“The things which hurt, instruct.”
Source: Poor Richard's Almanack
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Famous Benjamin Franklin Quotes
“The cat in gloves catches no mice.”
Source: The Way to Wealth
“Then plough deep while sluggards sleep, and you shall have corn to sell and to keep.”
Source: Memoirs of the Life and Writings of (the Same), Continued to the Time of His Death by William Temple Franklin. - London, H. Colburn 1818
Source: Memoirs of Benjamin Franklin
Source: The Works of Benjamin Franklin: Containing Several Political and Historical Tracts Not Included in Any Former Edition, and Many Letters, Official and Private Not Hitherto Published; with Notes and a Life of the Author
“Teach your child to hold his tongue; he'll learn fast enough to speak.”
Source: Poor Richard's Almanack
“A Man of Knowledge like a rich Soil, feeds If not a world of Corn, a world of Weeds.”
Source: Poor Richard's Almanack: Being the Choicest Morsels of Wisdom, Written During the Years of the Almanack's Publication
Source: The Way to Wealth and Poor Richard's Almanac
“A fine genius in his own country is like gold in the mine.”
Source: Poor Richard's Almanack
“Little boats should keep near shore”
Source: Memoirs of the life and writings of Benjamin Franklin ...
“Better slip with foot than tongue.”
Source: The Way to Wealth and Poor Richard's Almanac
“Do not do that which you would not have known.”
Source: Poor Richard's Almanack: Being the Choicest Morsels of Wisdom, Written During the Years of the Almanack's Publication
“He that cannot obey, cannot command.”
Source: The Way to Wealth and Poor Richard's Almanac
“What is a butterfly? At best He's but a caterpiller drest. The gaudy Fop's his picture just.”
Source: Poor Richard's Almanack
“When Wine enters, out goes the Truth.”
Source: Wisdom and Wit from Poor Richard's Almanack
“The second vice is lying, the first is running in debt.”
Source: Poor Richard's Almanack
“He that drinks his Cyder alone, let him catch his Horse alone.”
Source: Poor Richard's Almanack
“It is hard for an empty bag to stand upright.”
Source: Memoirs of the life and writings of Benjamin Franklin ...
“He that goes a borrowing goes a sorrowing.”
Source: Memoirs of the life and writings of Benjamin Franklin ...
“When you are good to others, you are best to yourself.”
Source: Autobiography and Other Writings
“He that takes a wife, takes care”
Source: The Way to Wealth and Poor Richard's Almanac
Source: The Autobiography and Other Writings
“Think What You Do When You Run in Debt: You Give to Another Power over Your Liberty”
Source: Poor Richard's Almanack
“The poor man must walk to get meat for his stomach, the rich man to get a stomach to his meat.”
Source: Poor Richard's Almanack
“Thou can'st not joke an enemy into a friend, but thou may'st a friend into an enemy.”
Source: Benjamin Franklin Wit and Wisdom
“Sin is not hurtful because it is forbidden, but it is forbidden because it is hurtful.”
Source: The Way to Wealth and Poor Richard's Almanac
“He that is rich need not live sparingly, and he that can live sparingly need not be rich.”
Source: The Way to Wealth and Poor Richard's Almanac
“They who have nothing to trouble them, will be troubled at nothing.”
Source: Poor Richard's Almanack: Being the Choicest Morsels of Wisdom, Written During the Years of the Almanack's Publication
“At the working man’s house, hunger looks in but dares not enter.”
Source: Memoirs of the Life and Writings of (the Same), Continued to the Time of His Death by William Temple Franklin. - London, H. Colburn 1818
“He that pursues two hares at once, does not catch one and lets the other go.”
Source: The Way to Wealth and Poor Richard's Almanac
“Not to oversee workmen is to leave them your purse open.”
Source: Memoirs of the life and writings of Benjamin Franklin ...
“Think of these things, whence you came, where you are going, and to whom you must account.”
Source: Autobiography: Poor Richard. Letters
“He's a fool that makes his doctor his heir.”
Source: Wit and Wisdom from Poor Richard's Almanack
“An undutiful daughter will prove an unmanageable wife.”
Source: Poor Richard's Almanack
“A long life may not be good enough, but a good life is long enough.”
Source: Poor Richard's Almanack
“Wink at small faults; remember thou hast great ones.”
Source: Wit and Wisdom from Poor Richard's Almanack
“Pardoning the Bad, is injuring the Good.”
Source: Autobiography and Other Writings
Source: A Benjamin Franklin Reader
Source: The Portable Benjamin Franklin
“You can not pluck roses without fear of thorns, Nor enjoy a fair wife without danger of horns.”
Source: Poor Richard's Almanack
“There are lazy minds as well as lazy bodies.”
Source: Poor Richard's Almanack: Being the Choicest Morsels of Wisdom, Written During the Years of the Almanack's Publication
“Three things are men most likely to be cheated in, a horse, a wig, and a wife.”
Source: Poor Richard's Almanack
“Industry pays debts, while despair increases them.”
Source: The Way to Wealth and Poor Richard's Almanac
“The borrower is a slave to the lender and the debtor to the creditor.”
Source: Autobiography and Other Writings
Source: Autobiography and Other Writings
“Lying rides upon debt's back.”
Source: Memoirs of the Life and Writings of (the Same), Continued to the Time of His Death by William Temple Franklin. - London, H. Colburn 1818