The absent are never without fault. Nor the present without excuse. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Absence)

Words may show a man's wit but actions his meaning. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Action)

Admiration is the daughter of ignorance. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Admiration)

The proof of gold is fire... - (Franklin, Benjamin - Adversity)

Wise men don't need advice. Fools won't take it. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Advice)

They that will not be counseled, cannot be helped. If you do not hear reason she will rap you on the knuckles. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Advice)

To bear other people's afflictions, everyone has courage and enough to spare. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Affliction)

Many foxes grow gray but few grow good. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Age and Aging)

At twenty years of age the will reigns; at thirty, the wit; and at forty, the judgment. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Age and Aging)

If you wouldn't live long, live well; for folly and wickedness shorten life. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Age and Aging)

An old young man, will be a young old man. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Age and Aging)

Those who love deeply never grow old; they may die of old age, but they die young. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Age and Aging)

I think that a young state, like a young virgin, should modestly stay at home, and wait the application of suitors for an alliance with her; and not run about offering her amity to all the world; and hazarding their refusal. Our virgin is a jolly one; and tho at present not very rich, will in time be a great fortune, and where she has a favorable predisposition, it seems to me well worth cultivating. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Alliances)

Clearly spoken, Mr. Fogg; you explain English by Greek. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Ambiguity)

Ambition has its disappointments to sour us, but never the good fortune to satisfy us. Its appetite grows keener by indulgence and all we can gratify it with at present serves but the more to inflame its insatiable desires. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Ambition)

We are more thoroughly an enlightened people, with respect to our political interests, than perhaps any other under heaven. Every man among us reads, and is so easy in his circumstances as to have leisure for conversations of improvement and for acquiring information. - (Franklin, Benjamin - America)

Whatever is begun in anger, ends in shame. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Anger)

Do not anticipate trouble, or worry about what may never happen. Keep in the sunlight. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Anxiety)

Those disputing, contradicting, and confuting people are generally unfortunate in their affairs. They get victory, sometimes, but they never get good will, which would be of more use to them. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Argument)

He that blows the coals in quarrels that he has nothing to do with, has no right to complain if the sparks fly in his face. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Argument)

That which resembles most living one's life over again, seems to be to recall all the circumstances of it; and, to render this remembrance more durable, to record them in writing. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Autobiography)

A single man has not nearly the value he would have in a state of union. He is an incomplete animal. He resembles the odd half of a pair of scissors. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Bachelor)

If you teach a poor young man to shave himself, and keep his razor in order, you may contribute more to the happiness of his life than in giving him a thousand guineas. This sum may be soon spent, the regret only remaining of having foolishly consumed it; but in the other case, he escapes the frequent vexation of waiting for barbers, and of their sometimes dirty fingers, offensive breaths, and dull razors. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Beards)

Reading makes a full man, meditation a profound man, discourse a clear man. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Books - Reading)

Read much, but not many books. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Books - Reading)

If you would know the value of money try to borrow some. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Borrowing)

So much for industry, my friends, and attention to one's own business; but to these we must add frugality if we would make our industry more certainly successful. A man may, if he knows not how to save as he gets, keep his nose all his life to the grindstone, and die not worth a grout at last. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Business)

If you can't pay for a thing, don't buy it. If you can't get paid for it, don't sell it. Do this, and you will have calm and drowsy nights, with all of the good business you have now and none of the bad. If you have time, don't wait for time. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Business)

Drive your business, let not you're business drive you. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Business)

Beware the hobby that eats. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Caution)

In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Certainty)

Certainty? In this world nothing is certain but death and taxes. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Certainty)

When you're finished changing, you're finished. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Change)

A cheerful face is nearly as good for an invalid as healthy weather. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Cheerfulness)

Let the child's first lesson be obedience, and the second will be what thou wilt. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Children)

Constant complaint is the poorest sort of pay for all the comforts we enjoy. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Complaints and Complaining)

If passion drives you, let reason hold the reins. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Conflict)

Singularity in the right hath ruined many; happy those who are convinced of the general opinion. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Conformity)

Our new Constitution is now established, and has an appearance that promises permanency; but in this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Constitutions)

Who is wise? He that learns from everyone. Who is powerful? He that governs his passions. Who is rich? He who is content. Who is that? Nobody. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Contentment)

Content makes poor men rich; discontentment makes rich men poor. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Contentment)

Drive thy business or it will drive thee. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Control)

While we may not be able to control all that happens to us, we can control what happens inside us. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Control)

