Benjamin Franklin

“He who is good at making excuses is seldom good at anything else.”

“He who drinks his cider alone, let him catch his horse alone.”

“The trouble with doing nothing is not knowing when you're finished.”

“He that drinks his cider alone, let him catch his horse alone.”

“To all apparent beauties blind, each blemish strikes an envious mind.”

“Love your Enemies, for they tell you your Faults.”

“Vicious actions are not hurtful because they are forbidden, but forbidden because they are hurtful.”

“But on the whole, though I never arrived at the perfection I had been so ambitious of obtaining, but fell far short of it, yet I was, by the endeavour, a better and happier man than I otherwise should have been had I not attempted it; as those who aim at perfect writing by imitating the engraved copies, their hand is mended by the endevour, and is tolerable while it continues fair and legible”

“He does not possess wealth; it possesses him.”

“Siempre hay razones para estar enfadados, pero éstas rara vez son buenas”

“A great empire, like a great cake, is most easily diminished at the edges.”

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

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

“Let thy discontents be thy secrets”

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

“Not to oversee workmen is to leave them your purse open.”

“If you were a servant would you not be ashamed that a good master should catch you idle? Then if you are your own master be ashamed to catch yourself idle.”

“Work while it is called today for you know not how much you may be hindered tomorrow.”

“I do not pretend to give such a sum; I only lend it to you. When you shall return to your country with a good character, you cannot fail of getting into some business, that will in time enable you to pay all your debts. In that case, when you meet with another honest man in similar distress, you must pay me by lending this sum to him; enjoining him to discharge the debt by a like operation, when he shall be able, and shall meet with such another opportunity. I hope it may thus go through many hands, before it meets with a knave that will stop its progress. This is a trick of mine for doing a deal of good with a little money.”

“A man must have a good deal of vanity who believes, and a good deal of boldness who affirms, that all the doctrines he holds are true, and all he rejects are false.”

“Vessels large may venture more, But little boats should keep near shore.”

“There are two ways to increase your wealth. Increase your means or decrease your wants. The best is to do both at the same time.”

“On the whole, though I never arrived at the perfection I had been so ambitious of obtaining, but fell far short of it, yet as I was, by the endeavor, a better and a happier man than I otherwise should have been had I not attempted it”

“Tricks and treachery are the practice of fools that don't have brains enough to be honest.”

“You tell me, and I forgetYou teach me, and I rememberYou involve me, and I learn”

“Many a long dispute among divines may be thus abridged: It is so; It is not so. It is so; it is not so.”

“The used key is always bright.”

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

“A man being sometimes more generous when he has but a little money than when he has plenty, perhaps thro' fear of being thought to have but little.”

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

“If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail!”

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

“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.”

“A truly great man will neither trample on a worm nor sneak to an emperor”

“I will speak ill of no man and speak all the good I know of everybody.”

“there was great difference between persons and, discretion did not always accompany years nor was youth always with out it”

“...there will be sleeping enough in the grave....”

“Reading was the only amusement I allowed myself”

“In reality, there is, perhaps, no one of our natural passions so hard to subdue as pride. Disguise it, struggle with it, beat it down, stifle it, mortify it as much as one pleases, it is still alive, and will every now and then peep out and show itself; you will see it, perhaps, often in this history; for, even if I could conceive that I had compleatly overcome it, I should probably be proud of my humility.”

“All wars are follies, very expensive and very mischievious ones.”

“The U.S. Constitution doesn't guarantee happiness, only the pursuit of it. Your have to catch up with it yourself.”

“He is ill clothed, who is bare of virtue.”

“1. TEMPERANCE. Eat not to dullness; drink not to elevation. 2. SILENCE. Speak not but what may benefit others or yourself; avoid trifling conversation. 3. ORDER. Let all your things have their places; let each part of your business have its time. 4. RESOLUTION. Resolve to perform what you ought; perform without fail what you resolve. 5. FRUGALITY. Make no expense but to do good to others or yourself; i.e., waste nothing. 6. INDUSTRY. Lose no time; be always employ'd in something useful; cut off all unnecessary actions. 7. SINCERITY. Use no hurtful deceit; think innocently and justly, and, if you...”

“That which hurts, also instructs.”

“Security without liberty is called prison.”

“On the whole, sir, I can not help expressing a wish that every member of the convention who may still have objections to it, would, with me, on this occasion, doubt a little of his own infallibility, and, to make manifest our unanimity, put his name to this instrument.”

“There is perhaps no one of our natural passions so hard to subdue as pride. Beat it down, stifle it, mortify it as much as one pleases, it is still alive. Even if I could conceive that I had completely overcome it, I should probably be proud of my humility. ”

“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.”

“If you know how to spend less than you get, you have the philosopher's stone.”

“He that lives upon hope will die fasting.”