Books and Resources about Benjamin Franklin

>Benjamin Franklin was one of the Founding Fathers of the United States.   Franklin was a leading author and printer, political theorist, politician, postmaster, scientist, inventor, satirist, civic activist, statesman, and diplomat.  As a scientist, he was a major figure in the American Enlightenment and the history of physics for his discoveries and theories regarding electricity.   Franklin gained international renown as a scientist for his famous experiments in electricity and for his many inventions, especially the lightning rod. He played a major role in establishing the University of Pennsylvania and was elected the first president of the American Philosophical Society.

Quotes Attributed to Benjamin Franklin:

A good conscience is a continual Christmas.

A great empire, like a great cake, is most easily diminished at the edges.

A house is not a home unless it contains food and fire for the mind as well as the body.

A learned blockhead is a greater blockhead than an ignorant one.

A man wrapped up in himself makes a very small bundle.

A penny saved is a penny earned.

A place for everything, everything in its place.

A small leak can sink a great ship.

Absence sharpens love, presence strengthens it.

Admiration is the daughter of ignorance.

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

An investment in knowledge pays the best interest.

Anger is never without a reason, but seldom with a good one.

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

Applause waits on success.

As we must account for every idle word, so must we account for every idle silence.

Be at war with your vices, at peace with your neighbors, and let every new year find you a better man.

Be slow in choosing a friend, slower in changing.

Beauty and folly are old companions.

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

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

Buy what thou hast no need of and ere long thou shalt sell thy necessities.

By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.

In this world nothing is certain but death and taxes.

Content makes poor men rich; discontent makes rich men poor.

Creditors have better memories than debtors.

Diligence is the mother of good luck.

Distrust and caution are the parents of security.

Do not fear mistakes. You will know failure. Continue to reach out.

Do not squander time for that is the stuff life is made of.

Each year one vicious habit discarded, in time might make the worst of us good.

Eat to please thyself, but dress to please others.

Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing.

Employ thy time well, if thou meanest to gain leisure.

Energy and persistence conquer all things.

Even peace may be purchased at too high a price.

Fatigue is the best pillow.

Gain may be temporary and uncertain; but ever while you live, expense is constant and certain: and it is easier to build two chimneys than to keep one in fuel.

Games lubricate the body and the mind.

Genius without education is like silver in the mine.

God helps those who help themselves.

Guests, like fish, begin to smell after three days.

Half a truth is often a great lie.

He does not possess wealth; it possesses him.

He that can have patience can have what he will.

He that composes himself is wiser than he that composes a book.

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

He that is good for making excuses is seldom good for anything else.

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

He that lives upon hope will die fasting.

He that rises late must trot all day.

He that speaks much, is much mistaken.

He that waits upon fortune, is never sure of a dinner.

He that won’t be counseled can’t be helped.

He that would live in peace and at ease must not speak all he knows or all he sees.

He that’s secure is not safe.

Hide not your talents. They for use were made. What’s a sundial in the shade?

Honesty is the best policy.

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

I didn’t fail the test, I just found 100 ways to do it wrong.

I guess I don’t so much mind being old, as I mind being fat and old.

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.

If a man could have half of his wishes, he would double his troubles.

If a man empties his purse into his head, no one can take it from him.

If passion drives you, let reason hold the reins.

If time be of all things the most precious, wasting time must be the greatest prodigality.

If you desire many things, many things will seem few.

If you know how to spend less than you get, you have the philosopher’s stone.

If you would have a faithful servant, and one that you like, serve yourself.

If you would know the value of money, go and try to borrow some.

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

Industry need not wish.

It is easier to prevent bad habits than to break them.

It is only when the rich are sick that they fully feel the impotence of wealth.

It is the eye of other people that ruin us. If I were blind I would want, neither fine clothes, fine houses or fine furniture.

It is the working man who is the happy man. It is the idle man who is the miserable man.

It takes many good deeds to build a good reputation, and only one bad one to lose it.

Keep your eyes wide open before marriage, half shut afterwards.

Laws too gentle are seldom obeyed; too severe, seldom executed.

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

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

Lost time is never found again.

Many a man thinks he is buying pleasure, when he is really selling himself to it.

Many people die at twenty five and aren’t buried until they are seventy five.

Marriage is the most natural state of man, and… the state in which you will find solid happiness.

Mine is better than ours.

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.

Never confuse motion with action.

Never leave that till tomorrow which you can do today.

Never take a wife till thou hast a house (and a fire) to put her in.

No nation was ever ruined by trade.

Observe all men, thyself most.

One today is worth two tomorrows.

Our necessities never equal our wants.

Rather go to bed with out dinner than to rise in debt.

Rebellion against tyrants is obedience to God.

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.

Remember that credit is money.

Savages we call them because their manners differ from ours.

Since thou are not sure of a minute, throw not away an hour.

Speak ill of no man, but speak all the good you know of everybody.

Take time for all things: great haste makes great waste.

Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn.

Benjamin Franklin

The Constitution only gives people the right to pursue happiness. You have to catch it yourself.

The discontented man finds no easy chair.

The doors of wisdom are never shut.

The doorstep to the temple of wisdom is a knowledge of our own ignorance.

The eye of the master will do more work than both his hands.

The first mistake in public business is the going into it.

The strictest law sometimes becomes the severest injustice.

The use of money is all the advantage there is in having it.

The way to see by Faith is to shut the Eye of Reason.

The worst wheel of the cart makes the most noise.

There are three things extremely hard: steel, a diamond, and to know one’s self.

There are two ways of being happy: We must either diminish our wants or augment our means – either may do – the result is the same and it is for each man to decide for himself and to do that which happens to be easier.

There never was a truly great man that was not at the same time truly virtuous.

Those that won’t be counseled can’t be helped.

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

Time is money.

To Follow by faith alone is to follow blindly.

To lengthen thy life, lessen thy meals.

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

Tomorrow, every Fault is to be amended; but that Tomorrow never comes.

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

Trouble springs from idleness, and grievous toil from needless ease.

Wars are not paid for in wartime, the bill comes later.

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

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

Wealth is not his that has it, but his that enjoys it.

Well done is better than well said.

Whatever is begun in anger ends in shame.

When in doubt, don’t.

When will mankind be convinced and agree to settle their difficulties by arbitration?

When you’re finished changing, you’re finished.

Where liberty is, there is my country.

Where sense is wanting, everything is wanting.

Where there’s marriage without love, there will be love without marriage.

Who had deceived thee so often as thyself?

Who is rich? He that is content. Who is that? Nobody.

Who is rich? He that rejoices in his portion.

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.

Wine is constant proof that God loves us and loves to see us happy.

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

Without continual growth and progress, such words as improvement, achievement, and success have no meaning.

Words may show a man’s wit but actions his meaning.

Work as if you were to live a hundred years. Pray as if you were to die tomorrow.

You can bear your own faults, and why not a fault in your wife?

You may delay, but time will not.

Your net worth to the world is usually determined by what remains after your bad habits are subtracted from your good ones.the most precious, wasting time must be the greatest prodigality.

The Constitution only gives people the right to pursue happiness. You have to catch it yourself.

The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.