200 Benjamin Franklin Quotes: Timeless Wit & Wisdom

Wisdom from Poor Richard’s Almanack

For twenty-five years, Franklin filled Poor Richard’s Almanack with proverbs under the pen name Richard Saunders. These forty are the sharpest of them — the lines people still quote every day without knowing where they came from.

1. Early to bed and early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise. — Benjamin Franklin
2. Well done is better than well said. — Benjamin Franklin
3. A penny saved is a penny earned. — Benjamin Franklin
4. God helps those who help themselves. — Benjamin Franklin
5. Diligence is the mother of good luck. — Benjamin Franklin
6. Never leave that till tomorrow which you can do today. — Benjamin Franklin
7. Lost time is never found again. — Benjamin Franklin
8. The doors of wisdom are never shut. — Benjamin Franklin
9. He that is good for making excuses is seldom good for anything else. — Benjamin Franklin
10. Beware of little expenses; a small leak will sink a great ship. — Benjamin Franklin
11. Three may keep a secret, if two of them are dead. — Benjamin Franklin
12. Fish and visitors stink in three days. — Benjamin Franklin
13. Don’t throw stones at your neighbors, if your own windows are glass. — Benjamin Franklin
14. Tart words make no friends; a spoonful of honey will catch more flies than a gallon of vinegar. — Benjamin Franklin
15. Keep your eyes wide open before marriage, half shut afterwards. — Benjamin Franklin
16. Love your enemies, for they tell you your faults. — Benjamin Franklin
17. The used key is always bright. — Benjamin Franklin
18. Hide not your talents, they for use were made. What’s a sundial in the shade? — Benjamin Franklin
19. There are no gains without pains. — Benjamin Franklin
20. Sloth makes all things difficult, but industry all easy. — Benjamin Franklin
21. He that riseth late must trot all day. — Benjamin Franklin
22. A fat kitchen makes a lean will. — Benjamin Franklin
23. Great talkers, little doers. — Benjamin Franklin
24. The worst wheel of the cart makes the most noise. — Benjamin Franklin
25. At the working man’s house hunger looks in but dares not enter. — Benjamin Franklin
26. Industry need not wish. — Benjamin Franklin
27. A learned blockhead is a greater blockhead than an ignorant one. — Benjamin Franklin
28. The sleeping fox catches no poultry. — Benjamin Franklin
29. Plow deep while sluggards sleep. — Benjamin Franklin
30. Glass, china, and reputation are easily cracked, and never well mended. — Benjamin Franklin
31. Creditors have better memories than debtors. — Benjamin Franklin
32. When in doubt, don’t. — Benjamin Franklin
33. Silence is not always a sign of wisdom, but babbling is ever a mark of folly. — Benjamin Franklin
34. A countryman between two lawyers is like a fish between two cats. — Benjamin Franklin
35. The heart of a fool is in his mouth, but the mouth of a wise man is in his heart. — Benjamin Franklin
36. Speak little, do much. — Benjamin Franklin
37. He that falls in love with himself will have no rivals. — Benjamin Franklin
38. Pardoning the bad is injuring the good. — Benjamin Franklin
39. The discontented man finds no easy chair. — Benjamin Franklin
40. Content makes poor men rich; discontent makes rich men poor. — Benjamin Franklin

Benjamin Franklin Quotes on Money, Work & Thrift

Nobody wrote about money with more common sense. From The Way to Wealth to his famous letter advising a young tradesman, these forty lines are a complete education in thrift, industry, and staying out of debt.

