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Home  »  Dictionary of Quotations  »  Benjamin Franklin

James Wood, comp. Dictionary of Quotations. 1899.

Benjamin Franklin

A little neglect may breed great mischief.

Ça ira—It shall go on (a French Revolution song).

Covetousness is ever attended with solicitude and anxiety.

Do good to thy friend to keep him, to thy enemy to gain him.

Dost thou love life? Then do not squander time, for that is the stuff life is made of.

Drive thy business, let not thy business drive thee.

Each year one vicious habit rooted out, in time might make the worst man good.

Eat to please thyself, but dress to please others.

Employ thy time well if thou meanest to gain leisure, and, since you are not sure of a minute, throw not away an hour.

Experience keeps a dear school, but fools will learn in no other, and scarce in that; for it is true we may give advice, but we cannot give conduct.

For want of a nail the shoe was lost, for want of a shoe the horse was lost, and for want of a horse the rider was lost.

Great haste makes great waste.

Hard work is still the road to prosperity, and there is no other.

He has paid dear, very dear, for his whistle.

He that blows the coals in quarrels he has nothing to do with, has no right to complain if the sparks fly in his face.

He that hath a trade hath an estate, and he that hath a calling hath an office of profit and honour.

He that lives upon hopes will die fasting.

Idleness and pride tax with a heavier hand than kings and parliaments.

If a man empties his purse into his head, no man can take it from him.

If you have time, don’t wait for time.

If you know how to spend less than you get, you have the philosopher’s stone.

If you would have a faithful servant and one you like, serve yourself.

Industry need not wish.

It is easier to suppress the first desire than to satisfy all that follow it.

It is folly to lay out money in the purchase of repentance.

Laziness travels so slowly that poverty soon overtakes him.

Leisure is time for doing something useful; this leisure the diligent man will obtain; the lazy man never.

Let thy child’s first lesson be obedience, and the second will be what thou wilt.

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

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.

Never leave that till to-morrow which you can do to-day.

Nothing preaches better than the ant, and she says nothing.

One to-day is worth two to-morrows.

Pay not before thy work be done; If thou dost, it will never be well done, and thou wilt have but a pennyworth for twopence.

Plough deep while sluggards sleep.

Poverty often deprives a man of all spirit and virtue. It is hard for an empty bag to stand upright.

Rather go to bed supperless than rise in debt.

Sloth makes all things difficult, but industry all things easy.

Sloth, like rust, consumes faster than labour wears, while the used key is always bright.

The ancients tell us what is best; but we must learn of the moderns what is fittest.

The eye of the master will do more work than both his hands.

The eyes of other people are the eyes that ruin us. If all but myself were blind, I would want neither fine clothes, fine houses, nor fine furniture.

The way to wealth is as plain as the way to market; it depends chiefly on two words—industry and frugality.

Three may keep a secret—if two of them are dead.

Three removes are as bad as a fire.

Time is the stuff life is made of.

Tricks and treachery are the practice of fools that have not wit enough to be honest.

Want of care does us more damage than want of knowledge.

We are taxed twice as much by our idleness, three times as much by our pride, and four times as much by our folly; and from these taxes the Commissioners cannot ease or deliver us by allowing an abatement.

Wealth is not his that has it, but his that enjoys it.

Whate’er’s begun in anger ends in shame.

When you have bought one fine thing, you must buy ten more to be all of a piece.