Quotes from Benjamin Franklin

Don't count your chickens before they are hatched.

There never was a good knife made of bad steel.

Fools multiply folly.

Liberality is not giving much, but giving wisely.

What Comfort can the Vortices of Descartes give to a Man who has Whirlwinds in his bowels!

The discontented man finds no easy chair.

If we all think alike, no one is thinking.

When a Religion is good, I conceive that it will support itself; and, when it cannot support itself, and God does not take care to support, so that its Professors are oblig'd to call for the help of the Civil Power, it is a sign, I apprehend, of its being a bad one.

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

Beware of little expenses; A small leak will sink a great ship, as Poor Richard says; and again, Who dainties love, shall beggars prove; and moreover, Fools make feasts, and wise men eat them.

The first Degree of Folly, is to conceit one's self wise; the second to profess it; the third to despise Counsel.

The rotten apple spoils his companions.

Give me 26 lead soldiers and I will conquer the world.

Without Freedom of Thought, there can be no such Thing as Wisdom; and no such Thing as publick Liberty, without Freedom of Speech; which is the Right of every Man, as far as by it, he does not hurt or controul the Right of another: And this is the only Check it ought to suffer, and the only Bounds it ought to know.

Ignorance leads men into a party, and shame keeps them from getting out again.

The doors of wisdom are never shut.

Here is my Creed. I believe in one God, Creator of the Universe. That he governs the World by his Providence. That he ought to be worshiped. That the most acceptable Service we can render him, is doing good to his other Children. That the Soul of Man is immortal, and will be treated with Justice in another life, respect[ing] its Conduct in this. These I take to be fundamental Principles of all sound Religion, and I regard them as you do, in whatever Sect I meet them.

Half-wits talk much, but say little.

A truly great man will neither trample on a worm nor sneak to an emperor

There is perhaps no one of our natural passions so hard to subdue as pride. Beat it down, stifle it, mortify it as much as one pleases, it is still alive. Even if I could conceive that I had completely overcome it, I should probably be proud of my humility.

The cat in gloves catches no mice.

I am captivated more by dreams of the future then history of the past.

In short, the way to wealth, if you desire it, is as plain as the way to market. It depends chiefly on two words: industry and frugality. Waste neither time nor money, but make the best use of both. He that gets all he can honestly, and saves all he can, will certainly become rich.

After crosses and losses men grow humbler and wiser.