Quotations from Benjamin Franklin


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An investment in knowledge pays the best interest.
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All wars are follies, very expensive and very mischievous ones.
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Any fool can criticize, condemn and complain and most fools do.
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Beware the hobby that eats.
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Even peace may be purchased at too high a price.

Games lubricate the body and the mind.

He that speaks much, is much mistaken.

I didn't fail the test, I just found 100 ways to do it wrong.

I guess I don't so much mind being old, as I mind being fat and old.

If all printers were determined not to print anything till they were sure it would offend nobody, there would be very little printed.

If you would be loved, love, and be loveable.

If you would know the value of money, go and try to borrow some.

It is only when the rich are sick that they fully feel the impotence of wealth.

Keep your eyes wide open before marriage, half shut afterwards.

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

Many a man thinks he is buying pleasure, when he is really selling himself to it.

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

Mine is better than ours.

Never confuse motion with action.

One today is worth two tomorrows.

Our necessities never equal our wants.

Rebellion against tyrants is obedience to God.

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.

Savages we call them because their manners differ from ours.

Take time for all things: great haste makes great waste.

The Constitution only gives people the right to pursue happiness. You have to catch it yourself.

The doors of wisdom are never shut.

The first mistake in public business is the going into it.

There are three faithful friends - an old wife, an old dog, and ready money.

Three can keep a secret, if two of them are dead.

To Follow by faith alone is to follow blindly.

To succeed, jump as quickly at opportunities as you do at conclusions.

Wars are not paid for in wartime, the bill comes later.

We are all born ignorant, but one must work hard to remain stupid.

Well done is better than well said.

When in doubt, don't.

Wise men don't need advice. Fools won't take it.

Words may show a man's wit but actions his meaning.

Work as if you were to live a hundred years. Pray as if you were to die tomorrow.

Your net worth to the world is usually determined by what remains after your bad habits are subtracted from your good ones.