Benjamin Franklin Men Quotations [Page 2]

He that steals the old man's supper does him no wrong.

I believe ... that the soul of man is immortal and will be treated with justice in another life, respecting its conduct in this.

The English love an insult. It's their only test of a man's sincerity.

Whether a Commonwealth suffers more by hypocritical pretenders to religion or by the openly profane? The most dangerous hypocrite in a Commonwealth is one who leaves the gospel for the sake of the law. A man compounded of law and gospel is able to cheat a whole country with his religion and then destroy them under color of law.

Who judges best of a Man, his Enemies or himself?

Let all Men know thee, but no man know thee thoroughly: Men freely ford that see the shallows.

A wolf eats sheep but now and then, ten Thousands are devour'd by Men.

If I knew a miser, who gave up every kind of comfortable living, all the pleasure of doing good to others, all the esteem of his fellow-citizens, and the joys of benevolent friendship, for the sake of accumulating wealth. Poor man, said I, you pay too much for your whistle.

No man ever was glorious, who was not laborious.

If any man flatters me, I'll flatter him again; tho' he were my best Friend.

The same man cannot be both Friend and Flatterer.

One Man may be more cunning than another, but not more cunning than every body else.

The cunning man steals a horse, the wise man lets him alone.

In other men we faults can spy,/ And blame the mote that dims their eye;/ Each little speck and blemish find;/ To our own stronger errors blind.

Why does the blind man's wife paint herself.

Men differ daily about things which are subject to sense, is it likely then they should agree about things invisible.

There is always room for the man of force.

Money never made a man happy yet, nor will it. There is nothing in its nature to produce happiness. The more a man has, the more he wants. Instead of its filling a vacuum, it makes one. If it satisfies one want, it doubles and trebles that want another way. That was a true proverb of the wise man, rely upon it; Better is little with the fear of the Lord, than great treasure, and trouble therewith.

Is there anything men take more pains about than to render themselves unhappy?

Success has ruined many a man.

When you speak to a man, look on his eyes; when he speaks to you, look on his mouth.

Many estates are spent in the getting, since women for tea forsake spinning and knitting, and men for punch forsake hewing and splitting.

Men are subject to various inconveniences merely through lack of a small share of courage, which is a quality very necessary in the common occurrences of life, as well as in a battle. How many impertinences do we daily suffer with great uneasiness, because we have not courage enough to discover our dislike.

If a sound body and a sound mind, which is as much as to say health and virtue, are to be preferred before all other considerations, ought not men, in choosing a business either for themselves or children, to refuse such as are unwholesome for the body, and such as make a man too dependent, too much obliged to please others, and too much subjected to their humors in order to be recommended and get a livelihood?

After all, wedlock is the natural state of man. A bachelor is not a complete human being. He is like the odd half of a pair of scissors, which has not yet found its fellow, and therefore is not even half so useful as they might be together.

An old man in a house is a good sign.

A man may, if he knows not how to save as he gets, keep his nose to the grindstone.

...it is prodigious the quantity of good that may be done by one man if he will make a business of it.

Success has ruin'd many a man.

None but the well-bred man knows how to confess a fault, or acknowledge himself in an error.

The longer I live the more convinced I become that God governs in the affairs of men. And have we now forgotten that powerful friend? Or do we imagine we no longer need His assistance.

Pride is said to be the last vice the good man gets clear of...

If a man would reap praise, you must sow the seeds, gentle words and useful deeds.

When men differ in opinion, both sides ought equally to have the advantage of being heard by the public; when Truth and Error have fair play, the former is always an overmatch for the latter.

History will also give occasion to expatiate on the advantage of civil orders and constitutions; how men and their properties are protected by joining in societies and establishing government; their industry encouraged and rewarded, arts invented, and life made more comfortable; the advantages of liberty, mischiefs of licentiousness, benefits arising from good laws and a due execution of justice. Thus may the first principles of sound politics be fixed in the minds of youth.

Thank God! we are in the full enjoyment of all these privileges. But can we be taught to prize them too much? or how can we prize them equal to their value, if we do not know their intrinsic worth, and that they are not a gift bestowed upon us by other men, but a right that belongs to us by the laws of God and nature?

Dangerous, therefore, is it to take shelter under a tree, during a thunder-gust. It has been fatal to many, both men and beasts.

