Quotes from Benjamin Franklin

The Golden Age was never the present Age.

Proclaim not all thou knowest, all thou owest, all thou hast, nor all thou canst.

Ohne Gedankenfreiheit gibt es keine Weisheit. Und ohne Redefreiheit keine öffentliche Freiheit.

I think all the heretics I have known have been virtuous men. They have the virtue of fortitude, or they would not venture to own their heresy; and they cannot afford to be deficient in any of the other virtues, as they would give advantage to their many enemies; and they have not, like orthodox sinners, such a number of friends to excuse or justify them.

Who had deceived thee so often as thyself?

If you would reap Praise you must sow the Seeds, Gentle Words and useful Deeds.

Most people dislike vanity in others, whatever share they have of it themselves; but I give it fair quarter wherever I meet with it, being persuaded that it is often productive of good to the possessor, and to others that are within his sphere of action; and therefore, in many cases, it would not be altogether absurd if a man were to thank God for his vanity among the other comforts of life.

There are in life real evils enough and it is folly to afflict ourselves with imaginary ones.

Lighthouses are more useful than churches.

Not to oversee workmen is to leave them your purse open.

Our limited perspective, our hopes and fears become our measure of life, and when circumstances don't fit our ideas, they become our difficulties.

Melakukan yang terbaik lebih baik daripada mengucapkan yang terbaik

I am persuaded however that he [John Adams] means well for his Country, is always an honest Man, often a Wise One, but sometimes and in some things, absolutely out of his Senses.

Human felicity is produced not so much by great pieces of good fortune that seldom happen, as by little advantages that occur every day. Thus, if you teach a poor young man to shave himself, and keep his razor in order, you may contribute more to the happiness of his life than in giving him a thousand guineas.

Those who govern, having much business on their hands, do not generally like to take the trouble of considering and carrying into execution new projects. The best public measures are therefore seldom adopted from previous wisdom, but forc'd by the occasion.

On the whole, I wonder'd much how such a man came to be intrusted with so important a business as the conduct of a great army; but, having since seen more of the great world, and the means of obtaining, and motives for giving places, my wonder is diminished.

discourses were chiefly either polemic arguments or explications of the peculiar doctrines of our sect, and were all to me very dry, uninteresting, and unedifying, since not a single moral principle was inculcated or enforced, their aim seeming to be rather to make us Presbyterians than good

I think this Law, by which I am punished, is both unreasonable in itself, and particularly severe... Polly Baker

At 20 years of age the Will reigns; at 30 the Wit; at 40 the Judgment.

He that hath a calling hath an office of profit and honor,

This was, therefore, the first house I was in, or slept in, in Philadelphia.

nothing is certain in life except death and taxes

Never leave till tomorrow, which you can do today.

To fail to Prepare is to prepare to fail