Quotes by Benjamin Franklin

A ploughman on his legs is higher than a gentleman on his knees.

But in this world nothing is sure but death and taxes.

Reckless youth makes rueful age.

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.

Id rather be a pessimist because then I can only be pleasantly surprised.

He that lives upon hope will die fasting.

We are more thoroughly an enlightened people, with respect to our political interests, than perhaps any other under heaven. Every man among us reads, and is so easy in his circumstances as to have leisure for conversations of improvement and for acquiring information.

A place for everything, everything in its place.

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

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

There was never a good war, or a bad peace.

All wars are follies, very expensive and very mischievous ones.

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

Dost thou love life? Then do not squander time, for that is the stuff life is made of.

If you would be loved, love, and be loveable.

A good conscience is a continual Christmas.

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

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

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.

In general, mankind, since the improvement of cookery, eats twice as much as nature requires.