Benjamin Franklin
Benjamin Franklin
Benjamin Franklinwas one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. A renowned polymath, Franklin was a leading author, printer, political theorist, politician, freemason, postmaster, scientist, inventor, civic activist, statesman, and diplomat. As a scientist, he was a major figure in the American Enlightenment and the history of physics for his discoveries and theories regarding electricity. As an inventor, he is known for the lightning rod, bifocals, and the Franklin stove, among other inventions. He facilitated many civic organizations, including...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionScientist
Date of Birth17 January 1706
CityBoston, MA
CountryUnited States of America
He that lives well, is learned enough.
Three things are men most likely to be cheated in, a horse, a wig, and a wife.
Hereafter, if you should observe an occasion to give your officers and friends a little more praise than is their due, and confess more fault than you can justly be charged with, you will only become the sooner for it, a great captain.
People who are willing to give up freedom for the sake of short term security, deserve neither freedom nor security.
Acquire Riches by Industry and Frugality.
They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. This sentence was much used in the Revolutionary period. It occurs even so early as November, 1755, in an answer by the Assembly of Pennsylvania to the Governor, and forms the motto of Franklin's "Historical Review," 1759, appearing also in the body of the work. -Frothingham: Rise of the Republic of the United States, p. 413.
A Republic, if you can keep it.
A fat kitchin, a lean Will.
There are lazy minds as well as lazy bodies.
You can not pluck roses without fear of thorns, Nor enjoy a fair wife without danger of horns.
Gaining money by my industry and frugality, I lived very agreeably. . . .
Industry and frugality, as the means of procuring wealth . . . thereby [secures] virtue, it being more difficult for a man in want to act always honestly. . . .
'Tis true there is much to be done, . . . but stick to it steadily, and you will see great effects, for constant dropping wears away stones . . . and little strokes fell great oaks, as Poor Richard says. . . .
Nothing is so tiresome to one's self, as well as so odious to others, as disguise and affectation.