Lots of Good Advice from Benjamin Franklin

I love quotes because they can be like good jokes – they can make you look at things from a different perspective and maybe even laugh.

The following quotes from Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) US statesman, diplomat, inventor, and printer make me want to read a good biography on his life.

  • He that waits upon fortune, is never sure of a dinner.
  • He that lives upon hope will die fasting.
  • Laws too gentle are seldom obeyed; too severe, seldom executed.
  • There is a difference between imitating a good man and counterfeiting him.
  • Happiness consists more in small conveniences or 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.
  • If a man empties his purse into his head, no man can take it away from him. An investment in knowledge always pays the best interest.
  • Money never made a man happy yet, nor will it. There is nothing in its nature to produce happiness. The more a man has, the more he wants. Instead of filling a vacuum, it makes one.
  • To succeed, jump as quickly at opportunities as you do at conclusions.
  • If you would be loved, love and be lovable
  • Fear not death, for the sooner we die the longer we shall be immortal.
  • A man is not completely born until he is dead.
  • A penny saved is a penny earned
  • I will speak ill of no man, and speak all the good I know of everybody.
  • Joy is not in things! It is in us!
  • Anger warms the Invention, but overheats the oven.
  • They that can give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty or safety.
  • While we may not be able to control all that happens to us, we can control what happens inside us. (Sounds like the first Covey principle)
  • Whatever is begun in anger ends in shame.
  • God heals and the Doctor takes the fee.
  • Keep your eyes wide open before marriage, half shut afterwards.
  • Hide not your talents, they for use were made. What’s a sundial in the shade?
  • Be civil to all, sociable to many, familiar with few, friend to one, enemy to none
  • Remember that time is money.
  • Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote!
  • I will speak ill of no man, and speak all the good I know of everybody.
  • Nothing in life is certain except death and taxes

Technorati Tags:

Leave a Reply