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. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Conversation)

We must, indeed, all hang together or, most assuredly, we shall all hang separately. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Cooperation)

If we do not hang together, we will all hang separately. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Cooperation)

Those that won't be counseled can't be helped. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Counsel)

Remember that credit is money. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Credit)

If all printers were determined not to print anything till they were sure it would offend nobody, there would be very little printed. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Critics and Criticism)

I look upon death to be as necessary to our constitution as sleep. We shall rise refreshed in the morning. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Death and Dying)

Many people die at twenty five and aren't buried until they are seventy five. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Death and Dying)

Rather go to bed with out dinner than to rise in debt. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Debt)

Tricks and treachery are the practice of fools, that don't have brains enough to be honest. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Deception)

Who had deceived thee so often as thyself? - (Franklin, Benjamin - Deception)

It is much easier to suppress a first desire than to satisfy those that follow. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Desire)

If you desire many things, many things will seem few. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Desire)

Diligence is the mother of good luck. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Diligence)

The discontented man finds no easy chair. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Discontent)

Let thy discontents be thy secrets. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Discontent)

All human situations have their inconveniences. We feel those of the present but neither see nor feel those of the future; and hence we often make troublesome changes without amendment, and frequently for the worse. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Discontent)

What has become clear to you since we last met? - (Franklin, Benjamin - Discovery)

God heals and the doctor takes the fee. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Doctors)

No nation was ever ruined by trade. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Economy and Economics)

If a man empties his purse into his head, no man can take it away from him. An investment in knowledge always pays the best interest. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Education)

I have met the enemy, and it is the eyes of other people. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Enemies)

Love your enemies, for they tell you your faults. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Enemies)

Promises may fit the friends, but non-performance will turn them into enemies. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Enemies)

Energy and persistence alter all things. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Energy)

Nothing preaches better than the act. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Example)

Well done, is better than well said. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Example)

He that is good for making excuses is seldom good for anything else. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Excuses)

Blessed is he who expects nothing, for he shall never be disappointed. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Expectation)

Beware of little expenses. A small leak will sink a great ship. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Expenditure)

Experience keeps a school, yet fools will learn in no other. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Experience)

The eye of the master will do more work than both his hands. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Eyes)

It is the eye of other people that ruin us. If I were blind I would want, neither fine clothes, fine houses or fine furniture. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Eyes)

In the affairs of this world, men are saved not by faith, but by the want of it. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Faith)

The way to see by Faith is to shut the Eye of Reason. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Faith)

There have been as great souls unknown to fame as any of the most famous. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Fame)

If you would not be forgotten as soon as you are dead, either write things worth reading or do things worth writing. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Fame)

He that raises a large family does, indeed, while he lives to observe them, stand a broader mark for sorrow; but then he stands a broader mark for pleasure too. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Family)

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 neighbors. 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. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Farming and Farmers)

Eat to please thyself, but dress to please others. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Fashion)

A benevolent man should allow a few faults in himself, to keep his friends in countenance. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Faults)

One should eat to live, not live to eat. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Food and Eating)

Most fools think they are only ignorant. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Fools and Foolishness)

The world is full of fools and faint hearts; and yet everyone has courage enough to bear the misfortunes, and wisdom enough to manage the affairs of his neighbor. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Fools and Foolishness)

Spinoza Experience keeps a dear school, but fools will learn in no other. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Fools and Foolishness)

He that waits upon fortune, is never sure of a dinner. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Fortune)

To be thrown upon one's own resources, is to be cast into the very lap of fortune; for our faculties then undergo a development and display an energy of which they were previously unsusceptible. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Freedom)

There are three faithful friends, an old wife, an old dog, and ready money. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Friends and Friendship)

Friends and neighbors, the taxes are indeed very heavy, and if those laid on by the government were the only ones we had to pay, we might more easily discharge them; but we have many others, and much more grievous to some of us. We are taxed twice as much by our idleness, three times as much by our pride, and four times as much by our folly; and from these taxes the commissioners cannot ease or deliver us by allowing abatement. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Friends and Friendship)

Genius without education is like silver in the mine. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Genius)

Hide not your talents. They for use were made. What's a sundial in the shade. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Genius)

In general, mankind, since the improvement of cookery, eats twice as much as nature requires. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Glutton)

Those who govern, having much business on their hands, do not generally like to take the trouble of considering and carrying into execution new projects. The best public measures are therefore seldom adopted from previous wisdom, but forced by the occasion. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Government)

