Benjamin Franklin
134 quotes
Biography
"Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing."
"Three may keep a secret, if two of them are dead."
"They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."
"Tell me and I forget, teach me and I may remember, involve me and I learn."
"If you would be loved, love, and be loveable."
"He that can have patience can have what he will."
"In wine there is wisdom, in beer there is Freedom, in water there is bacteria."
"Many people die at twenty five and aren't buried until they are seventy five."
"Fear not death for the sooner we die, the longer we shall be immortal."
"How many observe Christ's birthday! How few, His precepts!"
"Hide not your talents, they for use were made,What's a sundial in the shade?"
"Instead of cursing the darkness, light a candle."
"If all printers were determined not to print anything till they were sure it would offend nobody, there would be very little printed."
"An investment in knowledge always pays the best interest."
"The person who deserves most pity is a lonesome one on a rainy day who doesn't know how to read."
"Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise."
"Happiness depends more on the inward disposition of mind than on outward circumstances."
"If a man could have half of his wishes, he would double his troubles."
"Were I a Roman Catholic, perhaps I should on this occasion vow to build a chapel to some saint, but as I am not, if I were to vow at all, it should be to build a light-house.[Letter to his wife, 17 July 1757, after narrowly avoiding a shipwreck; often misquoted as "Lighthouses are more helpful than churches."]"
"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."
"An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure."
"If you would not be forgotten, as soon as you are dead and rotten, either write things worth reading, or do things worth writing."
"Without continual growth and progress, such words as improvement, achievement, and success have no meaning."
"You will find the key to success under the alarm clock."
"The way to wealth is as plain as the way to market. It depends chiefly on two words, industry and frugality: that is, waste neither time nor money, but make the best use of both. Without industry and frugality nothing will do, and with them everything."