1. Remember that time is money. — Benjamin Franklin
2. Remember that money is of the prolific, generating nature. Money can beget money, and its offspring can beget more. — Benjamin Franklin
3. The way to wealth is as plain as the way to market. It depends chiefly on two words, industry and frugality. — Benjamin Franklin
4. For age and want, save while you may; no morning sun lasts a whole day. — Benjamin Franklin
5. Gain may be temporary and uncertain, but ever while you live, expense is constant and certain. — Benjamin Franklin
6. Beware of little expenses. — Benjamin Franklin
7. He that goes a borrowing goes a sorrowing. — Benjamin Franklin
8. The second vice is lying; the first is running in debt. — Benjamin Franklin
9. Lying rides upon debt’s back. — Benjamin Franklin
10. Rather go to bed supperless than rise in debt. — Benjamin Franklin
11. If you would know the value of money, go and try to borrow some. — Benjamin Franklin
12. Think what you do when you run in debt: you give to another power over your liberty. — Benjamin Franklin
13. The borrower is a slave to the lender, and the debtor to the creditor. — Benjamin Franklin
14. He that would have a short Lent, let him borrow money to be repaid at Easter. — Benjamin Franklin
15. Credit is money. — Benjamin Franklin
16. The sound of your hammer at five in the morning, or nine at night, heard by a creditor, makes him easy six months longer. — Benjamin Franklin
17. Money never made a man happy yet, nor will it, there is nothing in its nature to produce happiness. — Benjamin Franklin
18. He that is of the opinion money will do everything may well be suspected of doing everything for money. — Benjamin Franklin
19. The more of it one has, the more one wants. — Benjamin Franklin
20. What maintains one vice would bring up two children. — Benjamin Franklin
21. Buy what thou hast no need of, and ere long thou shalt sell thy necessaries. — Benjamin Franklin
22. Fond pride of dress is sure a very curse; ere fancy you consult, consult your purse. — Benjamin Franklin
23. It is easier to suppress the first desire than to satisfy all that follow it. — Benjamin Franklin
24. Who is rich? He that rejoices in his portion. — Benjamin Franklin
25. Poverty wants some things, luxury many things, avarice all things. — Benjamin Franklin
26. If you know how to spend less than you get, you have the philosopher’s stone. — Benjamin Franklin
27. Wealth is not his that has it, but his that enjoys it. — Benjamin Franklin
28. He does not possess wealth; it possesses him. — Benjamin Franklin
29. Wealth and content are not always bedfellows. — Benjamin Franklin
30. The poor have little, beggars none, the rich too much, enough not one. — Benjamin Franklin
31. Many a man thinks he is buying pleasure, when he is really selling himself to it. — Benjamin Franklin
32. A rich rogue is like a fat hog, who never does good till as dead as a log. — Benjamin Franklin
33. The poor man must walk to get meat for his stomach, the rich man to get a stomach to his meat. — Benjamin Franklin
34. If you would have your business done, go; if not, send. — Benjamin Franklin
35. Drive thy business, let not that drive thee. — Benjamin Franklin
36. If you would have a faithful servant, and one that you like, serve yourself. — Benjamin Franklin
37. I never saw an oft-transplanted tree, nor yet an oft-removed family, that throve so well as those that settled be. — Benjamin Franklin
38. Great estates may venture more, but little boats should keep near shore. — Benjamin Franklin
39. He that lives upon hope will die fasting. — Benjamin Franklin
40. Diligence is the mother of good luck, and God gives all things to industry. — Benjamin Franklin

Time, Industry & Success

Franklin treated time like currency and work like worship. These forty sayings on industry, mornings, and making the most of your hours still read like a productivity manual written three centuries early.

