Benjamin Franklin Men Quotations

We are more thoroughly an enlightened people, with respect to our political interests, than perhaps any other under heaven. Every man among us reads, and is so easy in his circumstances as to have leisure for conversations of improvement and for acquiring information.

When men and woman die, as poets sung, his heart's the last part moves, her last, the tongue.

Content makes poor men rich; discontent makes rich men poor.

There never was a truly great man that was not at the same time truly virtuous.

Speak ill of no man, but speak all the good you know of everybody.

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

It is a grand mistake to think of being great without goodness and I pronounce it as certain that there was never a truly great man that was not at the same time truly virtuous.

It is the working man who is the happy man. It is the idle man who is the miserable man.

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

Marriage is the most natural state of man, and... the state in which you will find solid happiness.

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

And whether you're an honest man, or whether you're a thief, depends on whose solicitor has given me my brief.

In the affairs of this world, men are saved not by faith, but by the want of it.

Nine men in ten are would be suicides.

Pollio, who values nothing that's within, Buys books as men hunt Beavers, -- for their Skin.

Men take more pains to mask than to mend.

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

If what most men admire, they would despise, 'Twould look as if mankind were growing wise

Good counsel failing men can give, for why? He that's aground knows where the shoal doth lie

Some men grow mad by studying much to know, But who grows mad by studying good to grow.

A man is sometimes more generous when he has but a little money than when he has plenty, perhaps through fear of being thought to have but little.

So much for industry, my friends, and attention to one's own business; but to these we must add frugality if we would make our industry more certainly successful. A man may, if he knows not how to save as he gets, keep his nose all his life to the grindstone, and die not worth a grout at last.

Some men grow mad by studying much to know, But who grows mad by studying good to grow.

I have never seen the Philosopher's Stone that turns lead into Gold, but I have known the pursuit of it turn a Man's Gold into Lead.

A dying man can do nothing easy.

When men are employed they are best contented.

That wise Men have in all Ages thought Government necessary for the Good of Mankind; and, that wise Governments have always thought Religion necessary for the well ordering and well-being of Society, and accordingly have been ever careful to encourage and protect the Ministers of it, paying them the highest publick Honours, that their Doctrines might thereby meet with the greater Respect among the common People.

Most people dislike vanity in others, whatever share they have of it themselves; but I give it fair quarter, wherever I meet with it, being persuaded that it is often productive of good to the possessor, and to others who are within his sphere of action: and therefore, in many cases, it would not be altogether absurd if a man were to thank God for his vanity among the other comforts of life.

And as to the Cares, they are chiefly what attend the bringing up of Children; and I would ask any Man who has experienced it, if they are not the most delightful Cares in the World; and if from that Particular alone, he does not find the Bliss of a double State much greater, instead of being less than he expected.

The man who does things makes mistakes, but he doesn't make the biggest mistake of all-doing nothing.

I think with you, that nothing is of more importance for the public weal, than to form and train up youth in wisdom and virtue. Wise and good men are in my opinion, the strength of the state; more so than riches or arms.

The poor man must walk to get meat for his stomach, the rich man to get a stomach to his meat.

At the working man’s house, hunger looks in but dares not enter.

We have no poor houses in the Colonies, and if we had, we would have no one to put in them, as in the Colonies there is not a single unemployed man, no poor and no vagabonds.

I grew convinced that truth, sincerity and integrity in dealings between man and man were of the utmost importance to the felicity of life, and I formed written resolutions . . . to practice them ever while I lived.

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. . . .

Three things are men most likely to be cheated in, a horse, a wig, and a wife.

I wish the bald eagle had not been chosen as the representative of our country; he is a bird of bad moral character; like those among men who live by sharping and robbing, he is generally poor, and often very lousy. The turkey is a much more respectable bird, and withal a true original native of America.

Presumption first blinds a man, then sets him a running.

Man is a tool-making animal

What science can there be more noble, more excellent, more useful for men, more admirably high and demonstrative, than this of mathematics?

It is the man and woman united that makes the complete human being. Separate she lacks his force of body and strength of reason; he her softness, sensibility and acute discernment. Together they are most likely to succeed in the world.

Remember this saying, The good payer is lord of another man's purse. He that is known to pay punctually and exactly to the time he promises, may at any time, and on any occasion, raise all the money his friends can spare.

On being asked what condition of man he considered the most pitiable: A lonesome man on a rainy day who does not know how to read.

The most trifling actions that affect a man's credit are to be regarded. The sound of your hammer at five in the morning, or at nine at night, heard by a creditor, makes him easy six months longer; but if he sees you at the billiard-table, or hears your voice at a tavern, when you should be at work, he sends for his money the next day.

It is wonderful how preposterously the affairs of the world are managed. We assemble parliaments and councils to have the benefit of collected wisdom, but we necessarily have, at the same time, the inconvenience of their collected passions, prejudices and private interests: for regulating commerce an assembly of great men is the greatest fool on earth

Poverty, Poetry, and new Titles of Honor, make Men ridiculous

There's many witty men whose brains can't fill their bellies.

The wise man draws more advantage from his enemies than the fool from his friends

A man separated from his reflective belt is no man at all.

Early to bed and early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise." He planned his routine around waking up at 5 a.m. and asking himself "What good shall I do this day?

