“It is the first responsibility of every citizen to question authority.”

“I should have no objection to go over the same life from its beginning to the end: requesting only the advantage authors have, of correcting in a second edition the faults of the first.”

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

“You desire to know something of my Religion. It is the first time I have been questioned upon it: But I do not take your Curiosity amiss, and shall endeavour in a few Words to gratify it... I have, with most of the present Dissenters in England, some Doubts as to his [Jesus'] divinity; tho' it is a question I do not dogmatize upon, having never studied it, and I think it needless to busy myself with it now, when I expect soon an Opportunity of knowing the Truth with less Trouble.[Letter to Ezra Stiles, March 9, 1790]”

“THE BODYofBENJAMIN FRANKLINPrinterlike the cover of an old book,its contents torn out,and stripped of its lettering and gilding lies here, food for worms;Yet the work itself shall not be lost,For it will (as he believed) appear once more,in a new,and more beautiful edition, corrected and amended By The AUTHOR”

“Tis easier to suppress the first desire than to satisfy all that follow it.”

“For every minute spent in organizing, an hour is earned.”