When befriended, remember it; when you befriend, forget it. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Gratitude)

Most people return small favors, acknowledge medium ones and repay greater ones -- with ingratitude. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Gratitude)

There never was a truly great man that was not at the same time truly virtuous. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Greatness)

Guests, like fish, begin to smell after three days. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Guests)

Each year one vicious habit discarded, in time might make the worst of us good. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Habit)

It is easier to prevent bad habits than to break them. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Habit)

Your net worth to the world is usually determined by what remains after your bad habits are subtracted from your good ones. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Habit)

There are two ways of being happy: We must either diminish our wants or augment our means -- either may do -- the result is the same and it is for each man to decide for himself and to do that which happens to be easier. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Happiness)

Happiness consists more in small conveniences of pleasures that occur every day, than in great pieces of good fortune that happen but seldom to a man in the course of his life. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Happiness)

Take time for all things; great haste makes great waste. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Hatred)

Nothing is more fatal to health than an over care of it. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Health)

To lengthen thy Life, lessen thy meals. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Health)

The heart of a fool is in his mouth, but the mouth of a wise man is in his heart. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Heart)

Honesty is the best policy. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Honesty)

He that lives upon hope will die fasting. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Hope)

Clean your finger before you point at my spots. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Hypocrisy)

Trouble springs from idleness, and grievous toil from needless ease. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Idleness)

Sloth, like rust, consumes faster than labor wears, while the used key is always bright. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Idleness)

Sloth makes all things difficult, but industry, all things easy. He that rises late must trot all day, and shall scarce overtake his business at night, while laziness travels so slowly that poverty soon overtakes him. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Idleness)

A learned blockhead is a greater blockhead than an ignorant one. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Ignorance)

He was so learned that he could name a horse in nine languages; so ignorant that he bought a cow to ride on. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Ignorance)

Being ignorant is not so much a shame as being unwilling to learn. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Ignorance)

The sleeping fox catches no poultry. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Inaction)

I am lord of myself, accountable to none. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Independence)

Write your injuries in dust, your benefits in marble. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Insults)

Don't judge men's wealth or godliness by their Sunday appearance. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Judgment and Judges)

He that has done you a kindness will be more ready to do you another, than he whom you yourself have obliged. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Kindness)

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! - (Franklin, Benjamin - Knowledge)

Proclaim not all thou knowest, all thou knowest, all thou hast, nor all thou cans't. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Knowledge)

He that hath a trade hath an estate; he that hath a calling hath an office of profit and honor. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Labor)

The learned fool writes his nonsense in better language than the unlearned, but it is still nonsense. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Language)

She laughs at everything you say. Why? Because she has fine teeth. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Laughter)

God works wonders now and then; Behold a lawyer, an honest man. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Law and Lawyers)

Laws too gentle, are seldom obeyed; too severe, seldom executed. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Law and Lawyers)

A life of leisure and a life of laziness are two things. There will be sleeping enough in the grave. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Laziness)

Laziness travels so slowly that poverty soon overtakes him. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Laziness)

The things which hurt, instruct. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Learning)

He that won't be counseled can't be helped. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Learning)

Learn of the skillful; he that teaches himself, has a fool for his master. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Learning)

Employ thy time well, if thou meanest to gain leisure. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Leisure)

Leisure is the time for doing something useful. This leisure the diligent person will obtain the lazy one never. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Leisure)

Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Liberty)

They who give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Liberty)

Where liberty is, there is my country. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Liberty)

Lying rides upon debt's back. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Lies and Lying)

I should have no objection to go over the same life from its beginning to the end: requesting only the advantage authors have, of correcting in a second edition the faults of the first. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Life and Living)

Life's tragedy is that we get old too soon and wise too late - (Franklin, Benjamin - Life and Living)

Were it offered to my choice, I should have no objection to a repetition of the same life from its beginning, only asking the advantages authors have in a second edition to correct some faults in the first. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Life and Living)

He that falls in love with himself will have no rivals. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Love)

Savages we call them because their manners differ from ours. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Manners)

Teach your child to hold his tongue; he'll learn fast enough to speak. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Manners)

Keep your eyes wide open before marriage, and half-shut afterwards. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Marriage)

One good husband is worth two good wives, for the scarcer things are, the more they are valued. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Marriage)

Where there is marriage without love, there will be love without marriage. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Marriage)

An undutiful daughter will prove an unmanageable wife. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Marriage)

Creditors have better memories than debtors. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Memory)