Dangerous, therefore, is it to take shelter under a tree, during a thunder-gust. It has been fatal to many, both men and beasts.

Thank God! we are in the full enjoyment of all these privileges. But can we be taught to prize them too much? or how can we prize them equal to their value, if we do not know their intrinsic worth, and that they are not a gift bestowed upon us by other men, but a right that belongs to us by the laws of God and nature?

History will also give occasion to expatiate on the advantage of civil orders and constitutions; how men and their properties are protected by joining in societies and establishing government; their industry encouraged and rewarded, arts invented, and life made more comfortable; the advantages of liberty, mischiefs of licentiousness, benefits arising from good laws and a due execution of justice. Thus may the first principles of sound politics be fixed in the minds of youth.

When men differ in opinion, both sides ought equally to have the advantage of being heard by the public; when Truth and Error have fair play, the former is always an overmatch for the latter.

If a man would reap praise, you must sow the seeds, gentle words and useful deeds.

Pride is said to be the last vice the good man gets clear of...

The longer I live the more convinced I become that God governs in the affairs of men. And have we now forgotten that powerful friend? Or do we imagine we no longer need His assistance.

None but the well-bred man knows how to confess a fault, or acknowledge himself in an error.

Success has ruin'd many a man.

...it is prodigious the quantity of good that may be done by one man if he will make a business of it.

A man may, if he knows not how to save as he gets, keep his nose to the grindstone.

An old man in a house is a good sign.

After all, wedlock is the natural state of man. A bachelor is not a complete human being. He is like the odd half of a pair of scissors, which has not yet found its fellow, and therefore is not even half so useful as they might be together.

If a sound body and a sound mind, which is as much as to say health and virtue, are to be preferred before all other considerations, ought not men, in choosing a business either for themselves or children, to refuse such as are unwholesome for the body, and such as make a man too dependent, too much obliged to please others, and too much subjected to their humors in order to be recommended and get a livelihood?

Men are subject to various inconveniences merely through lack of a small share of courage, which is a quality very necessary in the common occurrences of life, as well as in a battle. How many impertinences do we daily suffer with great uneasiness, because we have not courage enough to discover our dislike.

Many estates are spent in the getting, since women for tea forsake spinning and knitting, and men for punch forsake hewing and splitting.

When you speak to a man, look on his eyes; when he speaks to you, look on his mouth.

Success has ruined many a man.

Is there anything men take more pains about than to render themselves unhappy?

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 its filling a vacuum, it makes one. If it satisfies one want, it doubles and trebles that want another way. That was a true proverb of the wise man, rely upon it; Better is little with the fear of the Lord, than great treasure, and trouble therewith.

There is always room for the man of force.

Men differ daily about things which are subject to sense, is it likely then they should agree about things invisible.

Why does the blind man's wife paint herself.

In other men we faults can spy,/ And blame the mote that dims their eye;/ Each little speck and blemish find;/ To our own stronger errors blind.

The cunning man steals a horse, the wise man lets him alone.

One Man may be more cunning than another, but not more cunning than every body else.

The same man cannot be both Friend and Flatterer.

If any man flatters me, I'll flatter him again; tho' he were my best Friend.

No man ever was glorious, who was not laborious.

If I knew a miser, who gave up every kind of comfortable living, all the pleasure of doing good to others, all the esteem of his fellow-citizens, and the joys of benevolent friendship, for the sake of accumulating wealth. Poor man, said I, you pay too much for your whistle.

A wolf eats sheep but now and then, ten Thousands are devour'd by Men.

Let all Men know thee, but no man know thee thoroughly: Men freely ford that see the shallows.

Who judges best of a Man, his Enemies or himself?

Whether a Commonwealth suffers more by hypocritical pretenders to religion or by the openly profane? The most dangerous hypocrite in a Commonwealth is one who leaves the gospel for the sake of the law. A man compounded of law and gospel is able to cheat a whole country with his religion and then destroy them under color of law.

The English love an insult. It's their only test of a man's sincerity.

I believe ... that the soul of man is immortal and will be treated with justice in another life, respecting its conduct in this.

He that steals the old man's supper does him no wrong.

In a discreet man's mouth, a public thing is private.

Freedom of speech is the great bulwark of liberty; they prosper and die together: And it is the terror of traitors and oppressors, and a barrier against them. It produces excellent writers, and encourages men of fine genius.

That man alone loves himself rightly who procures the greatest possible good to himself through the whole of his existence and so pursues pleasure as not to give for it more than it is worth.

Virtue alone is sufficient to make a man great, glorious, and happy.

A man compounded of law and gospel is able to cheat a whole country with his religion and then destroy them under color of law

Wherever desirable superfluities are imported, industry is excited, and thereby plenty is produced. Were only necessaries permitted to be purchased, men would work no more than was necessary for that purpose.

The good particular men may do separately, in relieving the sick, is small, compared with what they may do collectively.

Men's minds do not die with their bodies but are made more happy or miserable after this life according to their actions.

You may give give a man office, but you cannot give him discretion

A lonely man on a rainy night who cannot read.

If you ride a horse, sit close and tight, if you ride a man, sit easy and light.

The man that walks wit crowd, will get no farther than the crowd. The man that walks alone, will reach places unknown.