Tao Te Ching
Benjamin Franklin
1706 – 1790 CE
Beginning his adult life as a penniless runaway, Franklin became one of the world’s most admired people. He was a founding father, diplomat, scientist, philosopher, businessman, inventor, and the politician most responsible for winning the Revolutionary War. His inventions included the lightning rod, bifocals, the Franklin stove, and he helped start many new civic organizations including voluntary fire departments and paid police forces. He recreated the slogan/quote tradition of Aesop and Atisa that we continue in our “Comments” link.
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American (USA) Aphorists / Compilers Business Historians / Journalists Humanism Politicians Scientists
Eras
Chinese
Qing dynasty (1644 – 1912 CE)Sources
Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin
Unlisted Sources
Dogwood Papers (1722 when 16 years old)
epitaph when 22 and thought he was going to die
Letter from Benjamin to his son William
Letter to a relative when his brother died, 1756
Letter to Abigail Adams, 1817
Letter to Josiah Quincy, 1783
The Handsome and Deformed Leg
The Speech of Polly Baker (1794)
The Way to Wealth, 1757
Works, Vol. VII
Quotes by Benjamin Franklin (50 quotes)
“A slip of the foot you may soon recover, but a slip of the tongue you may never get over.”
Chapters:
9. Know When to Stop
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“An old young man will be a young old man.”
Chapters:
47. Effortless Success
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“Consider how hard it is to change yourself and you’ll understand what little chance you have in changing others.”
Chapters:
29. Not Doing
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“Good Sense is a thing all need, few have, and none think they lack.”
Chapters:
33. Know Yourself
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“He that falls in love with himself, will have no rivals.”
Chapters:
67. Three Treasures
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“He wished to please everybody; and, having little to give, he gave expectations.”
Chapters:
48. Unlearning
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“I have never seen the Philosopher’s Stone that turns lead into Gold, but I have known the pursuit of it turn a Man’s Gold into Lead.”
Chapters:
53. Shameless Thieves
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“I never doubted… that all crime will be punished, and virtue rewarded, either here or hereafter. These I esteem’d the essentials of every religion.”
from Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin
Chapters:
54. Planting Well
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“it being more difficult for a man in want to act honestly… ‘it is hard for an empty sack to stand upright.’”
Chapters:
53. Shameless Thieves
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“Keep your eyes wide open before marriage, half shut afterwards..”
Chapters:
29. Not Doing
61. Lying Low
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“Neither trust, nor contend, lay wagers, nor lend; and you’ll have peace until your life's end.”
Chapters:
57. Wu Wei
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“Our debates were… to be conducted in the sincere spirit of inquiry after truth without… desire of victory… all expressions of positiveness in opinions or direct contradiction were prohibited.”
from Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin
Chapters:
21. Following Empty Heart
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“Remember not only to say the right thing in the right place, but far more difficult still, to leave unsaid the wrong thing at the tempting moment.”
Chapters:
3. Weak Wishes, Strong Bones
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“Silence is not always a sign of wisdom but babbling is ever a mark of folly.”
Chapters:
37. Nameless Simplicity
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“Teach your child to hold his tongue, he’ll learn fast enough to speak.”
Chapters:
60. Less is More
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“The objections and reluctances I met with in soliciting the subscriptions, made me soon feel the impropriety of presenting one’s self as the proposer of any useful project.. I therefore put myself as much as I could out of sight and stated it as a scheme of ‘a number of friends.’”
from Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin
Chapters:
17. True Leaders
77. Stringing a Bow
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“The poor have little,
Beggars none;
The rich too much,
Enough not one.”
Chapters:
50. Claws and Swords
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“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.”
Chapters:
63. Easy as Hard
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“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.”
from Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin
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“In the affairs of this world, men are saved not by Faith,but by the lack of it.”
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“Beauty, like supreme dominion is but supported by opinion.”
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“I didn't fail the test. I just found 100 ways to do it wrong.”
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“If you love life, do not squander time for that's the stuff life is made from.”
from The Way to Wealth, 1757
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“Nothing is more fatal to health than an overcare of it.”
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“Constant complaint is the poorest sort of pay for all the comforts we enjoy.”
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“Whatever is begun in anger ends in shame.”
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“Trade in general being nothing else but the exchange of labor for labor, the value of all things is most justly measured by labor.”