When men and woman die, as poets sung, his heart's the last part moves, her last, the tongue. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Men and Women)

When I reflect, as I frequently do, upon the felicity I have enjoyed, I sometimes say to myself, that were the offer made me, I would engage to run again, from beginning to end, the same career of life. All I would ask, should be the privilege of an author, to correct in a second edition, certain errors of the first. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Mistakes)

To be humble to superiors is duty, to equals courtesy, to inferiors nobleness. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Modesty)

If you know how to spend less than you get, you have the philosopher's stone. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Money)

He that is of the opinion money will do everything may well be suspected of doing everything for money. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Money)

Money has never made man happy, nor will it, there is nothing in its nature to produce happiness. The more of it one has the more one wants. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Money)

The use of money is all the advantage there is in having money. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Money)

Necessity never made a good bargain. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Necessity)

Buy what thou hast no need of and ere long thou shalt sell thy necessities. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Necessity)

A little neglect may breed great mischief. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Neglect)

Don't throw stones at your neighbors , if your own windows are glass. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Neighbors)

Love thy neighbor -- but don't pull down your hedge. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Neighbors)

Plough deep while sluggards sleep. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Opportunity)

There are no gains without pains. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Pain)

Love well, whip well. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Parents and Parenting)

He that can have patience can have what he will. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Patience)

There never was a good war or a bad peace. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Peace)

He that would live in peace and at ease must not speak all he knows or all he sees. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Peace)

If you would persuade, you must appeal to interest rather than intellect. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Persuasion)

Would you persuade, speak of interest, not of reason. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Persuasion)

He's the best physician that knows the worthlessness of the most medicines. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Physicians)

There is much difference between imitating a man and counterfeiting him. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Plagiarism)

I have always thought that one man of tolerable abilities may work great changes, and accomplish great affairs among mankind, if he first forms a good plan, and, cutting off all amusements or other employments that would divert his attention, make the execution of that same plan his sole study and business. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Planning)

By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Planning)

Many a man thinks he is buying pleasure, when he is really selling himself to it. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Pleasure)

The first mistake in public business is going into it. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Politicians and Politics)

Applause waits on success. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Popularity)

Having been poor is no shame, but being ashamed of it, is. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Poverty and The Poor)

Work as if you were to live a hundred years. Pray as if you were to die tomorrow. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Prayer)

Every accent, every emphasis, every modulation of voice, was so perfectly well turned and well placed, that, without being interested in the subject, one could not help being pleased with the discourse; a pleasure of much the same kind with that received from an excellent piece of music. This is an advantage itinerant preachers have over those who are stationary, as the latter can not well improve their delivery of a sermon by so many rehearsals. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Preachers and Preaching)

For the want of a nail, the shoe was lose; for the want of a shoe the horse was lose; and for the want of a horse the rider was lost, being overtaken and slain by the enemy, all for the want of care about a horseshoe nail. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Preparation)

One today is worth two tomorrows. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Present)

Pride that dines on vanity, sups on contempt. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Pride)

Idleness and pride tax with a heavier hand than kings and governments. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Pride)

You may delay, but time will not, and lost time is never found again. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Procrastination)

Never leave that till tomorrow which you can do today. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Procrastination)

He who waits upon fortune is never sure of dinner. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Procrastination)

The best is the cheapest. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Quality)

Do good to your friends to keep them, to your enemies to win them. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Relationships)

It is foolish to lay out money for the purchase of repentance. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Repentance)

Glass, china, and reputation are easily cracked, and never mended well. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Reputation)

Resolve to perform what you ought; perform without fail what you resolve. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Resolution)

He that can take rest is greater than he that can take cities. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Rest)

If your riches are yours, why don't you take them with to the other world? - (Franklin, Benjamin - Riches)

He who multiplies riches, multiplies cares. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Riches)

Who is rich? He that rejoices in his portion. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Riches)

Some punishment seems preparing for a people who are ungratefully abusing the best constitution and the best King any nation was ever blessed with, intent on nothing but luxury, licentiousness, power, places, pensions, and plunder; while the ministry, divided in their counsels, with little regard for each other, worried by perpetual oppositions, in continual apprehension of changes, intent on securing popularity in case they should lose favor, have for some years past had little time or inclination to attend to our small affairs, whose remoteness makes them appear even smaller. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Riots)

Be studious in your profession, and you will be learned. Be industrious and frugal, and you will be rich. Be sober and temperate, and you will be healthy. Be in general virtuous, and you will be happy. At least you will, by such conduct, stand the best chance for such consequences. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Rules)

