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
Without freedom of thought, there can be no such thing as wisdom; and no such thing as public liberty without freedom of speech; which is the right of every man as far as by it he does not hurt or control the right of another; and this is the only check it ought to suffer and the only bounds it ought to know.... Whoever would overthrow the liberty of a nation must begin by subduing the freedom of speech, a thing terrible to traitors.
The things which hurt, instruct.
That which hurts, also instructs.
Those things that hurt, instruct.
Sin is not hurtful because it is forbidden, but it is forbidden because it is hurtful.
Vicious actions are not hurtful because they are forbidden, but forbidden because they are hurtful.
A change of fortune hurts a wise man no more than a change of the moon.
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