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
When a religion is good, I conceive it will support itself; and when it does not support itself, and God does not take care to support it so that its professors are obliged to call for help of the civil power, 'tis a sign, I apprehend, of its being a bad one.
Religion I found to be without any tendency to inspire, promote, or confirm morality, serves principally to divide us and make us unfriendly to one another.
The things of this world take up too much of my time, of which indeed I have too little left, to undertake anything like a reformation in religion.
Revealed religion has no weight with me.
The United States Constitutional Convention, except for three or four persons, thought prayers unnecessary.
I have found Christian dogma unintelligible.
A little Religion, and a little Honesty, goes a great way in Courts.
That it is better that 100 guilty persons should escape than that one innocent person should suffer, is a maxim that has been long and generally approved.
The nearest way to come at glory, is to do that for conscience which we do for glory.
Again, He that sells upon Credit, asks a Price for what he sells, equivalent to the Principal and Interest of his Money for the Time he is like to be kept out of it: therefore
The favor of the Great is no inheritance.
If man could have half his wishes he would double his troubles
I never saw an oft-transplanted tree, Nor yet an oft-removed family, That throve so well as those that settled be
In each religion there are essential things, and others which are only forms and fashions; as a loaf of sugar may perhaps be wrapped in brown or white or blue paper, and tied with a string of flax or wool, red or yellow; but the sugar is always the e