Benjamin Franklin Life Quotes & Sayings

In America, Benjamin Franklin famously risked his life by flying a kite in an electrical storm. — Bill Bryson

The only certain things in life are death and taxes! — Benjamin Franklin

One today is worth two tomorrows. Lost time is never found again. Time is money. Dost thou love life? Then do not squander time, for that's the stuff that life is made of. You may delay, but time will not. — Benjamin Franklin

Do you love life? Then don't waste time, because time is life! — Benjamin Franklin

Life is a kind of chess. — Benjamin Franklin

If you judge a book by its cover,a fish will be thinking how stupid it looks its whole life. — Benjamin Franklin

Change is the only constant in life. Ones ability to adapt to those changes will determine your success in life. — Benjamin Franklin

Traveling is one way of lengthening life, at least in appearance. — Benjamin Franklin

That felicity, when I reflected on it, has induced me sometimes to say, that were it offered to my choice, I should have no objection to a repetition of the same life from its beginning, [ ... ] Since such a repetition is not to be expected, the next thing most like living one's life over again seems to be a recollection of that life, and to make that recollection as durable as possible by putting it down into writing. — Benjamin Franklin

Happiness consists more in the small conveniences of pleasures that occur every day, than in great pieces of good fortune that happen but seldom to a man in the course of his life. — Benjamin Franklin

It is the will of God and Nature that these mortal bodies be laid aside, when the soul is to enter into real life; 'tis rather an embrio state, a preparation for living; a man is not completely born until he be dead: Why then should we grieve that a new child is born among the immortals? — Benjamin Franklin

If you teach a poor young man to shave himself, and keep his razor in order, you may contribute more to the happiness of his life than in giving him a thousand guineas. This sum may be soon spent, the regret only remaining of having foolishly consumed it; but in the other case, he escapes the frequent vexation of waiting for barbers, and of their sometimes dirty fingers, offensive breaths, and dull razors. — Benjamin Franklin

Life biggest tragedy is that we get old too soon and wise too late — Benjamin Franklin

The good or ill hap of a good or ill life, is the good or ill choice of a good or ill wife. — Benjamin Franklin

Our whole life is but a greater and longer childhood. — Benjamin Franklin

I've striven my whole life for humility, but if I'd ever achieved it, I'd probably be pretty damn proud of that. — Benjamin Franklin

A long life may not be good enough, but a good life is long enough. — Benjamin Franklin

Men's minds do not die with their bodies but are made more happy or miserable after this life according to their actions. — Benjamin Franklin

'Tis true there is much to be done, ... but stick to it steadily, and you will see great effects, for constant dropping wears away stones ... and little strokes fell great oaks, as Poor Richard says ... — Benjamin Franklin

Do not squander time, for that is the stuff life is made out of. — Benjamin Franklin

Experience keeps a dear school, but fools will learn in no other, and scarce in that. — Benjamin Franklin

Life with Fools consists in Drinking; with the wise Man, living's Thinking. — Benjamin Franklin

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

No European who has tasted savage life can afterwards bear to live in our societies. — Benjamin Franklin

Life's Tragedy is that we get old to soon and wise too late. — Benjamin Franklin

What is without us has no connection with happiness, only so far as the preservation of our lives and health depends upon it ... Happiness springs immediately from the mind. — Benjamin Franklin

Men are subject to various inconveniences merely through lack of a small share of courage, which is a quality very necessary in the common occurrences of life, as well as in a battle. How many impertinences do we daily suffer with great uneasiness, because we have not courage enough to discover our dislike. — Benjamin Franklin

Those who knew Benjamin Franklin will recollect that his mind was forever young, his temper ever serene; science, that never grows gray, was always his mistress. He was never without an object, for when we cease to have an object, we become like an invalid in a hospital waiting for death. — Thomas Paine

Gaining money by my industry and frugality, I lived very agreeably ... — Benjamin Franklin