1. Dost thou love life? Then do not squander time, for that’s the stuff life is made of. — Benjamin Franklin
2. If time be of all things the most precious, wasting time must be the greatest prodigality. — Benjamin Franklin
3. You may delay, but time will not. — Benjamin Franklin
4. One today is worth two tomorrows. — Benjamin Franklin
5. Have you something to do tomorrow? Do it today. — Benjamin Franklin
6. Take time for all things: great haste makes great waste. — Benjamin Franklin
7. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. — Benjamin Franklin
8. 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. — Benjamin Franklin
9. A little neglect may breed mischief. — Benjamin Franklin
10. Little strokes fell great oaks. — Benjamin Franklin
11. The early morning has gold in its mouth. — Benjamin Franklin
12. Up, sluggard, and waste not life; in the grave will be sleeping enough. — Benjamin Franklin
13. There will be sleeping enough in the grave. — Benjamin Franklin
14. The cat in gloves catches no mice. — Benjamin Franklin
15. Sloth, like rust, consumes faster than labor wears, while the used key is always bright. — Benjamin Franklin
16. Employ thy time well, if thou meanest to gain leisure. — Benjamin Franklin
17. If you would not be forgotten, as soon as you are dead and rotten, either write things worth reading, or do things worth the writing. — Benjamin Franklin
18. Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing. — Benjamin Franklin
19. The noblest question in the world is: What good may I do in it? — Benjamin Franklin
20. Genius without education is like silver in the mine. — Benjamin Franklin
21. An empty bag cannot stand upright. — Benjamin Franklin
22. Being ignorant is not so much a shame, as being unwilling to learn. — Benjamin Franklin
23. What more valuable than gold? Diamonds. Than diamonds? Virtue. — Benjamin Franklin
24. Wish not so much to live long as to live well. — Benjamin Franklin
25. If all printers were determined not to print anything till they were sure it would offend nobody, there would be very little printed. — Benjamin Franklin
26. Printers are educated in the belief that when men differ in opinion, both sides ought equally to have the advantage of being heard. — Benjamin Franklin
27. Human felicity is produced not so much by great pieces of good fortune that seldom happen, as by little advantages that occur every day. — Benjamin Franklin
28. I conceive that great part of the miseries of mankind are brought upon them by the false estimates they have made of the value of things. — Benjamin Franklin
29. Hunger is the best pickle. — Benjamin Franklin
30. A full belly makes a dull brain. — Benjamin Franklin
31. Eat to live, and not live to eat. — Benjamin Franklin
32. To lengthen thy life, lessen thy meals. — Benjamin Franklin
33. The best doctor gives the least medicines. — Benjamin Franklin
34. God heals, and the doctor takes the fees. — Benjamin Franklin
35. He’s the best physician that knows the worthlessness of the most medicines. — Benjamin Franklin
36. Don’t misinform your doctor nor your lawyer. — Benjamin Franklin
37. Trouble knocked at the door, but, hearing laughter, hurried away. — Benjamin Franklin
38. He that displays too often his wife and his wallet is in danger of having both of them borrowed. — Benjamin Franklin
39. Necessity never made a good bargain. — Benjamin Franklin
40. Old boys have their playthings as well as young ones; the difference is only in the price. — Benjamin Franklin

Friends, Love & Life

Behind the statesman was a man who thought deeply about friendship, marriage, and character. These forty lines are his most human — warm, funny, and occasionally cheeky.

