Link Copied!
Benjamin Franklin Quotes (1706-1790)
Philosopher, Author, Activist
-100px.jpg)
-100px.jpg)
-100px.png)
About Benjamin Franklin
Benjamin Franklin (17 January 1706 – 17 April 1790) was one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. A renowned polymath, Franklin was a leading author, printer, political theorist, politician, postmaster, scientist, inventor, civic activist, statesman, and a diplomatic scientific and novice electrician; he was a major figure in the U.S. Enlightenment and the history of physics for his discoveries and theories regarding electricity. As an inventor, he is known for the lightning rod, for keeping bifocals fog-free, and the Franklin stove, among other inventions. He facilitated many civic organizations, including Philadelphia's fire department and the University of Pennsylvania.
Best Benjamin Franklin Quotes
Shortest
Earliest
Explore our curated collection of the most famous and impactful Benjamin Franklin quotes.
“Man [is a] tool-making animal.”
“Lighthouses are more useful than churches.”
Benjamin Franklin Quotes by Topic
Find exactly what you are looking for by browsing this categorized list of Benjamin Franklin quotes by topic.
Benjamin Franklin on Advice 5 quotes
View all 5 quotes on Advice →Benjamin Franklin on Money 5 quotes
“If you'd lose a troublesome visitor, lend him money.”
Benjamin Franklin on Enemies 4 quotes
View all 4 quotes on Enemies →Benjamin Franklin on Life 4 quotes
“Dost thou love life? then do not squander time; for that is the stuff life is made of.”
Benjamin Franklin on United States Constitution 4 quotes
“Our new Constitution is now established, and has an appearance that promises permanency; but in this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.”
Benjamin Franklin on Work 3 quotes
View all 3 quotes on Work →Benjamin Franklin on Wisdom 3 quotes
View all 3 quotes on Wisdom →Benjamin Franklin on Liberty 3 quotes
View all 3 quotes on Liberty →Benjamin Franklin on English proverbs (alphabetically by proverb) 3 quotes
“Early to bed and early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise.”
-100px.png)
Benjamin Franklin on Pride 3 quotes
“Pride breakfasted with Plenty, dined with Poverty, and supped with Infamy.”
Benjamin Franklin on Friendship 3 quotes
“There are three faithful friends: an old wife, an old dog, and ready money.”
Benjamin Franklin on American Revolution 2 quotes
View all 2 quotes on American Revolution →What Benjamin Franklin Said About Others
Discover personal opinions Benjamin Franklin shared regarding contemporaries.
Benjamin Franklin on Wives 2 quotes
“An undutiful Daughter will prove an unmanageable Wife.”
Benjamin Franklin on Women 2 quotes
“Are women books? says Hodge, then would mine were An Almanack, to change her every year.”
Benjamin Franklin on George Washington 2 quotes
“Here you would know, and enjoy, what posterity will say of Washington. For a thousand leagues have nearly the same effect with a thousand years.”
Benjamin Franklin on Thaddeus Stevens
Benjamin Franklin on Henry Cavendish
“It were to be wished, that this noble philosopher would communicate more of his experiments to the world, as he makes many, and with great accuracy.”
Benjamin Franklin on John Adams
“I am persuaded, ... that Mr. Adams meant well for his country, was always an honest man, often a wise one, but sometimes and in some things, absolutely out of his senses.”
Benjamin Franklin on Jesus
“As to Jesus of Nazareth, my Opinion of whom you particularly desire, I think the System of Morals and his Religion, as he left them to us, the best the world ever saw or is likely to see; but I apprehend it has received various corrupt changes...”
Benjamin Franklin on William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham
Benjamin Franklin on Aristotle
“[Aristotle] totally misrepresents Plato's doctrine of "Ideas." ... It is also pertinent to inquire, what is the difference between the "formal cause" of Aristotle and the archetypal ideas of Plato? ... Yet Aristotle is forever congratulating himself that he alone has properly treated the "formal" and the "final cause"!”
Benjamin Franklin on Bernard Mandeville
“My pamphlet by some means falling into the hands of one Lyons, a surgeon, author of a book entitled "The Infallibility of Human Judgment," it occasioned an acquaintance between us; he took great notice of me, called on me often to converse on those subjects, carried me to the Horns, a pale alehouse in —— lane, Cheapside, and introduced me to Dr. Mandeville, author of the Fable of the Bees, who had a club there, of which he was the soul, being a most facetious, entertaining companion.”
Benjamin Franklin on Black people
“They appeared all to have made considerable progress in reading for the time they had respectively been in the school, and most of them answered readily and well the questions of the catechism. They behaved very orderly, and showed a proper respect and ready obedience to the mistress, and seemed very attentive to, and a good deal affected by, a serious exhoration with which Mister Sturgeon concluded our visit. I was on the whole much pleased, and from what I then saw, have conceived a higher opinion of the natural capacities of the black race, than I had ever before entertained. Their apprehension seems as quick, their memory as strong, and their docility in every respect equal to that of white children.”