Ben Franklin was a little stout later in life and it was said that in Paris a young woman, tapping him on his protruding abdomen, said,"Dr. Franklin, if this were on a woman, we'd know what to think." And Franklin replied,"Half an hour ago, Mademoiselle, it was on a woman, and now what do you think?" — Benjamin Franklin

Who is strong? He that can conquer his bad habits. — Benjamin Franklin

We must not in the course of public life expect immediate approbation and immediate grateful acknowledgment of our services. But let us persevere through abuse and even injury. The internal satisfaction of a good conscience is always present, and time will do us justice in the minds of the people, even those at present the most prejudiced against us. — Benjamin Franklin

If we can sleep without dreaming, it is well that painful dreams are avoided. If, while we sleep, we can have any pleasing dreams, it is as the French say, tant gagne, so much added to the pleasure of life. — Benjamin Franklin

The Weaver
My life is but a weaving
between my Lord and me;
I cannot choose the colors
He worketh steadily.
Oft times He weaveth sorrow
And I, in foolish pride,
Forget He sees the upper,
And I the underside.
Not til the loom is silent
And the shuttles cease to fly,
Shall God unroll the canvas
And explain the reason why.
The dark threads are as needful
In the Weaver's skillful hand,
As the threads of gold and silver
In the pattern He has planned. — Benjamin Malachi Franklin

The game of Chess is not merely an idle amusement; several very valuable qualities of the mind are to be acquired and strengthened by it, so as to become habits ready on all occasions, for life is a kind of chess. — Benjamin Franklin

And now I speak of thanking God, I desire with all humility to acknowledge that I owe the mentioned happiness of my past life to His kind providence, which lead me to the means I used and gave them success. My belief of this induces me to hope, though I must not presume, that the same goodness will still be exercised toward me, in continuing that happiness, or enabling me to bear a fatal reverse, which I may experience as others have done; the complexion of my future fortune being known to Him only in whose power it is to bless to us even our afflictions. — Benjamin Franklin

I grew convinced that truth, sincerity and integrity in dealings between man and man were of the utmost importance to the felicity of life, and I formed written resolutions ... to practice them ever while I lived. — Benjamin Franklin

Be studious in your profession, and you will be learned. Be industrious and frugal, and you will be rich. Be sober and temperate, and you will be healthy. Be in general virtuous, and you will be happy. At least you will, by such conduct, stand the be. — Benjamin Franklin

Benjamin Franklin said there were only two things certain in life: death and taxes. But I'd like to add a third certainty: trash. And while some in this room might want to discuss reducing taxes, I want to talk about reducing trash. — Ruth Ann Minner

Here is my creed: I believe in one God, the Creator of the universe. That he governs it by his providence. That he ought to be worshipped. That the most acceptable service we render to him is in doing good to his other children. That the soul of man is immortal, and will be treated with justice in another life respecting its conduct in this. These I take to be the fundamental points in all sound religion.
Benjamin Franklin — W. Cleon Skousen

A policy of life insurance is the cheapest and safest mode of making a certain provision for one's family. — Benjamin Franklin

Wouldst thou enjoy a long Life, a healthy Body, and a vigorous Mind, and be acquainted also with the wonderful Works of God? labour in the first place to bring thy Appetite into Subjection to Reason. — Benjamin Franklin

That which resembles most living one's life over again, seems to be to recall all the circumstances of it; and, to render this remembrance more durable, to record them in writing. — Benjamin Franklin

If you wouldn't live long, live well; for folly and wickedness shorten life. — Benjamin Franklin

History will also give occasion to expatiate on the advantage of civil orders and constitutions; how men and their properties are protected by joining in societies and establishing government; their industry encouraged and rewarded, arts invented, and life made more comfortable; the advantages of liberty, mischiefs of licentiousness, benefits arising from good laws and a due execution of justice. Thus may the first principles of sound politics be fixed in the minds of youth. — Benjamin Franklin

