Quotations of selected author

Benjamin Franklin

1706-1790. American inventor, philosopher, diplomat and statesman. Inventor of lightning-rod.


1. "You may delay, but Time will not."

categories: Time and Passing


2. "Who is rich? He that is content. Who is that? Nobody."

categories: Richness and Money


3. "Whatever is begun in anger, ends in shame."

categories: Various -:- Anger


4. "Treason is a charge invented by winners as an excuse for hanging the losers."

categories: Loyalty and Betrayal


5. "To err is human, to repent divine, to persist devilish."

categories: Defeates and Mistakes


6. "To be proud of knowledge is to be blind with light."

categories: Egoism -:- Wisdom and Stupidity -:- Knowledge, Ignorance


7. "Three may keep a secret, if two of them are dead."

categories: Various


8. "There is no kind of dishonesty into which otherwise good people more easily and frequently fall than that of defrauding the government."

categories: Authority, Government -:- Law and Crime



9. "There are more old drunkards than old doctors."

categories: Health and Alcohol


10. "The Constitution only gives people the right to pursue happiness. You have to catch it yourself."

categories: Happiness -:- Law and Crime


11. "Sin is not hurtful because it is forbidden, but it is forbidden because it's hurtful."

categories: Sin and Conscience


12. "Silence is not always a sign of wisdom, but babbling is ever a mark of folly."

categories: Oration and Silence -:- Wisdom and Stupidity


13. "Life's tragedy is that we get old too soon and wise too late."

categories: Life and Death -:- Wisdom and Stupidity -:- Youth and Age


14. "In general, mankind, since the improvement of cookery, eats about twice as much as nature requires."

categories: Health and Alcohol


15. "If Jack's in love, he's no judge of Jill's beauty."

categories: Beauty and Ugliness -:- Love


16. "He that falls in love with himself will have no rivals."

categories: Egoism


17. "Half the Truth is often a great Lie."

categories: Truth and Falsity


18. "God heals, and the Doctor takes the Fee."

categories: Health and Alcohol


19. "Genius without education is like silver in the mine."

categories: Talent and Genius -:- Education



20. "Death takes no bribes."

categories: Life and Death


21. "Beware of the young doctor and the old barber."

categories: Health and Alcohol -:- Youth and Age


22. "Anger is never without a reason, but seldom with a good one."

categories: Anger


23. "An investment in knowledge always pays the best interest."

categories: Education -:- Knowledge, Ignorance