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“Love your Enemies, for they tell you your Faults.”
- Poor Richard’s Almanack, 1756 -
“He that falls in love with himself will have no rivals.”
- Poor Richard’s Almanack, 1739 -
“There never was a good war or a bad peace.”
-Letter to Sir Joseph Banks, president of the Royal Society of London, July 1783. Also cited in a letter to Quincy, Sr., American merchant, planter and politician, September 1783. -
“He that lies down with Dogs, shall rise up with fleas.”
- Poor Richard’s Almanack, 1733 -
“Better slip with foot than tongue.”
- Poor Richard’s Almanack, 1734 -
“Look before, or you’ll find yourself behind.”
- Poor Richard’s Almanack, 1735 -
“Don’t throw stones at your neighbors, if your own windows are glass.”
- Poor Richard’s Almanack, 1736 -
“He that would live in peace & at ease, Must not speak all he knows or judge all he sees.”
- Poor Richard’s Almanack, 1736 -
“Well done is better than well said.”
- Poor Richard’s Almanack, 1737 -
“A right Heart exceeds all.”
- Poor Richard’s Almanack, 1739 -
“What you seem to be, be really.”
- Poor Richard’s Almanack, 1744 -
“A true Friend is the best Possession.”
- Poor Richard’s Almanack, 1744 -
“No gains without pains.”
- Poor Richard’s Almanack, 1745 -
“Dost thou love life? Then do not squander Time; for that’s the Stuff Life is made of.”
- Poor Richard’s Almanack, 1746 -
“Lost Time is never found again.”
- Poor Richard’s Almanack, 1747 -
“When you’re good to others, you’re best to yourself.”
- Poor Richard’s Almanack, 1748 -
“Pardoning the Bad, is injuring the Good.”
- Poor Richard’s Almanack, 1748 -
“Hide not your Talents, they for Use were made. What’s a Sun-Dial in the shade!”
- Poor Richard’s Almanack, 1750 -
“Glass, China, and Reputation, are easily crack’d, and never well mended.”
- Poor Richard’s Almanack, 1750 -
“What more valuable than Gold? Diamonds. Than Diamonds? Virtue.”
- Poor Richard’s Almanack, 1751 -
“Haste makes Waste.”
- Poor Richard’s Almanack, 1753 -
“Search others for their virtues, thy self for thy vices.”
- Poor Richard’s Almanack, 1738 - “It is better to take many Injuries than to give one.”
- Poor Richard’s Almanack, 1735
- “Wish not so much to live long as to live well.”
- Poor Richard’s Almanack, 1738
Always quick with a bon mot, Benjamin Franklin has been quoted and paraphrased endlessly. The problem? He didn’t say everything that’s been attributed to him.
Learn about the life and accomplishments of Philadelphia's favorite founding father, Benjamin Franklin.