Top 500 Benjamin Franklin Quotes (2025 Update)
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301. “We may give advice, but we cannot give conduct.”

— Benjamin Franklin

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

— Benjamin Franklin

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

— Benjamin Franklin

304. “Masonic labor is purely a labor of love. He who seeks to draw Masonic wages in gold and silver will be disappointed. The wages of a Mason are in the dealings with one another; sympathy begets sympathy, kindness begets kindness, helpfulness begets helpfulness, and these are the wages of a Mason.”

— Benjamin Franklin

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

— Benjamin Franklin

306. “The best tranquilizer is a clear conscience.”

— Benjamin Franklin

307. “You can’t tell anyone anything. You have to teach people for them to remember. Let the person experience what you are teaching and they will learn.”

— Benjamin Franklin

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

— Benjamin Franklin

309. “Glass, China, and Reputation, are easily cracked, and never well mended.”

— Benjamin Franklin

310. “The problem with common sense is, it isn’t.”

— Benjamin Franklin

311. “Where there’s marriage without love, there will be love without marriage.”

— Benjamin Franklin

312. “Clean your finger before you point at my spots.”

— Benjamin Franklin

313. “Wisdom is in measured routine. Three naps a day will keep you fit, nine breakfasts before noon, spin until you fall on your back, and thrust your face into a nettle plant. Drink at least five cups of a mare’s urine and look upon your self in a silver mirror while you hold your air in your chest.”

— Benjamin Franklin

314. “A man in a passion, rides a mad horse.”

— Benjamin Franklin

315. “Learn of the skillful; he that teaches himself, has a fool for his master.”

— Benjamin Franklin

316. “If you would not be laughed at, be the first to laugh at yourself.”

— Benjamin Franklin

317. “There cannot be good living where there is not good drinking.”

— Benjamin Franklin

318. “I don’t believe in stereotypes. I prefer to hate people on a more personal basis.”

— Benjamin Franklin

319. “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

320. “Wine makes daily living easier, less hurried with fewer tensions and more tolerance.”

— Benjamin Franklin

321. “Quarrels never could last long, if on one side only lay the wrong.”

— Benjamin Franklin

322. “A penny saved is twopence dear; A pin a day ’s a groat a year.”

— Benjamin Franklin

323. “Great beauty, great strength, and great riches are really and truly of no great use; a right heart exceeds all.”

— Benjamin Franklin

324. “Serving God is doing good to man, but praying is thought an easier service and therefore more generally chosen.”

— Benjamin Franklin

325. “Poverty often deprives a man of all spirit and virtue; it is hard for an empty bag to stand upright.”

— Benjamin Franklin

326. “A lonely man on a rainy night who cannot read.”

— Benjamin Franklin

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

— Benjamin Franklin

328. “If time be of all things the most precious, wasting time must be the greatest prodigality.”

— Benjamin Franklin

329. “A false friend and a shadow attend only while the sun shines.”

— Benjamin Franklin

330. “If you’d be beloved, make yourself amiable. A true friend is the best possession.”

— Benjamin Franklin

331. “O powerful goodness! Bountiful Father! Merciful Guide! Increase in me that wisdom which discovers my truest interest. Strengthen my resolution to perform what that wisdom dictates. Accept my kind offices to thy other children as the only return in my power for thy continual favours to me.”

— Benjamin Franklin

332. “He that rises late must trot all day.”

— Benjamin Franklin

333. “Read much, but not too many books.”

— Benjamin Franklin

334. “In the dark, all cats are grey.”

— Benjamin Franklin

335. “Tomorrow, every Fault is to be amended; but that Tomorrow never comes.”

— Benjamin Franklin

336. “Human felicity is produced not as much by great pieces of good fortune that seldom happen as by little advantages that occur every day.”

— Benjamin Franklin

337. “Are you angry that others disappoint you? Remember you cannot depend upon yourself.”

— Benjamin Franklin

338. “A ploughman on his legs is higher than a gentleman on his knees.”

— Benjamin Franklin

339. “Observe all men, thyself most.”

— Benjamin Franklin

340. “The greatest inventions are those inquiries which tend to increase the power of man over matter.”

— Benjamin Franklin

341. “Originality is the art of concealing your sources.”

— Benjamin Franklin

342. “Slavery is such an atrocious debasement of human nature, that its very extirpation, if not performed with solicitous care, may sometimes open a source of serious evils.”

— Benjamin Franklin

343. “If you would be wealthy, think of saving as well as getting.”

— Benjamin Franklin

344. “A learned blockhead is a greater blockhead than an ignorant one.”

— Benjamin Franklin

345. “If thou hast wit and learning, add to it wisdom and modesty.”

— Benjamin Franklin

346. “The good will of the governed will be starved if not fed by the good deeds of the governors.”

— Benjamin Franklin

347. “Would you live with ease, Do what you ought, and not what you please.”

— Benjamin Franklin

348. “Wink at small faults; remember thou hast great ones.”

— Benjamin Franklin

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

— Benjamin Franklin

350. “Look before, or you’ll find yourself behind.”

— Benjamin Franklin