Quotes from Benjamin Franklin

A Republic Madam...if you can keep it.

Finding myself to exist in the world, I believe i shall, in some shape or other, always exist.

We must, indeed, all hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang separately.

Leisure is the time for doing something useful. This leisure the diligent person will obtain the lazy one never.

O vitae Philosophia dux! O virtutum indagatrix expultrixque vitiorum! Unus dies, bene et ex praeceptis tuis actus, peccanti immortalitati est anteponendus. translation (non-literal): O philosophy, life's guide! O searcher of virtues and expeller of vices! Just a single day lived well and according to your lessons is to be preferred to an eternity of errors. — Cicero, As quoted in Ben Franklin's Autobiography

He does not possess wealth; it possesses him.

Then plough deep, while sluggards sleep, and you shall have corn to sell and to keep.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

He that lies down with dogs shall rise up with fleas.

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

How many observe Christ's birthday! How few, His precepts! O! 'tis easier to keep holidays than commandments.

A little neglect may breed mischief; for want of a nail the shoe was lost; for want a horse the rider was lost; for want of the rider the battle was lost.

He who empties his purse into his mind, shall never go bankrupt.

A cheerful face is nearly as good for an invalid as healthy weather.

He who sacrifices freedom for security deserves neither.

In reality there is perhaps no one of our natural Passions so hard to subdue as Pride. Disguise it, struggle with it, beat it down, stifle it, mortify it as much as one pleases, it is still alive, and will every now and then peep out and show itself. You see it perhaps often in this History. For even if I could conceive that I had completely overcome it, I should probably be proud of my Humility.

After three days houseguests and food begins to stink!

I am in the prime of senility.

Be not disturbed at trifles, or at accidents common or unavoidable.

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

If you eat one another, I don't see why we may not eat you.

He who falls in love with himself will have no rivals

This modesty in a sect is perhaps a singular instance in the history of mankind, every other sect supposing itself in possession of all truth, and that those who differ are so far in the wrong; like a man traveling in foggy weather, those at some distance before him on the road he sees wrapped up in the fog, as well as those behind him, and also the people in the fields on each side, but near him all appears clear, tho' in truth he is as much in the fog as any of them.

Read much, but not many books!