Top 500 Benjamin Franklin Quotes (2026 Update)
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401. “A learned blockhead is a greater blockhead than an ignorant one.”

— Benjamin Franklin

402. “You cannot always run from a weakness. You must sometime fight it out or perish.”

— Benjamin Franklin

403. “The purpose of money was to purchase one’s freedom to pursue that which is useful and interesting.”

— Benjamin Franklin

404. “The first mistake in public business is the going into it.”

— Benjamin Franklin

405. “Be not disturbed at trifles, or at accidents common or unavoidable.”

— Benjamin Franklin

406. “No nation was ever ruined by trade.”

— Benjamin Franklin

407. “In short, the way to wealth, if you desire it, is as plain as the way to market. It depends chiefly on two works, industry and frugality.”

— Benjamin Franklin

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

— Benjamin Franklin

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

— Benjamin Franklin

410. “People want to catch a buzz. That is why drugs are illegal, yet people still try to get their hands on them no matter what the consequence. Drugs make us happy, they may not be healthy.”

— Benjamin Franklin

411. “Content and Riches seldom meet together, Riches take thou, contentment I had rather.”

— Benjamin Franklin

412. “No longer virtuous no longer free; is a Maxim as true with regard to a private Person as a Common-wealth.”

— Benjamin Franklin

413. “Pen, wax and parchment govern the world.”

— Benjamin Franklin

414. “Make the best use of both time and money. Add industry and frugal dealings if they pay very well and if you’re free to it.”

— Benjamin Franklin

415. “Great talkers should be cropt, for they’ve no need of ears.”

— Benjamin Franklin

416. “Let thy discontents be thy secrets; if the world knows them ’twill despise thee and increase them.”

— Benjamin Franklin

417. “Neither a Fortress nor a Maidenhead will hold out long after they begin to parley.”

— Benjamin Franklin

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

— Benjamin Franklin

419. “The Sting of a reproach, is the Truth of it.”

— Benjamin Franklin

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

— Benjamin Franklin

421. “Success has ruined many a man.”

— Benjamin Franklin

422. “If your head is made of wax, don’t walk in the sun.”

— Benjamin Franklin

423. “In rivers and bad governments the lightest things swim at top.”

— Benjamin Franklin

424. “Many have quarreled about religion that never practice it.”

— Benjamin Franklin

425. “Leisure is the time for doing something useful. This leisure the diligent person will obtain the lazy one never.”

— Benjamin Franklin

426. “Give me yesterday’s bread, this day’s flesh, and last year’s cider.”

— Benjamin Franklin

427. “The poor have little; beggars, none; the rich, too much; enough, not one.”

— Benjamin Franklin

428. “Give me 26 lead soldiers and I will conquer the world.”

— Benjamin Franklin

429. “Lying rides upon debt’s back.”

— Benjamin Franklin

430. “He that riseth late, must trot all day, and shall scarce overtake his business at night.”

— Benjamin Franklin

431. “After crosses and losses men grow humbler and wiser.”

— Benjamin Franklin

432. “A light purse is a heavy curse.”

— Benjamin Franklin

433. “Reckless youth makes rueful age.”

— Benjamin Franklin

434. “Pride that dines on vanity, sups on contempt.”

— Benjamin Franklin

435. “As Pride increases, Fortune declines.”

— Benjamin Franklin

436. “A dying man can do nothing easy.”

— Benjamin Franklin

437. “Think of these things, whence you came, where you are going, and to whom you must account.”

— Benjamin Franklin

438. “An honest Man will receive neither Money nor Praise that is not his due.”

— Benjamin Franklin

439. “Trouble springs from idleness, and grievous toil from needless ease.”

— Benjamin Franklin

440. “The way to wealth is as plain as the way to market. It depends chiefly on two words, industry and frugality: that is, waste neither time nor money, but make the best use of both. Without industry and frugality nothing will do, and with them everything.”

— Benjamin Franklin

441. “Gain may be temporary and uncertain; but ever while you live, expense is constant and certain: and it is easier to build two chimneys than to keep one in fuel.”

— Benjamin Franklin

442. “Let no pleasure tempt thee, no profit allure thee, no persuasion move thee, to do anything which thou knowest to be evil; so shalt thou always live jollity; for a good conscience is a continual Christmas.”

— Benjamin Franklin

443. “Wouldst thou enjoy a long Life, a healthy Body, and a vigorous Mind, and be acquainted also with the wonderful Works of God? labour in the first place to bring thy Appetite into Subjection to Reason.”

— Benjamin Franklin

444. “Ambition has its disappointments to sour us, but never the good fortune to satisfy us. Its appetite grows keener by indulgence and all we can gratify it with at present serves but the more to inflame its insatiable desires.”

— Benjamin Franklin

445. “Let honesty and industry be thy constant companions, and spend one penny less than thy clear gains; then shall thy pocket begin to thrive; creditors will not insult, nor want oppress, nor hungerness bite, nor nakedness freeze thee.”

— Benjamin Franklin

446. “Did not strong connections draw me elsewhere, I believe Scotland would be the country I would choose to end my days in.”

— Benjamin Franklin

Featured in: Strong Quotes, Country Quotes

447. “Electrical matter differs from common matter in this, that the parts of the latter mutually attract, those of the former mutually repel each other.”

— Benjamin Franklin

448. “All human situations have their inconveniences. We feel those of the present but neither see nor feel those of the future; and hence we often make troublesome changes without amendment, and frequently for the worse.”

— Benjamin Franklin

449. “Be studious in your profession, and you will be learned. Be industrious and frugal, and you will be rich. Be sober and temperate, and you will be healthy. Be in general virtuous, and you will be happy. At least you will, by such conduct, stand the be.”

— Benjamin Franklin

450. “If you wish information and improvement from the knowledge of others, and yet at the same time express yourself as firmly fix’d in your present opinions, modest, sensible men, who do not love disputation, will probably leave you undisturbed in the possession of your error.”

— Benjamin Franklin