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"The great secret of succeeding in conversation is to admire little, to hear much; always to distrust our own reason, and sometimes that of our friends; never to pretend to wit, but to make that of others appear as much as possibly we can; to hearken to what is said and to answer to the purpose."
Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790), U.S. statesman, writer. "Miscellaneous Observations," vol. 1, Complete Works (1728), ed. John Bigelow (1887-1888). |
"Here Skugg
Lies snug
As a bug
In a rug"
Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790), U.S. statesman, writer. letter, Sept. 26, 1772. Papers of Benjamin Franklin, vol. 19, ed. W.B. Willcox (1975).
On the death of a squirrel. |
"At twenty years of age, the will reigns; at thirty, the wit; and at forty, the judgment."
Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790), U.S. statesman, writer. Poor Richard's Almanac, June (1741). |
"Opportunity is the great bawd."
Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790), U.S. statesman, writer. Poor Richard's Almanac, September (1735). |
"If you would not be forgotten,
as soon as you are dead and rotten,
either write things worth reading
or do things worth the writing."
Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790), U.S. statesman, writer. Poor Richard's Almanac, May (1738).
This aphorism has also been credited to Pliny. |
"A little neglect may breed mischief ... for want of a nail, the shoe was lost; for want of a shoe the horse was lost; and for want of a horse the rider was lost."
Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790), U.S. statesman, writer. Poor Richard's Almanac, preface (1758). |
"Where there's marriage without love, there will be love without marriage."
Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790), U.S. statesman, writer. Poor Richard's Almanac, May (1734). |
"Necessity never made a good bargain."
Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790), U.S. statesman, writer. Poor Richard's Almanack (April 1735), The Complete Poor Richard's Almanacks (1970). |
"There seem to be but three ways for a nation to acquire wealth. The first is by war, as the Romans did, in plundering their conquered neighbours. This is robbery. The second by commerce, which is generally cheating. The third by agriculture, the only honest way, wherein man receives a real increase of the seed thrown into the ground, in a kind of continual miracle, wrought by the hand of God in his favor, as a reward for his innocent life and his virtuous industry."
Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790), U.S. statesman, writer. Positions to Be Examined Concerning National Wealth, vol. 4 (written April 4, 1769), Complete Works, ed. John Bigelow (1887-1888). |
"We must indeed all hang together, or, most assuredly, we shall all hang separately."
Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790), U.S. statesman, writer. Remark, July 4, 1776, at the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Quoted in Ben Franklin Laughing, P.M. Zall (1980).
Replying to John Hancock's remark that the revolutionaries should be unanimous in their action. |
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