Early to bed and early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise." He planned his routine around waking up at 5 a.m. and asking himself "What good shall I do this day?

A man separated from his reflective belt is no man at all.

The wise man draws more advantage from his enemies than the fool from his friends

There's many witty men whose brains can't fill their bellies.

Poverty, Poetry, and new Titles of Honor, make Men ridiculous

It is wonderful how preposterously the affairs of the world are managed. We assemble parliaments and councils to have the benefit of collected wisdom, but we necessarily have, at the same time, the inconvenience of their collected passions, prejudices and private interests: for regulating commerce an assembly of great men is the greatest fool on earth

The most trifling actions that affect a man's credit are to be regarded. The sound of your hammer at five in the morning, or at nine at night, heard by a creditor, makes him easy six months longer; but if he sees you at the billiard-table, or hears your voice at a tavern, when you should be at work, he sends for his money the next day.

On being asked what condition of man he considered the most pitiable: A lonesome man on a rainy day who does not know how to read.

Remember this saying, The good payer is lord of another man's purse. He that is known to pay punctually and exactly to the time he promises, may at any time, and on any occasion, raise all the money his friends can spare.

It is the man and woman united that makes the complete human being. Separate she lacks his force of body and strength of reason; he her softness, sensibility and acute discernment. Together they are most likely to succeed in the world.

What science can there be more noble, more excellent, more useful for men, more admirably high and demonstrative, than this of mathematics?

Man is a tool-making animal

Presumption first blinds a man, then sets him a running.

I wish the bald eagle had not been chosen as the representative of our country; he is a bird of bad moral character; like those among men who live by sharping and robbing, he is generally poor, and often very lousy. The turkey is a much more respectable bird, and withal a true original native of America.

Three things are men most likely to be cheated in, a horse, a wig, and a wife.

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. . . .

I grew convinced that truth, sincerity and integrity in dealings between man and man were of the utmost importance to the felicity of life, and I formed written resolutions . . . to practice them ever while I lived.

We have no poor houses in the Colonies, and if we had, we would have no one to put in them, as in the Colonies there is not a single unemployed man, no poor and no vagabonds.

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

The poor man must walk to get meat for his stomach, the rich man to get a stomach to his meat.

I think with you, that nothing is of more importance for the public weal, than to form and train up youth in wisdom and virtue. Wise and good men are in my opinion, the strength of the state; more so than riches or arms.

The man who does things makes mistakes, but he doesn't make the biggest mistake of all-doing nothing.

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.

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.

That wise Men have in all Ages thought Government necessary for the Good of Mankind; and, that wise Governments have always thought Religion necessary for the well ordering and well-being of Society, and accordingly have been ever careful to encourage and protect the Ministers of it, paying them the highest publick Honours, that their Doctrines might thereby meet with the greater Respect among the common People.

When men are employed they are best contented.

A dying man can do nothing easy.

I have never seen the Philosopher's Stone that turns lead into Gold, but I have known the pursuit of it turn a Man's Gold into Lead.

Some men grow mad by studying much to know, But who grows mad by studying good to grow.

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.

A man is sometimes more generous when he has but a little money than when he has plenty, perhaps through fear of being thought to have but little.

Many men die at twenty- five and aren't buried until they are seventy-five.

Men take more pains to mask than to mend.

Pollio, who values nothing that's within, Buys books as men hunt Beavers, -- for their Skin.

If what most men admire, they would despise, 'Twould look as if mankind were growing wise

Good counsel failing men can give, for why? He that's aground knows where the shoal doth lie

Some men grow mad by studying much to know, But who grows mad by studying good to grow.

When knaves fall out, honest men get their goods; when priests dispute, we come at the truth

Wise men talk because they have something to say; fools talk because they have to say something.

Is there any thing Men take more pains about than to render themselves unhappy?

Think how great a proportion of mankind, consists of weak and ignorant men and women, and of inexperienced youth of both sexes, who have need of the motives of religion to restrain them from vice, to support their virtue, and retain them in the pract

Of learned Fools I have seen ten times ten, Of unlearned wise men I have seen a hundred

A wolf eats sheep but now and then, ten thousands are devoured by men

It's common for Men to give 6 pretended Reasons instead of one real one.

Can grave and formal pass for wise, When Men the solemn Owl despise?

The excellency of hogs is fatness, of men virtue