benjamin franklin quotes

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

-- Benjamin Franklin

God helps them that themselves.
-- Benjamin Franklin, "Poor Richard's Almanac"

They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety
deserve neither liberty nor safety.
Benjamin Franklin, Historical Review of Pennsylvania, 1759

There was never a good war or a bad peace.

-- Benjamin Franklin

To err is human, to repent, divine, to persist, devilish.
-- Benjamin Franklin

In this world, nothing can be said to be certain except death and taxes.

-- Benjamin Franklin

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

In this world nothing is certain but death and taxes.

-- Benjamin Franklin

There was never a good war or a bad peace.

-- Benjamin Franklin

He that teaches himself has a fool for a master.
-- Benjamin Franklin

An investment in knowledge always pays the best interest.
-- Benjamin Franklin

The grand leap of the whale up the Fall of Niagara is esteemed, by all
who have seen it, as one of the finest spectacles in nature.
-- Benjamin Franklin.

Poverty often deprives a man of all spirit and virtue. It is hard for an empty
bag to stand upright.

-- Benjamin Franklin

I made it a rule to forbear all direct contradictions to the sentiments of
others, and all positive assertion of my own. I even forbade myself the use
of every word or expression in the language that imported a fixed opinion,
such as "certainly", "undoubtedly", etc. I adopted instead of them "I
conceive", "I apprehend", or "I imagine" a thing to be so or so; or "so it
appears to me at present".

When another asserted something that I thought an error, I denied myself the
pleasure of contradicting him abruptly, and of showing him immediately some
absurdity in his proposition. In answering I began by observing that in
certain cases or circumstances his opinion would be right, but in the present
case there appeared or semed to me some difference, etc.

I soon found the advantage of this change in my manner; the conversations I
engaged in went on more pleasantly. The modest way in which I proposed my
opinions procured them a readier reception and less contradiction. I had
less mortification when I was found to be in the wrong, and I more easily
prevailed with others to give up their mistakes and join with me when I
happened to be in the right.
-- Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin

An investment in knowledge always pays the best interest.
-- Benjamin Franklin

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

-- Benjamin Franklin

In this world, nothing is certain but death and taxes.
-- Benjamin Franklin

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

-- Benjamin Franklin

In this world, nothing is certain but death and taxes.
-- Benjamin Franklin

The grand leap of the whale up the Fall of Niagara is esteemed, by all
who have seen it, as one of the finest spectacles in nature.
-- Benjamin Franklin.