1. Be slow in choosing a friend, slower in changing. — Benjamin Franklin
2. A true friend is the greatest of all blessings, and that which we take the least care of all to acquire. — Benjamin Franklin
3. Do good to your friends to keep them, to your enemies to win them. — Benjamin Franklin
4. If you would keep your secret from an enemy, tell it not to a friend. — Benjamin Franklin
5. If you would be loved, love and be lovable. — Benjamin Franklin
6. Love your neighbor; yet don’t pull down your hedge. — Benjamin Franklin
7. Love and cough cannot be hid. — Benjamin Franklin
8. Beauty and folly are old companions. — Benjamin Franklin
9. Where there’s marriage without love, there will be love without marriage. — Benjamin Franklin
10. Marriage is the most natural state of man, and the state in which you will find solid happiness. — Benjamin Franklin
11. One good husband is worth two good wives; for the scarcer things are, the more they’re valued. — Benjamin Franklin
12. A good conscience is a continual Christmas. — Benjamin Franklin
13. How many observe Christ’s birthday! How few, his precepts! — Benjamin Franklin
14. Serving God is doing good to man, but praying is thought an easier service, and therefore more generally chosen. — Benjamin Franklin
15. The way to see by faith is to shut the eye of reason. — Benjamin Franklin
16. Think of three things: whence you came, where you are going, and to whom you must account. — Benjamin Franklin
17. The way to be safe is never to be secure. — Benjamin Franklin
18. He that would live in peace and at ease must not speak all he knows or judge all he sees. — Benjamin Franklin
19. Whatever is begun in anger ends in shame. — Benjamin Franklin
20. Anger is never without a reason, but seldom with a good one. — Benjamin Franklin
21. To be humble to superiors is duty, to equals courtesy, to inferiors nobleness. — Benjamin Franklin
22. Pride is as loud a beggar as want, and a great deal more saucy. — Benjamin Franklin
23. Pride breakfasted with plenty, dined with poverty, and supped with infamy. — Benjamin Franklin
24. Blame-all and praise-all are two blockheads. — Benjamin Franklin
25. Laws too gentle are seldom obeyed; too severe, seldom executed. — Benjamin Franklin
26. The strictest law sometimes becomes the severest injustice. — Benjamin Franklin
27. None preaches better than the ant, and she says nothing. — Benjamin Franklin
28. The rotten apple spoils his companion. — Benjamin Franklin
29. He that lieth down with dogs shall rise up with fleas. — Benjamin Franklin
30. Great beauty, great strength, and great riches are really and truly of no great use. — Benjamin Franklin
31. Search others for their virtues, thyself for thy vices. — Benjamin Franklin
32. Admiration is the daughter of ignorance. — Benjamin Franklin
33. To find out a girl’s faults, praise her to her girlfriends. — Benjamin Franklin
34. Words may show a man’s wit but actions his meaning. — Benjamin Franklin
35. If your head is wax, don’t walk in the sun. — Benjamin Franklin
36. A slip of the foot you may soon recover, but a slip of the tongue you may never get over. — Benjamin Franklin
37. Half the truth is often a great lie. — Benjamin Franklin
38. Half wits talk much but say little. — Benjamin Franklin
39. A man of words and not of deeds is like a garden full of weeds. — Benjamin Franklin
40. What is a butterfly? At best, he’s but a caterpillar, at rest. — Benjamin Franklin

Liberty, Character & Famous Sayings

From the Revolution to the Constitutional Convention, Franklin’s public words helped shape a nation. This final forty mixes his documented sayings on liberty with widely-circulating lines that are clearly marked as attributed.

