Recommended Reading
- ‘Benjamin Franklin: An American Life‘ by Walter Isaacson
- ‘The Way to Wealth‘ by Benjamin Franklin
- ‘The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin‘ by Benjamin Franklin
- ‘The First American: The Life and Times of Benjamin Franklin‘ by H.W. Brands
- ‘Ben Franklin’s Almanac of Wit, Wisdom, and Practical Advice‘ by The Old Farmer’s Almanac
Inspirational Quotes by Benjamin Franklin (American Founding Father, Inventor)
Despair is the conclusion of fools.
—Benjamin Franklin
Topics: Doubt
Vice knows she’s ugly, so puts on her mask.
—Benjamin Franklin
Topics: Vice
To lengthen thy life, lessen thy meals.
—Benjamin Franklin
Topics: Health
Hunger never saw bad bread.
—Benjamin Franklin
Love your Enemies, for they tell you your Faults.
—Benjamin Franklin
Topics: Enemies, Balance, Enemy
Teach us that wealth is not elegance, that profusion is not magnificence, that splendor is not beauty.
—Benjamin Franklin
Topics: Value
Every accent, every emphasis, every modulation of voice, was so perfectly well turned and well placed, that, without being interested in the subject, one could not help being pleased with the discourse; a pleasure of much the same kind with that received from an excellent piece of music. This is an advantage itinerant preachers have over those who are stationary, as the latter can not well improve their delivery of a sermon by so many rehearsals.
—Benjamin Franklin
Topics: Preaching, Evangelism
Setting too good an Example is a Kind of slander seldom forgiven.
—Benjamin Franklin
Topics: Example
Our whole life is but a greater and longer childhood.
—Benjamin Franklin
Topics: Childhood
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
When little is done, little is said; silence is the mother of truth.
—Benjamin Franklin
Topics: Silence
Youth is the trustee of prosperity.
—Benjamin Franklin
Topics: Time, Youth
Three things are men most likely to be cheated in, a horse, a wig, and a wife
—Benjamin Franklin
Topics: Cheating
He that would live in peace and at ease must not speak all he knows or all he sees.
—Benjamin Franklin
Topics: Peace
The secret of success is constancy of purpose.
—Benjamin Franklin
Topics: Graduation, Perseverance, Resolve, Purpose, Society, Goal, Entrepreneurs, Endurance, Success & Failure, Success, Conviction
Reading makes a full Man, Meditation a profound Man,
discourse a clear Man.
—Benjamin Franklin
Do good to thy Friend to keep him, to thy enemy to gain him.
—Benjamin Franklin
The world is full of fools and faint hearts; and yet everyone has courage enough to bear the misfortunes, and wisdom enough to manage the affairs of his neighbor.
—Benjamin Franklin
Topics: Hypocrisy, Fools, Foolishness
A person’s fate is their own temper.
—Benjamin Franklin
Topics: Personality
Energy and persistence alter all things.
—Benjamin Franklin
Topics: Energy
Christianity commands us to pass by injuries; policy, to let them pass by us.
—Benjamin Franklin
Topics: Injury
Fame and power are the objects of all men. Even their partial fruition is gained by very few; and that, too, at the expense of social pleasure, health, conscience, life.
—Benjamin Franklin
Topics: Fame
God grant that not only the love of liberty but a thorough knowledge of the rights of man may pervade all the nations of the earth, so that a philosopher may set his foot anywhere on its surface and say: This is my country!
—Benjamin Franklin
Topics: Knowledge
To Follow by faith alone is to follow blindly.
—Benjamin Franklin
Topics: Faith
Believe none of what you hear and half of what you see.
—Benjamin Franklin
Topics: Belief
God helps them that help themselves.
—Benjamin Franklin
Topics: Self-reliance
Some of the domestic evils of drunkenness are houses without windows, gardens without fences, fields without tillage, barns without roofs, children without clothing, principles, morals, or manners.
—Benjamin Franklin
Topics: Drunkenness
Christianity is completed Judaism or it is nothing.
—Benjamin Franklin
Topics: Christians, Christianity
If you would have a faithful servant, and one that you like, serve yourself.
—Benjamin Franklin
Topics: Self-reliance, Confidence, Service, Self-Discovery
The youth of a nation are the trustees of posterity.
—Benjamin Franklin
Topics: Time, Youth
Wondering Whom to Read Next?
William Jennings Bryan American Political leader
Benjamin Harrison 23rd President of the USA
Che Guevara Argentine-Cuban Revolutionary
John Morley, 1st Viscount Morley of Blackburn British Statesman
Henry L. Stimson American Political leader
J. William Fulbright American Politician
Edmund Burke British Philosopher, Statesman
Laurens van der Post South African Explorer, Writer
Dante Alighieri Italian Poet, Philosopher
Adolf Hitler German Fascist Dictator