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Benjamin Franklin Quotes

20 quotes from Benjamin Franklin — Founding Father, inventor, diplomat, printer, scientist, and polymath..

Love your Enemies, for they tell you your Faults.

Poor Richard’s Almanack, 1756Wisdom

He that falls in love with himself will have no rivals.

Poor Richard’s Almanack, 1739Self-Love

He that lies down with Dogs, shall rise up with fleas.

Poor Richard’s Almanack, 1733Caution

Better slip with foot than tongue.

Poor Richard’s Almanack, 1734Wisdom

Look before, or you'll find yourself behind.

Poor Richard’s Almanack, 1735Caution

Don't throw stones at your neighbors, if your own windows are glass.

Poor Richard’s Almanack, 1736Hypocrisy

He that would live in peace & at ease, Must not speak all he knows or judge all he sees.

Poor Richard’s Almanack, 1736Peace

Well done is better than well said.

Poor Richard’s Almanack, 1737Action

A right Heart exceeds all.

Poor Richard’s Almanack, 1739Integrity

What you seem to be, be really.

Poor Richard’s Almanack, 1744Authenticity

A true Friend is the best Possession.

Poor Richard’s Almanack, 1744Friendship

Dost thou love life? Then do not squander Time; for that's the Stuff Life is made of.

Poor Richard’s Almanack, 1746Time

I took care not only to be in Reality Industrious and frugal, but to avoid all Appearances of the Contrary.

Benjamin Franklin, Autobiography

The more I discover'd of the former, the more I admir'd them; the more I know of the latter, the more I am disgusted with them. Men I find to be a Sort of Beings very badly constructed, as they are generally more easily provok'd than reconcil'd, more dispos'd to do Mischief to each other than to make Reparation.

Benjamin Franklin to Joseph Priestley, June 7, 1782

I confess that there are several parts of this constitution which I do not at present approve, but I am not sure I shall never approve them: For having lived long, I have experienced many instances of being obliged by better information or fuller consideration, to change opinions even on important subjects, which I once thought right, but found to be otherwise. It is therefore that the older I grow, the more apt I am to doubt my own judgment, and to pay more respect to the judgment of others.

Benjamin Franklin, speech at the Constitutional Convention, September 17, 1787

I confess that there are several parts of this constitution which I do not at present approve, but I am not sure I shall never approve them: For having lived long, I have experienced many instances of being obliged by better information or fuller consideration, to change opinions even on important subjects, which I once thought right, but found to be otherwise.

Benjamin Franklin, speech at the Constitutional Convention, September 17, 1787

Men I find to be a Sort of Beings very badly constructed, as they are generally more easily provok'd than reconcil'd, more dispos'd to do Mischief to each other than to make Reparation, much more easily deceiv'd than undeceiv'd, and having more Pride & even Pleasure in killing than in begetting one another.

Benjamin Franklin to Joseph Priestley, June 7, 1782

I look upon death to be as necessary to our constitutions as sleep. We shall rise refreshed in the morning.

Benjamin Franklin to George Whatley, August 21, 1784

Our new Constitution is now established, everything seems to promise it will be durable; but, in this world, nothing is certain except death and taxes.

Benjamin Franklin, letter to Jean-Baptiste Le Roy, November 1789

No one can replace him, Sir; I am only his successor.

Thomas Jefferson, on succeeding Franklin as Minister to France, 1785

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