1. They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. — Benjamin Franklin
2. In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes. — Benjamin Franklin
3. I have lived, Sir, a long time, and the longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this truth, that God governs in the affairs of men. — Benjamin Franklin
4. We have given you a republic, if you can keep it. — Benjamin Franklin
5. We must, indeed, all hang together or, most assuredly, we shall all hang separately. — Benjamin Franklin
6. Rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God. — Benjamin Franklin
7. There never was a good war or a bad peace. — Benjamin Franklin
8. All wars are follies, very expensive and very mischievous ones. — Benjamin Franklin
9. Behold the rain which descends from heaven upon our vineyards; there it enters the roots of the vines, to be changed into wine; a constant proof that God loves us, and loves to see us happy. — Benjamin Franklin
10. I am for doing good to the poor, but I differ in opinion of the means. — Benjamin Franklin
11. The greatest monarch on the proudest throne is obliged to sit upon his own arse. — Benjamin Franklin
12. Beware the hobby that eats. — Benjamin Franklin
13. Experience keeps a dear school, but fools will learn in no other. — Benjamin Franklin
14. Fools make feasts and wise men eat them. — Benjamin Franklin
15. A false friend and a shadow attend only while the sun shines. — Benjamin Franklin
16. An investment in knowledge pays the best interest. — Attributed to Benjamin Franklin
17. If a man empties his purse into his head, no man can take it away from him. — Attributed to Benjamin Franklin
18. Energy and persistence conquer all things. — Attributed to Benjamin Franklin
19. Without continual growth and progress, such words as improvement, achievement, and success have no meaning. — Attributed to Benjamin Franklin
20. By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail. — Attributed to Benjamin Franklin
21. It takes many good deeds to build a good reputation, and only one bad one to lose it. — Attributed to Benjamin Franklin
22. Honesty is the best policy. — Attributed to Benjamin Franklin
23. Never confuse motion with action. — Attributed to Benjamin Franklin
24. Life’s tragedy is that we get old too soon and wise too late. — Attributed to Benjamin Franklin
25. Some people die at 25 and aren’t buried until 75. — Attributed to Benjamin Franklin
26. Do not anticipate trouble, or worry about what may never happen. Keep in the sunlight. — Attributed to Benjamin Franklin
27. To succeed, jump as quickly at opportunities as you do at conclusions. — Attributed to Benjamin Franklin
28. Leisure is the time for doing something useful. — Attributed to Benjamin Franklin
29. When you’re finished changing, you’re finished. — Attributed to Benjamin Franklin
30. Genius is nothing but a greater aptitude for patience. — Attributed to Benjamin Franklin
31. There are two ways of being happy: we must either diminish our wants or augment our means. — Attributed to Benjamin Franklin
32. It is the working man who is the happy man. It is the idle man who is the miserable man. — Attributed to Benjamin Franklin
33. The man who does things makes many mistakes, but he never makes the biggest mistake of all — doing nothing. — Attributed to Benjamin Franklin
34. Work as if you were to live a hundred years. Pray as if you were to die tomorrow. — Attributed to Benjamin Franklin
35. Where liberty dwells, there is my country. — Attributed to Benjamin Franklin
36. A house is not a home unless it contains food and fire for the mind as well as the body. — Attributed to Benjamin Franklin
37. A man wrapped up in himself makes a very small bundle. — Attributed to Benjamin Franklin
38. We are all born ignorant, but one must work hard to remain stupid. — Attributed to Benjamin Franklin
39. The doorstep to the temple of wisdom is a knowledge of our own ignorance. — Attributed to Benjamin Franklin
40. Constant dripping hollows out a stone. — Attributed to Benjamin Franklin

Editor’s Picks: The Very Best Benjamin Franklin Quotes

Eleven lines that distill a lifetime of wit — the Franklin essentials, exactly as they appear in the collection above.

FAQs About Benjamin Franklin Quotes

What is Benjamin Franklin’s most famous quote?

“Early to bed and early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise.” It comes from Poor Richard’s Almanack, which Franklin published under the pen name Richard Saunders from 1732 to 1758.

Did Benjamin Franklin really say the beer quote?

Not quite. In a 1779 letter to André Morellet he wrote about wine: “Behold the rain which descends from heaven upon our vineyards… a constant proof that God loves us, and loves to see us happy.” The beer version is a corruption of that line.

What was Poor Richard’s Almanack?

An annual almanac Franklin published for twenty-five years under the pen name Richard Saunders. Its pages of witty proverbs are the source of most benjamin franklin quotes in circulation today.

Are all of these quotes really his?

The 175 marked “Benjamin Franklin” come from his Almanack, letters, autobiography, or documented sayings. The 25 marked “Attributed to Benjamin Franklin” are widely-circulating lines whose authorship scholars dispute — and a few famous misattributions, like “Tell me and I forget,” were left out entirely.

More to Explore

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• Wisdom Quotes — timeless sayings from history’s greatest minds
• Money Quotes — wit and wisdom about wealth
• Success Quotes — lines on achievement and ambition
• Time Quotes — making every hour count
• Hard Work Quotes — the dignity of effort
• Leadership Quotes — guiding others well
• Patience Quotes — the quiet strength
• Perseverance Quotes — keep going
• Abraham Lincoln Quotes — another founder of American wit
• Life Quotes — the big picture
• Happiness Quotes — what matters most
• Funny Quotes — laugh a little