- You cannot pluck roses without fear of thorns
- Nor enjoy a fair wife without danger of horns.
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, Poor Richard's Almanack, 1734
Search others for their virtues, thy self for thy vices.
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, Poor Richard's Almanack, 1738
If Passion drives, let Reason hold the reins.
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, Poor Richard's Almanack, 1749
As we must account for every idle word, so we must for every idle silence.
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, Poor Richard's Almanack, 1738
Where there's Marriage without Love, there will be Love without Marriage.
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, Poor Richard's Almanack, 1734
Men and melons are hard to know.
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, Poor Richard's Almanack, 1733
Idleness is the Dead Sea that swallows all Virtues.
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, Poor Richard's Almanack, 1757
He that waits upon Fortune, is never sure of a Dinner.
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, Poor Richard's Almanack, 1734
- When you're an Anvil, hold you still;
- When you're a Hammer, strike your Fill.
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, Poor Richard's Almanack, 1758
A Change of Fortune hurts a wise Man no more than a Change of the Moon.
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, Poor Richard's Almanack, 1756
Content makes poor men rich; Discontent makes rich Men poor.
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, Poor Richard's Almanack, 1749
Take counsel in wine, but resolve afterwards in water.
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, Poor Richard's Almanack, 1733
Great Modesty often hides great Merit.
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, Poor Richard's Almanack, 1758
Wealth is not his that has it, but his that enjoys it.
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, Poor Richard's Almanack, 1736
- Women are books, and men the readers be,
- Who sometimes in those books erratas see;
- Yet oft the reader's raptured with each line,
- Fair print and paper, fraught with sense divine;
- Tho' some, neglectful, seldom care to read,
- And faithful wives no more than bibles heed.
- Are women books? says Hodge, then would mine were
- An Almanack, to change her every year.
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, Poor Richard's Almanack
Sell not virtue to purchase wealth, nor Liberty to purchase power.
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, Poor Richard's Almanack, 1738
Silence is not always a Sign of Wisdom, but Babbling is ever a Mark of Folly.
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, Poor Richard's Almanack, 1758
He is ill clothed that is bare of virtue.
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, Poor Richard's Almanack, 1733
Laws too gentle are seldom obeyed; too severe, seldom executed.
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, Poor Richard's Almanack, 1756
She that paints her Face, thinks of her Tail.
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, Poor Richard's Almanack, 1736
God grant, that not only the Love of Liberty, but a thorough Knowledge of the Rights of Man, may pervade all the Nations of the Earth, so that a Philosopher may set his Foot anywhere on its Surface, and say, "This is my Country."
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, letter to David Hartley, Dec. 4, 1789
Pride gets into the Coach, and Shame mounts behind.
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, Poor Richard's Almanack, 1758
Let thy vices die before thee.
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, Poor Richard's Almanack, 1738
To be proud of Knowledge, is to blind with Light; to be proud of Virtue, is to poison yourself with the Antidote.
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, Poor Richard's Almanack, 1756
Drink does not drown Care, but waters it, and makes it grow faster.
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, Poor Richard's Almanack, 1749
If Men are so wicked as we now see them with Religion what would they be if without it?
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, letter to unknown recipient, Dec. 13, 1757
Neither a Fortress nor a Maidenhead will hold out long after they begin to parly.
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, Poor Richard's Almanack, 1734
Give me yesterday's Bread, this Day's Flesh, and last Year's Cyder.
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, Poor Richard's Almanack, 1744
A quarrelsome Man has no good Neighbours.
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, Poor Richard's Almanack, 1746
- A flatterer never seems absurd:
- The flatter'd always takes his word.
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, Poor Richard's Almanack, 1740
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, Poor Richard's Almanack, 1753
- Death is a fisherman, the world we see
- His fish-pond is, and we the fishes be;
- His net some general sickness; howe'er he
- Is not so kind as other fishers be;
- For if they take one of the smaller fry,
- They throw him in again, he shall not die:
- But death is sure to kill all he can get,
- And all is fish with him that comes to net.
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, Poor Richard's Almanack, 1733
Let all Men know thee, but no man know thee thoroughly: Men freely ford that see the shallows.
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, Poor Richard's Almanack, 1743
- The Poor have little, Beggars none;
- The Rich too much, enough not one.
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, Poor Richard's Almanack, 1740
The Golden Age never was the present Age.
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, Poor Richard's Almanack, 1750
Only a virtuous people are capable of freedom. As nations become corrupt and vicious, they have more need of masters.
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, letter to Abbés Chalut and Arnaud, Apr. 17, 1787
In short, I conceive that a great part of the miseries of mankind are brought upon them by the false estimates they have made of the value of things, and by their giving too much for their whistles.
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, letter to Madame Brillon, November 10, 1779
A false Friend and a Shadow, attend only while the Sun shines.
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, Poor Richard's Almanack, 1756
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