Inspirational Quotations

Inspirational Quotes by Benjamin Franklin (American Polymath)

Benjamin Franklin (1706–90) was an American statesman, inventor, diplomat, writer, and scientist. This leading figure in the American struggle for independence was one of the most versatile and talented men in colonial America.

Born in Boston, Franklin apprenticed to his brother, a printer, and began writing anonymously for his brother’s newspaper. He moved to Philadelphia, then to London, and returned to Philadelphia and established himself as a printer. He bought the Pennsylvania Gazette and turned it into one of the American colonies’ significant newspapers. He also wrote and published Poor Richard’s Almanack, an astronomy journal, under the pseudonym Richard Saunders. The Almanack became well known for the witty proverbs and maxims that Franklin included as fillers.

A leading delegate to the Continental Congress, Franklin became its architect. He was the only individual to sign all the three key documents of the new nation: the Declaration of Independence, the treaty with Great Britain that ended the American Revolution, and the U.S. Constitution.

Franklin held various government posts, including that of the deputy paymaster general of the colonies, and emissary to France and Great Britain. Franklin was also involved in many public projects, including founding the American Philosophical Society, a subscription library, and, in 1751, an academy that later became the University of Pennsylvania.

Franklin’s foremost scientific achievements were the formulation of a theory of electricity, which introduced positive and negative electricity, the demonstration of the electrical nature of lightning. His primary inventions were the lightning conductor, the “Franklin stove” (a kind of freestanding cast-iron heater,) and bifocal spectacles.

Franklin was legendary for his lifelong quest for self-improvement, as he thoroughly documented in his Autobiography (1791.)

More: Wikipedia • READ: Works by Benjamin Franklin

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Inspirational Quotes by Benjamin Franklin (American Polymath)

Do not do what you would not have known.
—Benjamin Franklin

A little neglect may breed great mischief. For want of a nail, the shoe was lost; for want of a shoe, the horse was lost; and for want of a horse, the rider was lost; being overtaken, and slain by the enemy. All for want of care about a horse-shoe nail.
—Benjamin Franklin
Topics: Planning, One Step at a Time, Preparation

Without justice, courage is weak.
—Benjamin Franklin
Topics: Compassion, Justice

I saw few die of hunger; of eating, a hundred thousand.
—Benjamin Franklin

Let honesty and industry be thy constant companions, and spend one penny less than thy clear gains; then shall thy pocket begin to thrive; creditors will not insult, nor want oppress, nor hunger bite, nor nakedness freeze thee.
—Benjamin Franklin
Topics: Economy

Vice knows that she is ugly, so she puts on her mask.
—Benjamin Franklin
Topics: Vice, Virtue

It is the working man who is the happy man. It is the idle man who is the miserable man.
—Benjamin Franklin
Topics: Work

I have lived, Sir, a long time, and the longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this truththat God governs in the affairs of men. And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without his notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without his aid?
—Benjamin Franklin

Christianity commands us to pass by injuries; policy, to let them pass by us.
—Benjamin Franklin
Topics: Injury

Some people exclaim, “Give me no anecdotes of an author, but give me his works”; and yet I have often found that the anecdotes are more interesting than the works.
—Benjamin Franklin

Eat to please thyself, but dress to please others.
—Benjamin Franklin
Topics: Fashion, Dress

Fools make feasts and wise men eat ’em.
—Benjamin Franklin
Topics: Eating

Favor or disappointment has been often conceded, as the name of the claimant has affected us; and the accidental affinity or coincidence of a name, connected with ridicule or hatred, with pleasure or disgust, has operated like magic.
—Benjamin Franklin
Topics: Names

He that waits upon fortune, is never sure of a dinner.
—Benjamin Franklin

An undutiful daughter will prove an unmanageable wife.
—Benjamin Franklin
Topics: Marriage

By diligence and patience, the Mouse bit in two the Cable.
—Benjamin Franklin

Anger is never without a Reason, but seldom with a good One.
—Benjamin Franklin
Topics: Reason, Anger

If you know how to spend less than you get, you have the philosopher’s stone.
—Benjamin Franklin
Topics: Money, Economy

There is much money given to be laughed at, though the purchasers don’t know it; witness A’s fine horse, and B’s fine house.
—Benjamin Franklin
Topics: Vanity

Great countries are those that produce great people.
—Benjamin Franklin
Topics: Nations, Nation, Nationalism, Nationality

There is a difference between imitating a good man and counterfeiting him.
—Benjamin Franklin
Topics: Role models, Imitation, Plagiarism

The art of quotation requires more delicacy in the practice than those conceive who can see nothing more in a quotation than an extract.
—Benjamin Franklin
Topics: Quotations

Protection is not a principle but an expedient.
—Benjamin Franklin

Many have quarreled about religion that never practiced it
—Benjamin Franklin
Topics: Religion

When friends are in trouble, don’t bother them by asking if there is anything you can do. Think of something appropriate and do it.
—Benjamin Franklin

A single man has not nearly the value he would have in a state of union. He is an incomplete animal. He resembles the odd half of a pair of scissors.
—Benjamin Franklin
Topics: Men

He that raises a large family does, indeed, while he lives to observe them, stand a broader mark for sorrow; but then he stands a broader mark for pleasure too.
—Benjamin Franklin
Topics: Family

I have always thought that one man of tolerable abilities may work great changes, and accomplish great affairs among mankind, if he first forms a good plan, and, cutting off all amusements or other employments that would divert his attention, make the execution of that same plan his sole study and business.
—Benjamin Franklin
Topics: Planning

Vice knows she’s ugly, so puts on her mask.
—Benjamin Franklin
Topics: Vice

Distrust & caution are the parents of security.
—Benjamin Franklin

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