Life is rather a state of embryo, a preparation for life; a man is not completely born till he has passed through death. — Benjamin Franklin

When I see nothing annihilated, and not even a drop of water wasted, I cannot suspect the annihilation of souls Thus finding myself to exist in the world, I believe I shall, in some shape or other, always exist; with all the inconveniences human life is liable to, I shall not object to a new edition of mine; hoping, however, that the errata of the last may be corrected. — Benjamin Franklin

Slavery is such an atrocious debasement of human nature, that its very extirpation, if not performed with solicitous care, may sometimes open a source of serious evils. The unhappy man who has been treated as a brute animal, too frequently sinks beneath the common standard of the human species. The galling chains, that bind his body, do also fetter his intellectual faculties, and impair the social affections of his heart ... To instruct, to advise, to qualify those, who have been restored to freedom, for the exercise and enjoyment of civil liberty ... and to procure for their children an education calculated for their future situation in life; these are the great outlines of the annexed plan, which we have adopted.
[For the Pennsylvania Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery, 1789] — Benjamin Franklin

Our limited perspective, our hopes and fears become our measure of life, and when circumstances don't fit our ideas, they become our difficulties. — Benjamin Franklin

Human happiness comes not from infrequent pieces of good fortune, but from the small improvements to daily life. — Benjamin Franklin

I should have no objection to go over the same life from its beginning to the end: requesting only the advantage authors have, of correcting in a second edition the faults of the first. — Benjamin Franklin

I have found Christian dogma unintelligible. Early in life, I absenteed myself from Christian assemblies. — Benjamin Franklin

Industry and frugality, as the means of procuring wealth ... thereby [secures] virtue, it being more difficult for a man in want to act always honestly ... — Benjamin Franklin

of light and life, thou Good Supreme! O teach me what is good; teach me Thyself! Save me from folly, vanity, and vice, From every low pursuit; and fill my soul With knowledge, conscious peace, and virtue pure; Sacred, substantial, never-fading bliss! — Benjamin Franklin

Most men die from the neck up at age twenty-five because they stop dreaming. — Benjamin Franklin

Benjamin Franklin went through life an altered man because he once paid too dearly for a penny whistle. My concern springs usually from a deeper source, to wit, from having bought a whistle when I did not want one. — Robert Louis Stevenson

If dost thou love life, then Do not squander time, for that is the stuff life is made of, as Poor Richard says. — Benjamin Franklin

Why ruin a young girl's life when you can make an older women SO very happy ! — Benjamin Franklin

The next thing most like living one's life over again seems to be a recollection of that life, and to make that recollection as durable as possible by putting it down in writing. — Benjamin Franklin

There seem to be but three ways for a nation to acquire wealth. The first is by war ... This is robbery. The second by commerce, which is generally cheating. The third by agriculture, the only honest way, wherein man receives a real increase of the seed thrown into the ground, in a kind of continual miracle, wrought by the hand of God in his favor, as a reward for his innocent life and his virtuous industry. — Benjamin Franklin

Benjamin Franklin and the whole idea of a new attitude to money: "Time is money." He invented that idea. Before that, time wasn't money in the same way; in the medieval age it was regarded as sinful for money to be the object of your life. — Tom Hodgkinson

Sketches Einstein: His Life and Universe A Benjamin Franklin Reader Benjamin Franklin: An American Life Kissinger: A Biography The Wise Men: Six Friends and the World They Made (with Evan Thomas) — Walter Isaacson

If you would be remembered, write a book worth the reading or live a life worth the writing about. — Benjamin Franklin

My ideal man is Benjamin Franklin - the figure in American history most worthy of emulation ... Franklin is my ideal of a whole man ... Where are the life-size - or even pint-size - Benjamin Franklins of today? — Isidor Isaac Rabi

The two most beautiful sights I have witnessed in my life are a full blown ship at sail and the round-bellied pregnant female. — Benjamin Franklin

