Top 500 Benjamin Franklin Quotes (2026 Update)
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251. “That which hurts, also instructs.”

— Benjamin Franklin

252. “The Golden Age was never the present age.”

— Benjamin Franklin

253. “Hunger never saw bad bread.”

— Benjamin Franklin

254. “To lengthen thy life, lessen thy meals.”

— Benjamin Franklin

255. “If you would be loved, love, and be loveable.”

— Benjamin Franklin

256. “Order – Let all your things have their places; let each part of your business have its time.”

— Benjamin Franklin

257. “Nothing great comes without enthusiasm.”

— Benjamin Franklin

258. “One of the greatest tragedies of life is the murder of a beautiful theory by a gang of brutal facts.”

— Benjamin Franklin

259. “Idleness is the Dead Sea that swallows all virtues. Be active in business, that temptation may miss her aim; the bird that sits is easily shot.”

— Benjamin Franklin

260. “Don’t cry over spilled milk.”

— Benjamin Franklin

261. “Get what you can, and what you get hold; ’tis the Stone that will turn all your Lead into Gold.”

— Benjamin Franklin

262. “He was so learned that he could name a horse in nine languages; so ignorant that he bought a cow to ride on.”

— Benjamin Franklin

263. “It is the religion of ignorance that tyranny begins.”

— Benjamin Franklin

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

— Benjamin Franklin

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

— Benjamin Franklin

266. “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.”

— Benjamin Franklin

267. “Masonic ideas are the precious jewels of Speculative Masons; the should be kept bright and sparkling for all the brethren to see and to admire. As such, they should be the special care of Masonic leaders particularly those who teach and interpret the philosophy of Freemasonry.”

— Benjamin Franklin

268. “A lady asked Dr. Franklin Well Doctor what have we got a republic or a monarchy – “A republic,” replied the Doctor, “if you can keep it.””

— Benjamin Franklin

269. “Life is a kind of chess.”

— Benjamin Franklin

270. “Experience keeps a dear school, but fools will learn in no other.”

— Benjamin Franklin

Featured in: School Quotes, 4th Of July Quotes

271. “Democracy is like having two wolves and a lamb decide what is for dinner.”

— Benjamin Franklin

272. “Games lubricate the body and the mind.”

— Benjamin Franklin

273. “Only a virtuous people are capable of freedom.”

— Benjamin Franklin

274. “Stand firm, don’t flutter!”

— Benjamin Franklin

275. “I fear the man who drinks water and so remembers this morning what the rest of us said last night.”

— Benjamin Franklin

276. “Sloth, like rust, consumes faster than labor wears, while the used key is always bright.”

— Benjamin Franklin

277. “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.”

— Benjamin Franklin

278. “Thinking aloud is a habit which is responsible for most of mankind’s misery.”

— Benjamin Franklin

279. “Drive your business. Let not your business drive you.”

— Benjamin Franklin

280. “Your argument is sound, nothing but sound.”

— Benjamin Franklin

281. “If you want to keep a secret from an enemy, tell it not to a friend.”

— Benjamin Franklin

282. “Keep thy shop, and thy shop will keep thee.”

— Benjamin Franklin

283. “He that goes a borrowing goes a sorrowing.”

— Benjamin Franklin

284. “I am lord of myself, accountable to none.”

— Benjamin Franklin

285. “Freedom is not a gift bestowed upon us by other men, but a right that belongs to us by the laws of God and nature.”

— Benjamin Franklin

286. “Strict punctuality is a cheap virtue.”

— Benjamin Franklin

287. “There is nothing wrong with retirement as long as one doesn’t allow it to interfere with one’s work.”

— Benjamin Franklin

288. “There are three faithful friends – an old wife, an old dog, and ready money.”

— Benjamin Franklin

289. “Presumption first blinds a man, then sets him a running.”

— Benjamin Franklin

290. “It is the eye of other people that ruin us. If I were blind I would want, neither fine clothes, fine houses or fine furniture.”

— Benjamin Franklin

291. “Money has never made man happy, nor will it, there is nothing in its nature to produce happiness. The more of it one has the more one wants.”

— Benjamin Franklin

292. “Great hopes make everything great possible.”

— Benjamin Franklin

293. “Even peace may be purchased at too high a price.”

— Benjamin Franklin

294. “A father’s a treasure; a brother’s a comfort; a friend is both.”

— Benjamin Franklin

295. “For Age and Want save while you may; No morning Sun lasts a whole day.”

— Benjamin Franklin

296. “Pay what you owe and you’ll know what’s your own.”

— Benjamin Franklin

297. “The eye of the master will do more work than both his hands.”

— Benjamin Franklin

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

— Benjamin Franklin

299. “He that can take rest is greater than he that can take cities.”

— Benjamin Franklin

300. “When passion rules, she never rules wisely.”

— Benjamin Franklin