Benjamin Franklin Life Quotations

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

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

It is easier to prevent bad habits than to break them.

I should have no objection to go over the same life from its beginning to the end: requesting only the advantage authors have, of correcting in a second edition the faults of the first.

He that raises a large family does, indeed, while he lives to observe them, stand a broader mark for sorrow; but then he stands a broader mark for pleasure too.

Hide not your talents. They for use were made. What's a sundial in the shade?

Never leave that till tomorrow which you can do today.

If a man could have half of his wishes, he would double his troubles.

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

Be at war with your vices, at peace with your neighbors, and let every new year find you a better man.

Half a truth is often a great lie.

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

He that waits upon fortune, is never sure of a dinner.

Life with fools consists in drinking; with the wise man, thinking.

Time is the stuff life is made of.

'Tis true there is much to be done, . . . but stick to it steadily, and you will see great effects, for constant dropping wears away stones . . . and little strokes fell great oaks, as Poor Richard says. . . .

Industry and frugality, as the means of procuring wealth . . . thereby [secures] virtue, it being more difficult for a man in want to act always honestly. . . .

Gaining money by my industry and frugality, I lived very agreeably. . . .

Hope is an essential constituent of human life.

Do you love life? Then don't waste time, because time is life!

Industry need not wish, and he that lives upon hopes will die fasting. There are no gains without pains. He that hath a trade hath an estate, and he that hath a calling hath an office of profit and honor; but then the trade must be worked at and the calling followed, or neither the estate nor the office will enable us to pay our taxes. If we are industrious, we shall never starve; for at the workingman's house hunger looks in, but dares not enter. Nor will the bailiff or the constable enter, for industry pays debts, while idleness and neglect increase them.

What is without us has no connection with happiness, only so far as the preservation of our lives and health depends upon it. . . . Happiness springs immediately from the mind.

Ben Franklin was a little stout later in life and it was said that in Paris a young woman, tapping him on his protruding abdomen, said,"Dr. Franklin, if this were on a woman, we'd know what to think." And Franklin replied,"Half an hour ago, Mademoiselle, it was on a woman, and now what do you think?"

The only certain things in life are death and taxes!

Time Like a petal in the wind Flows softly by As old lives are taken New ones begin A continual chain Which lasts throughout eternity Every life but a minute in time But each of equal importance

Life is a kind of chess.

Human happiness comes not from infrequent pieces of good fortune, but from the small improvements to daily life.

Change is the only constant in life. Ones ability to adapt to those changes will determine your success in life.

Most men die from the neck up at age twenty-five because they stop dreaming.

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

Who is strong? He that can conquer his bad habits.

Be civil to all; sociable to many; familiar with few; friend to one; enemy to none.

Beware of the young doctor and the old barber.

Genius is nothing but a greater aptitude for patience.

An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

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.

I have lived a long time, sir, and the longer I live the more convincing proofs I see of this truth - that God governs in the affairs of men.

The next thing most like living one's life over again seems to be a recollection of that life, and to make that recollection as durable as possible by putting it down in writing.

Our whole life is but a greater and longer childhood.

A long life may not be good enough, but a good life is long enough.

There seem to be but three ways for a nation to acquire wealth. The first is by war, as the Romans did, in plundering their conquered neighbors. 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, wrought by the hand of God in his favor, as a reward for his innocent life and his virtuous industry.

To lengthen thy life, lessen thy meals.

Were the offer made true, I would engage to run again, from beginning to end, the same career of life. All I would ask should be the privilege of an author, to correct, in a second edition, certain errors of the first.

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

One today is worth two tomorrows. Lost time is never found again. Time is money. Dost thou love life? Then do not squander time, for that's the stuff that life is made of. You may delay, but time will not.

Tis better leave for an enemy at one's death, than beg of a friend in one's life

Were it offered to my choice, I should have no objection to a repetition of the same life from its beginning, only asking the advantages authors have in a second edition to correct some faults in the first.

A life of leisure, and a life of laziness, are two things.

Do not squander time for that is the stuff life is made of.

If you wouldst live long, live well; for folly and wickedness shorten life