Benjamin Franklin

“Strict punctuality is a cheap virtue.”

“We may give advice, but we cannot give conduct.”

“Proclaim not all though knowest, or all though owest.”

“Display is as false as it is costly.”

“Don't overload Gratitude; if you do, she'll kick.”

“To all apparent beauties blind, each blemish strikes an envious mind.”

“Virtue and Happiness are Mother and Daughter.”

“He that is rich need not live sparingly,and he that can live sparingly need not be rich.”

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

“Handle your tools without mittens.”

“Furnished as all Europe now is with Academies of Science, with nice instruments and the spirit of experiment, the progress of human knowledge will be rapid and discoveries made of which we have at present no conception. I begin to be almost sorry I was born so soon, since I cannot have the happiness of knowing what will be known a hundred years hence.”

“Trusting too much to others care is the ruin of many.”

“A spoonful of honey will catch more flies than a gallon of vinegar.”

“One mend-fault is worth two find-faults, but one find-fault is better than two make-faults.”

“Let thy discontents be thy secrets; if the world knows them 'twill despise thee and increase them.”

“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.”

“In short, the way to wealth, if you desire it, is as plain as the way to market. It depends chiefly on two works, industry and frugality.”

“Thou can'st not joke an enemy into a friend,but thou may'st a friend into an enemy.”

“Money is of a prolific generating nature. Money can beget money, and its offspring can beget more.”

“...it is prodigious the quantity of good that may be done by one man if he will make a business of it.”

“If passion drives you, let reason hold the reins.”

“Better slip with foot than tongue.”

“The great secret of succeeding in conversation is to admire little, to hear much; always to distrust our own reason, and sometimes that of our friends; never to pretend to wit, but to make that of others appear as much as possibly we can; to hearken to what is said and to answer to the purpose.”

“I would advise you to read with a pen in your hand and enter in a little book short hints of what you feel that is common or that may be useful; for this will be the best method of imprinting such portcullis in your memory.”

“Drive your business. Let not your business drive you.”

“The sleeping fox catches no poultry.”

“I am a mortal enemy to arbitrary government and unlimited power. I am naturally very jealous for the rights and liberties of my country, and the least encroachment of those invaluable privileges is apt to make my blood boil.”

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

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

“The learned fool writes his nonsense in better language than the unlearned, but it is still nonsense.”

“A ship under sail and a big-bellied woman, Are the handsomest two things that can be seen common.”

“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.”

“Neither a Fortress nor a Maidenhead will hold out long after they begin to parley.”

“He that steals the old man's supper does him no wrong.”

“All would live long, but none would be old.”

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

“Nothing is so tiresome to one's self, as well as so odious to others, as disguise and affectation.”

“A man is sometimes more generous when he has but a little money than when he has plenty, perhaps through fear of being thought to have but little.”

“Life with Fools consists in Drinking; with the wise Man, living's Thinking.”

“Joy doesn't exist in the world, it exists in us.”

“Cold & cunning come from the north: But cunning sans wisdom is nothing worth.”

“[It was] the poverty caused by the bad influence of the English bankers on the Parliament which has caused in the colonies hatred of the English and . . . the Revolutionary War.”

“He that doth what he should not, shall feel what he would not.”

“Savages we call them, because their manners differ from ours, which we think the perfection of civility; they think the same of theirs.”

“By the word simplicity, is not always meant folly or ignorance; but often, pure and upright Nature, free from artifice, craft or deceitful ornament.”

“If you would persuade, you must appeal to interest rather than intellect.”

“One day is worth a thousand tomorrows.”

“He is no clown that drives the plow, but he that doth clownish things.”

“Only a virtuous people are capable of freedom.”

“There are two ways to increase your wealth. Increase your means or decrease your wants. The best is to do both at the same time.”