid of growing too slowly. Be afraid only of standing still.

Joy doesn't exist in the world, it exists in us.

Whatever is begun in anger ends in shame.

Trouble knocked at the door, but, hearing laughter, hurried away

The best of all medicines is resting and fasting

Genius is the ability to hold one's vision steady until it becomes reality

Doing your best means never stop trying.

He that would live in peace and at ease, must not speak all he knows nor judge all he sees.

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.

In my youth, I traveled much, and I observed in different countries, that the more public provisions were made for the poor, the less they provided for themselves, and of course became poorer. And, on the contrary, the less was done for them, the more they did for themselves, and became richer.

If you do tomorrow what you did today , you will get tomorrow what you got today

Fear God, and your enemies will fear you.

Rebellion against tyrants is obedience to God.

I have lived, Sir, a long time and the longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this truth -- that God governs in 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? We have been assured, Sir, in the sacred writings that "except the Lord build they labor in vain that build it." I firmly believe this; and I also believe that without his concurring aid we shall succeed in this political building no better than the Builders of Babel

Repeal that [welfare] law, and you will soon see a change in their manners. ... Six days shalt thou labor, though one of the old commandments long treated as out of date, will again be looked upon as a respectable precept; industry will increase, and with it plenty among the lower people; their circumstances will mend, and more will be done for their happiness by inuring them to provide for themselves, than could be done by dividing all your estates among them.

Speak little, do much.

War is when the government tells you who the bad guy is. Revolution is when you decide that for yourself.

Beware of little expenses. A small leak will sink a great ship.

Beware of the young doctor and the old barber.

It is the first responsibility of every citizen to question authority.

There are two ways to increase your wealth. Increase your means or decrease your wants. The best is to do both at the same time.

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.

Change is the only constant in life. Ones ability to adapt to those changes will determine your success in life.

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

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

Any fool can criticize, condemn and complain - and most fools do.

Wise men don't need advice. Fools won't take it.

Thirteen virtues necessary for true success: temperance, silence, order, resolution, frugality, industry, sincerity, justice, moderation, cleanliness, tranquility, chastity, and humility.

People are best convinced by things they themselves discover.

Most men die from the neck up at age twenty-five because they stop dreaming.

The man who does things makes mistakes, but he doesn't make the biggest mistake of all-doing nothing.

Happiness depends more on the inward disposition of mind than on outward circumstances.

We are all born ignorant, but one must work hard to remain stupid.

Lost time is never found again.

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

He that is of the opinion money will do everything may well be suspected of doing everything for money.

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

If you want something done, ask a busy person.

Here is my Creed. I believe in one God, creator of the Universe. That he governs it by his Providence. That he ought to be worshiped. That the most acceptable service we render him is doing good to his other children. That the soul of Man is immortal, and will be treated with justice in another life respecting its conduct in this.

I am a mortal enemy to arbitrary government and unlimited power. I am naturally very jealous for the rights and liberties of my country, and the least encroachment of those invaluable privileges is apt to make my blood boil.

Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.

Women are books, and men the readers be.

A long life may not be good enough, but a good life is long enough.

This [the U.S. Constitution] is likely to be administered for a course of years and then end in despotism... when the people shall become so corrupted as to need despotic government, being incapable of any other.