He that's secure is not safe. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Safety)

Furnished as all Europe now is with Academies of Science, with nice instruments and the spirit of experiment, the progress of human knowledge will be rapid and discoveries made of which we have at present no conception. I begin to be almost sorry I was born so soon, since I cannot have the happiness of knowing what will be known a hundred years hence. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Science and Scientists)

Three can keep a secret if two are dead. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Secrets)

There are three things extremely hard: steel, a diamond, and to know one's self. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Self-knowledge)

He who falls in love with himself will have no rivals. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Self-love)

Observe all men, thyself most. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Self-observation)

Write injuries in dust, benefits in marble. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Service)

If you would have a faithful servant, and one that you like, serve yourself. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Service)

I am about courting a girl I have had but little acquaintance with. How shall I come to a knowledge of her faults, and whether she has the virtues I imagine she has? Answer. Commend her among her female acquaintances. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Slander)

Early to bed and early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Sleep)

Half wits talk much, but say little. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Speakers and Speaking)

He that speaks much, is much mistaken. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Speakers and Speaking)

He's a fool that makes his doctor his heir. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Stupidity)

We are all born ignorant, but one must work hard to remain stupid. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Stupidity)

You will find the key to success under the alarm clock. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Success)

Would you live with ease, do what you should, and not what you please. Success has ruined many a man. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Success)

A spoonful of honey will catch more flies than a gallon of vinegar. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Tact and Tactfulness)

We are taxed twice as much by our idleness, three times as much by our pride and four times as much by our foolishness. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Taxes and Taxation)

There is no kind of dishonesty into which otherwise good people more easily and frequently fall than that of defrauding the government. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Taxes and Taxation)

A small leak can sink a great ship - (Franklin, Benjamin - Things and Little Things)

Human felicity is produced not as much by great pieces of good fortune that seldom happen as by little advantages that occur every day. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Things and Little Things)

Since thou are not sure of a minute, throw not away an hour. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Time and Time Management)

If time be of all things the most precious, wasting time must be the greatest prodigality. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Time and Time Management)

Dost thou love life? Then do not squander time, for that is the stuff life is made of. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Time and Time Management)

Do not squander time for that is the stuff life is made of. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Time and Time Management)

He that rises late must trot all day. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Time and Time Management)

Tomorrow every fault is to be amended; but tomorrow never comes. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Tomorrow)

We must all hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang separately. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Unity)

Most people dislike vanity in others, whatever share they have of it themselves; but I give it fair quarter, wherever I meet with it, being persuaded that it is often productive of good to the possessor, and to others who are within his sphere of action: and therefore, in many cases, it would not be altogether absurd if a man were to thank God for his vanity among the other comforts of life. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Vanity)

Vice knows that she is ugly, so she puts on her mask. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Vice)

They that are on their guard and appear ready to receive their adversaries, are in much less danger of being attacked than the supine, secure and negligent. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Vigilance)

God will certainly reward virtue and punish vice, either here or hereafter. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Virtue)

Money never made a man happy yet, nor will it. The more a man has, the more he wants. Instead of filling a vacuum, it makes one. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Want)

Our necessities never equal our wants. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Want)

What vast additions to the conveniences and comforts of living might mankind have acquired, if the money spent in wars had been employed in works of public utility; what an extension of agriculture even to the tops of our mountains; what rivers rendered navigable, or joined by canals; what bridges, aqueducts, new roads, and other public works, edifices, and improvements might not have been obtained by spending those millions in doing good, which in the last war have been spent in doing mischief. - (Franklin, Benjamin - War)

Waste neither time nor money, but make the best use of both. Without industry and frugality, nothing will do, and with them everything. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Waste)

Industry, perseverance, and frugality make fortune yield. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Wealth)

He does not posses wealth that allows it to possess him. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Wealth)

The way to wealth depends on just two words, industry and frugality. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Wealth)

Wealth is not his that has it, but his that enjoys it. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Wealth)

Where sense is wanting, everything is wanting. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Wisdom)

The doors of wisdom are never shut. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Wisdom)

If a man could have half of his wishes, he would double his troubles. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Wish and Wishing)

Industry need not wish. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Wish and Wishing)

Never take a wife till thou hast a house (and a fire) to put her in. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Wives)

It is the working man who is the happy man. It is the idle man who is the miserable man. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Work)

Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing. - (Franklin, Benjamin - Writers and Writing)