Top 500 Benjamin Franklin Quotes (2026 Update)
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201. “He that cannot obey, cannot command.”

— Benjamin Franklin

202. “Creditors have better memories than debtors.”

— Benjamin Franklin

203. “Take time for all things.”

— Benjamin Franklin

204. “If you want a thing done – go. If not – send.”

— Benjamin Franklin

205. “We are all born without knowledge, but curious. With curiosity we should be able to learn as much as possible. With curiosity, it has to take a lot of work to remain ignorant.”

— Benjamin Franklin

206. “A word to the wise is enough, and many words won’t fill a bushel.”

— Benjamin Franklin

207. “The best doctor gives the least medicines.”

— Benjamin Franklin

208. “I would rather have it said, ‘He lived usefully,’ than, ‘He died rich.’”

— Benjamin Franklin

209. “If you would persuade, you must appeal to interest rather than intellect.”

— Benjamin Franklin

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

— Benjamin Franklin

211. “When the people find that they can vote themselves money that will herald the end of the republic.”

— Benjamin Franklin

212. “Then plough deep while sluggards sleep, and you shall have corn to sell and to keep.”

— Benjamin Franklin

213. “Lend money to an enemy, and thou wilt gain him; lend to a friend, and thou wilt lose him.”

— Benjamin Franklin

214. “Nothing brings more pain than too much pleasure; nothing more bondage than too much liberty.”

— Benjamin Franklin

215. “Without justice, courage is weak.”

— Benjamin Franklin

216. “To be humble to superiors is a duty, to equals courtesy, to inferiors nobleness.”

— Benjamin Franklin

217. “Words may show a man’s wit but actions his meaning.”

— Benjamin Franklin

218. “Hope of gain lessens pain.”

— Benjamin Franklin

219. “The worst wheel of the cart makes the most noise.”

— Benjamin Franklin

220. “Would you persuade, speak of interest, not of reason.”

— Benjamin Franklin

221. “The handshake of the host affects the taste of the roast.”

— Benjamin Franklin

222. “A lie stands on one leg, truth on two.”

— Benjamin Franklin

223. “Those who beat their swords into plowshares usually end up plowing for those who kept their swords.”

— Benjamin Franklin

224. “That it is better 100 guilty Persons should escape than that one innocent Person should suffer, is a Maxim that has been long and generally approved.”

— Benjamin Franklin

225. “It is a strange anomaly that men could be careful to insure their houses, their ships, their merchandise, and yet neglect to insure their lives – surely the most important of all to their families, and more subject to loss.”

— Benjamin Franklin

226. “Where there’s no law, there’s no bread.”

— Benjamin Franklin

227. “The best way to help the poor is to make them uncomfortable in their own poverty.”

— Benjamin Franklin

228. “At twenty years of age the will reigns; at thirty, the wit; and at forty, the judgment.”

— Benjamin Franklin

229. “Critics are our friends, they show us our faults.”

— Benjamin Franklin

230. “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.”

— Benjamin Franklin

231. “The sleeping fox catches no poultry.”

— Benjamin Franklin

232. “Man will ultimately be governed by God or by tyrants.”

— Benjamin Franklin

233. “To err is human, to repent divine; to persist devilish.”

— Benjamin Franklin

234. “The doors of wisdom are never shut.”

— Benjamin Franklin

235. “A little neglect may breed great mischief.”

— Benjamin Franklin

236. “Genius without education is like silver in the mine.”

— Benjamin Franklin

237. “A virtuous heretic shall be saved before a wicked Christian.”

— Benjamin Franklin

238. “If time be of all things most precious, wasting time must be the greatest prodigality, since lost time is never found again; and what we call time enough always proves little enough. Let us then be up and doing, and doing to a purpose; so by diligence shall we do more with less perplexity.”

— Benjamin Franklin

239. “Women and wine, game and deceit, make the wealth small, and the want great.”

— Benjamin Franklin

240. “And where is the Prince who can afford to so cover his country with troops for its defense, as that ten thousand men descending from the clouds, might not in many places do an infinite deal of mischief, before a force could be brought together to repel them?”

— Benjamin Franklin

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241. “I fully agree with General Washington, that we must protect this young nation from an insidious influence and impenetration. The menace, gentlemen, is the Jews.”

— Benjamin Franklin

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

— Benjamin Franklin

243. “Great talkers, little doers.”

— Benjamin Franklin

244. “Love your Neighbour; yet don’t pull down your Hedge.”

— Benjamin Franklin

245. “Death takes no bribes.”

— Benjamin Franklin

246. “He’s the best physician who knows the worthlessness of most medicines.”

— Benjamin Franklin

247. “Sell not virtue to purchase wealth, nor liberty to purchase power.”

— Benjamin Franklin

248. “A man of knowledge, like a rich soil, feeds, if not a world of corn, a world of weeds.”

— Benjamin Franklin

249. “Keep conscience clear, then never fear.”

— Benjamin Franklin

250. “I was surprised to find myself so much fuller of Faults than I had imagined, but I had the Satisfaction of seeing them diminish.”

— Benjamin Franklin