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“I think the best way of doing good to the poor, is not making them easy in poverty, but leading or driving them out of it... I observed in different countries that the more public provisions were made for the poor, the less they provided for themselves, and of course became poorer. And, on the contrary, the less was done for them, the more they did for themselves, and became richer.”
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“The greatest monarch on the proudest throne is obliged to sit upon his own arse.”
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“Where there's marriage without love, there will be love without marriage.”
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“Many men die at twenty-five and aren't buried until they are seventy-five.”
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“the older I grow, the more apt I am to doubt my own judgment of others”
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“there is no form of government but what may be a blessing to the people, if well administered,,, [that it] can only end in despotism when the people shall become so corrupted as to need despotic government, being incapable of any other.”
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“I unhappily lost my honor by trusting to his; for he got me with child, and then forsook me... if you, gentlemen, must be making laws, do not turn natural and useful actions into crimes by your prohibitions... and therefore ought, instead of a whipping, to have a statue erected to my memory. [ This fictional speech was so effective, Polly was not only acquitted but the judge married her. ]”
from The Speech of Polly Baker (1794)
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“You believe I have offended heaven, and must suffer eternal fire: Will not that be sufficient?... If mine is a religious offense, leave it to religious punishments.”
from The Speech of Polly Baker (1794)
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“The body of B Franklin (Like the cover on an old book, it's contents torn out)... lies here, food for worms. But the work shall not be lost; for it will appear once more, in a new and elegant edition revised and corrected”
from epitaph when 22 and thought he was going to die
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“perhaps it is wiser and well to be contented with the good things before us, and to be thankful for what we have, rather than be thoughtful about what we have not.”
from Letter to Abigail Adams, 1817
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“A man is not completely born until he is dead... He who plucks out a tooth parts with it freely... he who quits the whole body parts at once with all pains an possibilities of pains and diseases capable of making him suffer... why should you and I be grieved at this since we are soon to follow?”
from Letter to a relative when his brother died, 1756
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“Those who are to be unhappy, think & speak only of the contraries... the Disposition to criticize & be disgusted... it is chiefly an Act of Imagination yet has serious Consequences in Life, as it brings on real Griefs and Misfortunes.”
from The Handsome and Deformed Leg
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“I wish Christianity were more productive of good works... not holy-day keeping, sermon hearing... or making long prayers filled with flatteries and compliments despised by wise men”
from Works, Vol. VII
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“Lighthouses are more helpful than churches.”
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“There never was a good war or a bad peace.”
from Letter to Josiah Quincy, 1783
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“Without freedom of thought there can be no such thing as wisdom, and no such thing as public liberty.”
from Dogwood Papers (1722 when 16 years old)
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“Nothing has ever hurt me so much and affected me with such keen Sensations as to find myself deserted in my old Age by my only Son, and not only deserted, but to find him taking up Arms against me, in a Cause wherein my good Fame, Fortune, and Life were all at stake.”
from Letter from Benjamin to his son William
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Quotes about Benjamin Franklin (6 quotes)
“God never made a more perfect creature than Ben Franklin... Above all, he had a clear mind, and it was from that clear, equitable temper of mind that the warm glow of humor and serenity flowed through his writings... he always knew what he wanted and was happy about it... Above all, his was always a searching mind. If anything, he was original.”
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“Some writers—impressed by the artificial splendors of the European courts—feel that Benjamin Franklin at the court of Louis XVI with his long hair, his plain clothes, and his pawky manner, was sadly lacking in aristocratic distinction. But, stripped to their personalities, Louis XVI was hardly gifted enough or noble minded enough to be Franklin's valet.”
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“Franklin's quiet memory climbs to heaven,
Calming the lightning which he thence hath riven,
Or drawing from the no less kindled earth
Freedom and peace to that which boasts his birth”
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“Franklin's life, a parable of New World possibilities, abounded in novelties... The bare facts of his career needed no embellishment to become the success saga of a self made man... a versatile high priest of the European Enlightenment... Franklin's legendary frontier charm enchanted the most elegant drawing rooms and the most desirable bedrooms. The rumors of his liaisons were countless... His last public act was a petition to Congress for the abolition of slavery.”
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“The patron saint of American philanthropy is... Benjamin Franklin, the man with a business sense and an eye on his community. For Franklin, doing good was not a private act between bountiful giver and grateful receiver it was a prudent social act.”
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