Life advice from Benjamin Franklin I’ve been helping to make more modern.
Work in progress…
Fools multiply folly.
The noblest question in the world is, What Good may I do in it?
Pay what you owe, and you’ll know what’s your own.
An ounce of wit that is bought, is worth a pound that is taught.
Hunger is the best pickle.
Reading makes a full human, Meditation a profound human, discourse a clear human.
What begins in anger ends in shame.
Fear to do ill, and you need fear naught else.
A quarrelsome human has no good Neighbors.
If time be of all things the most precious, wasting time must be the greatest prodigality, since lost time is never found again; and what we call time enough always proves little enough. Let us then up and be doing, and doing to the purpose; so by diligence shall we do more with less perplexity.
If you desire many things, many things will seem few.
Well done is better than well said.
Whom that sows thorns, should not go barefoot.
Work as if you were to live 100 years, Pray as if you were to die To-morrow.
Genius without education is like silver in the mine.
Who is strong? One that can conquer their bad Habits.
Don’t go to the doctor with every distemper, nor to the lawyer with every quarrel, nor to the pot for every thirst.
Distrust & caution are the parents of security.
Avarice and Happiness never saw each other, how then shou’d they become acquainted.
Wink at small faults; remember thou hast great ones.
Proclaim not all thou knowest, all thou owest, all thou hast, nor all thou canst.
Employ thy time well if thou meanest to gain leisure; and since thou art not sure of a minute, throw not away an hour. Leisure is time for doing something useful, and this leisure the diligent one will obtain, but the lazy never, for a life of leisure and a life of laziness are two things.
Plough deep, while Sluggards sleep; And you shall have Corn, to sell and to keep.
Better is a little with content than much with contention.
Silence is not always a Sign of Wisdom, but Babbling is ever a Mark of Folly.
You may give someone an Office, but you cannot give them Discretion.
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.
Dost thou love life? Then do not squander time, for that is the stuff life is made of.
Search others for their virtues, thy self for thy vices.
Sloth makes all things difficult, but industry, all things easy. Those who rise late must trot all day, and hall scarce overtakes business at night, while laziness travels so slowly that poverty soon overtakes them.
Glass, China, and Reputation, are easily crack’d, and never well mended.
Better slip with foot than tongue.
If you’d know the Value of Money, go and borrow some.
The Proud hate Pride—in others.
You are your best return on investment.
Have you somewhat to do tomorrow; do it today.
Wish not so much to live long as to live well.
The worst wheel of the cart makes the most noise.
Diligence overcomes Difficulties, Sloth makes them.
Would you persuade, speak of Interest, not of Reason.
An empty bag will not stand upright.
Those that compose themselves, are wiser than those who compose books.
Having been poor is no shame, but being ashamed of it, is.
Humility makes great people twice honourable.
The Sting of a Reproach, is the Truth of it.
Think of three Things, whence you came, where you are going, and to whom you must account.
Virtue may not always make a Face beautiful, but Vice will certainly make it ugly.
The things which hurt, instruct.
By diligence and patience, the mouse bit in two the cable.
If time be of all things most precious, wasting time must be the greatest prodigality, since lost time is never found again.
Necessity never made a good bargain.
A great Talker may be no Fool, but those that rely on them are.
Approve not of who commends all you say.
When the Well’s dry, we know the Worth of Water.
They that won’t be counselled, can’t be helped.
Tell me my Faults, and mend your own. Pains take more effort to mask than mend.
The poor have little, beggars none, the rich too much, enough not one.
Poverty wants some things, Luxury many things, Avarice all things.
Wealth is not those who have it, but who enjoys it.
Anger is never without a Reason, but seldom with a good One.
A Temper to bear much, will have much to bear.
theyIf one could have Half their Wishes, would double
If one could have Half htheir Wishes, he they would double his their Troubles.
Lost time is never found again.
Want of Care does us more Damage than Want of Knowledge.
Hunger never saw bad bread.
Speak little, do much.
The Wolf sheds
his Coat once a Year, Disposition never.
To err is human, to repent divine, to persist devilish.
When you’re good to others, you are best to yourself.
Those that wait upon fortune, are never sure of a dinner.
Do not do what you would not have known.
Haste makes waste.
Beware of little expenses; a small leak will sink a great ship.
Those who are rich need not live sparingly, and those who live sparingly need not be rich.
Half the Truth is often a great Lie.
Diligence is the mother of good luck.
No gains without pains.
There are lazy Minds as well as lazy Bodies.
Be slow in chusing a Friend, slower in changing.
He that lives upon Hope, dies fasting.
The Sun never repents of the good
he it does, nor does
he it ever demand a recompence.
Love, and be loved.
What signifies your Patience, if you can’t find it when you want it.
Fish & visitors stink in 3 days.
Sin is not harmful because it is forbidden, but it is forbidden because it is hurtful.
Be neither silly, nor cunning, but wise.
They who have nothing to be troubled at, will be troubled at nothing.
—Benjamin Franklin