Benjamin Franklin

I have met the enemy, and it is the eyes of other people.

If you want something done, ask a busy person.

I think vital religion has always suffered when orthodoxy is more regarded than virtue. The scriptures assure me that at the last day we shall not be examined on what we thought but what we did.

Perhaps I was too saucy and provoking.

Order - Let all your things have their places; let each part of your business have its time.

Where there is hunger, law is not regarded;_x000D_ and where law is not regarded, there will be hunger.

Nothing brings more pain than too much pleasure; nothing more bondage than too much liberty.

At the working man’s house, hunger looks in but dares not enter.

As charms are nonsense,_x000D_ nonsense is a charm.

Duty is not beneficial because it is commanded,_x000D_ but is commanded because it is beneficial.

The refusal of King George to allow the colonies to operate an honest money system, which freed the ordinary man from clutches of the money manipulators was probably the prime cause of the revolution.

Behold the rain which descends from heaven upon our vineyards; there it enters the roots of the vines, to be changed into wine; a constant proof that God loves us, and loves to see us happy.

Mankind are very odd creatures:_x000D_ one half censure what they practice,_x000D_ the other half practice what they censure;_x000D_ the rest always say and do as they ought.

Better is little with the fear of the Lord, than great treasure, and trouble therewith.

Do you sincerely declare that you love mankind in general, of what profession or religion soever? Do you think any person ought to be harmed in his body, name, or goods, for mere speculative opinions, or his external way of worship? Do you love truth for truth's sake; and will you endeavor impartially to find and receive it yourself, and communicate it to others.

A lighthouse is more useful than a church.

Experience keeps a dear school, but fools will learn in no other, and scarce in that; for it is true we may give advice, but we cannot give conduct.

If by the liberty of the press were understood merely the liberty of discussing the propriety of public measures and political opinions, let us have as much of it as you please: But if it means the liberty of affronting, calumniating and defaming one another, I, for my part, own myself willing to part with my share of it, whenever our legislators shall please so to alter the law and shall chearfully consent to exchange my liberty of abusing others for the privilege of not being abused myself.

[T]he more public provisions were made for the poor, the less they provided for themselves, and of course became poorer . . . [taking] away from before their eyes the greatest of all inducements to industry, frugality, and sobriety, by giving them a dependence of somewhat else than a careful accumulation during youth and health for support in age and sickness.

And as to the Cares, they are chiefly what attend the bringing up of Children; and I would ask any Man who has experienced it, if they are not the most delightful Cares in the World; and if from that Particular alone, he does not find the Bliss of a double State much greater, instead of being less than he expected.

A lady asked Dr. Franklin Well Doctor what have we got a republic or a monarchy - "A republic," replied the Doctor, "if you can keep it."