Quotes from Benjamin Franklin

He that's secure is not safe.

I wake up every morning at nine and grab for the morning paper. Then I look at the obituary page. If my name is not on it, I get up.

All wars are follies, very expensive and very mischievous ones.

None but the well-bred man knows how to confess a fault, or acknowledge himself in an error.

When you speak to a man, look on his eyes; when he speaks to you, look on his mouth.

Life with Fools consists in Drinking; with the wise Man, living's Thinking.

The most acceptable service of God is doing good to man.

Why does the blind man's wife paint herself.

I believe that Man is not the most perfect Being but One, rather that as there are many Degrees of Beings his Inferiors, so there are many Degrees of Beings superior to him.

No man ever was glorious, who was not laborious.

If you ride a horse, sit close and tight, if you ride a man, sit easy and light.

A dying man can do nothing easy.

In other men we faults can spy,/ And blame the mote that dims their eye;/ Each little speck and blemish find;/ To our own stronger errors blind.

There is always room for the man of force.

Don't think so much of your own Cunning, as to forget other Men's; a Cunning Man is overmatched by a cunning Man and a Half.

No man ought to own more property than needed for his livelihood; the rest, by right, belonged to the state.

An assembly of great men is the greatest fool upon earth.

An old man in a house is a good sign.

On being asked what condition of man he considered the most pitiable: A lonesome man on a rainy day who does not know how to read.

Early to bed and early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise." He planned his routine around waking up at 5 a.m. and asking himself "What good shall I do this day?

Success has ruin'd many a man.

It is observable that God has often called men to places of dignity and honor when they have been busy in the honest employment of their vocation.

A perfect character might be attended with the inconvenience of being envied and hated; and that a benevolent man should allow a few faults in himself, to keep his friends in countenance.

...it is prodigious the quantity of good that may be done by one man if he will make a business of it.