Life is a kind of Chess, with struggle, competition, good and ill events. — Benjamin Franklin

There are three things in life that are extremely hard.
Steel, a diamond, and to know oneself. — Benjamin Franklin

To lengthen thy life, lessen thy meals. — Benjamin Franklin

Were the offer made true, I would engage to run again, from beginning to end, the same career of life. All I would ask should be the privilege of an author, to correct, in a second edition, certain errors of the first. — Benjamin Franklin

Dost thou love life? then do not squander time, for that is the stuff life is made of, — Benjamin Franklin

Be slow in choosing a friend, slower in changing. There are three faithful friends in our life,an old wife,an old dog and ready money. A real friend is one who always warms you.
Love is blind. Friendship close it eyes. — Benjamin Franklin

Time Like a petal in the wind Flows softly by As old lives are taken New ones begin A continual chain Which lasts throughout eternity Every life but a minute in time But each of equal importance — Benjamin Franklin

Death and taxes are the only two certainties in life, as Mark Twain once said. Or was it Benjamin Franklin? — Stephen Leather

Time is the stuff life is made of. — Benjamin Franklin

Chess teaches foresight, by having to plan ahead; vigilance, by having to keep watch over the whole chess board; caution, by having to restrain ourselves from making hasty moves; and finally, we learn from chess the greatest maxim in life - that even when everything seems to be going badly for us we should not lose heart, but always hoping for a change for the better, steadfastly continue searching for the solutions to our problems. — Benjamin Franklin

I grew convinc'd that truth, sincerity and integrity in dealings between man and man were of the utmost importance to the felicity of life; — Benjamin Franklin

Since such a repetition is not to be expected, the next thing most like living one's life over again seems to be a recollection of that life, and to make that recollection as durable as possible by putting it down in writing. Hereby, — Benjamin Franklin

And, lastly (I may as well confess it, since my denial of it will be believed by nobody), perhaps I shall a good deal gratify my own vanity. Indeed, I scarce ever heard or saw the introductory words, "Without vanity I may say," etc., but some vain thing immediately followed. Most people dislike vanity in others, whatever share they have of it themselves; but I give it fair quarter wherever I meet with it, being persuaded that it is often productive of good to the possessor, and to others that are within his sphere of action; and therefore, in many cases, it would not be altogether absurd if a man were to thank God for is vanity among the other comforts of life. — Benjamin Franklin

Many people die at twenty five and aren't buried until they are seventy five. — Benjamin Franklin

One of the greatest tragedies of life is the murder of a beautiful theory by a gang of brutal facts. — Benjamin Franklin

I wish it were possible, from this instance, to invent a method of embalming drowned persons in such a manner that they may be recalled to life at any period, however distant; for having a very ardent desire to see and observe the state of America a hundred years hence, I should prefer to any ordinary death the being immersed in a cask of Madeira wine with a few friends till that time, to be then recalled to life by the solar warmth of my dear country! — Benjamin Franklin

I should have no objection to a repetition of the same life from its beginning, — Benjamin Franklin

I have lived a long time, sir, and the longer I live the more convincing proofs I see of this truth - that God governs in the affairs of men. — Benjamin Franklin

Here is my Creed. I believe in one God, creator of the Universe. That he governs it by his Providence. That he ought to be worshiped. That the most acceptable service we render him is doing good to his other children. That the soul of Man is immortal, and will be treated with justice in another life respecting its conduct in this. — Benjamin Franklin

So much for industry, my friends, and attention to one's own business; but to these we must add frugality if we would make our industry more certainly successful. A man may, if he knows not how to save as he gets, keep his nose all his life to the grindstone, and die not worth a grout at last. — Benjamin Franklin

Hope is an essential constituent of human life. — Benjamin Franklin

There are in life real evils enough and it is folly to afflict ourselves with imaginary ones. — Benjamin Franklin