Benjamin Franklin on Native Americans in the United States
“Article XI. A perpetual alliance offensive and defensive is to be entered into as soon as may be with the Six Nations; their Limits to be ascertained and secured to them; their Land not to be encroached on, nor any private or Colony Purchases made of them hereafter to be held good, nor any Contract for Lands to be made but between the Great Council of the Indians at Onondaga and the General Congress. The Boundaries and Lands of all the other Indians shall also be ascertained and secured to them in the same manner; and Persons appointed to reside among them in proper Districts, who shall take care to prevent Injustice in the Trade with them, and be enabled at our general Expense by occasional small Supplies, to relieve their personal Wants and Distresses. And all Purchases from them shall be by the Congress for the General Advantage and Benefit of the United Colonies.”
Quotes About Benjamin Franklin
Gain deeper perspective through quotes about Benjamin Franklin from others.
Edmund Burke on Benjamin Franklin
“I congratulate you, as the friend of America, I trust, as not the enemy of England, I am sure, as the friend of mankind.”
Frances Burney on Benjamin Franklin
“Mr. Burke then, to Miss Shipley's great delight, burst forth into an eulogy of the abilities and character of Dr. Franklin, which he mingled with a history the most striking, yet simple, of his life; and a veneration the most profound for his eminence in science, and his liberal sentiments and skill in politics.”
Molly Farrell on Benjamin Franklin
“The year was 1748, the place was Philadelphia, and the book was The Instructor, a popular British manual for everything from arithmetic to letter-writing to caring for horses’ hooves. Benjamin Franklin had set himself to adapting it for the American colonies. Though Franklin already had a long and successful career by this point, he needed to find a way to convince colonial book-buyers—who for the most part didn’t even formally study arithmetic—that his version of George Fisher’s textbook was worth the investment. Franklin made all sorts of changes throughout the book, from place names to inserting colonial histories, but he made one really big change: adding John Tennent’s The Poor Planter’s Physician to the end. Tennent was a Virginia doctor whose medical pamphlet had first appeared in 1734. By appending it to The Instructor (replacing a treatise on farriery) Franklin hoped to distinguish the book from its London ancestor. Franklin advertised that his edition was “the whole better adapted to these American Colonies, than any other book of the like kind.” In the preface he goes on to specifically mention his swapping out of sections, insisting that “in the British Edition of this Book, there were many Things of little or no Use in these Parts of the World: In this Edition those Things are omitted, and in their Room many other Matters inserted, more immediately useful to us Americans.” One of those useful “Matters” was a how-to on at-home abortion, made available to anyone who wanted a book that could teach the ABCs and 123s.”
John Kenneth Galbraith on Benjamin Franklin 2 quotes
“The monetary experiments of Pennsylvania and its neighbors were by no means an unconsidered reaction to circumstance. They were extensively debated and had the energetic support of Benjamin Franklin, the most intelligent political man in the colonies and an ardent exponent of paper money. In 1729 he published his A Modest Enquiry into the Nature and Necessity of Paper Currency, a brief on behalf of paper currency... In 1736, Franklin's Pennsylvania Gazette printed an apology for its irregular appearance because its printer was "with the Press, labouring for the publick Good, to make Money more plentiful." The press was busy printing money.”
David Hume on Benjamin Franklin
“America has sent us many good things, gold, silver, sugar, tobacco; but you are the first philosopher for whom we are beholden to her. It is our own fault that we have not kept him; whence it appears that we do not agree with Solomon, that wisdom is above gold; for we take good care never to send back an ounce of the latter, which we once lay our fingers upon.”
Thomas Jefferson on Benjamin Franklin
“On being presented to any one as the Minister of America, the common-place question, used in such cases, was ‘c’est vous, Monsieur, qui remplace le Docteur Franklin?’ ‘It is you, Sir, who replace Doctor Franklin?’ I generally answered ‘no one can replace him, Sir; I am only his successor.’”
Kim Kelly on Benjamin Franklin
“They had previously spent time living in Barbados, where nine in ten people were enslaved on vast sugar plantations and were subjected to barbaric torture; the horrors they witnessed and close relationships they formed with enslaved people there hardened Benjamin Lay's resolve to fight for abolition. As Franklin once put it, "Sugar was made with blood."”
Winona LaDuke on Benjamin Franklin
“While new American leaders such as George Washington, Patrick Henry, and Benjamin Franklin studied the Haudenosaunee government, they also engaged in land speculation over territory held by these peoples, and Mohawk lands were ceded through force, coercion, and deceit until fewer than 14,600 acres remained in New York State.”
Mirabeau on Benjamin Franklin
Frank Woodworth Pine on Benjamin Franklin
“Franklin is a good type of our American manhood. Although not the wealthiest or the most powerful, he is undoubtedly, in the versatility of his genius and achievements, the greatest of our self-made men. The simple yet graphic story in the Autobiography of his steady rise from humble boyhood in a tallow-chandler shop, by industry, economy, and perseverance in self-improvement, to eminence, is the most remarkable of all the remarkable histories of our self-made men. It is in itself a wonderful illustration of the results possible to be attained in a land of unequaled opportunity by following Franklin's maxims.”
Joseph Priestley on Benjamin Franklin 2 quotes
“Franklin was the first scientist to propose that the identity of lightning and electricity could be proved experimentally, but he was not the first to suggest that identity, nor even the first to perform the experiment.”
Source on Benjamin Franklin
“To demonstrate, in the completest manner possible, the sameness of the electric fluid with the matter of lightning, Dr. Franklin, astonishing as it must have appeared, contrived actually to bring lightning from the heavens, by means of an electrical kite, which he raised when a storm of thunder was perceived to be coming on.”
About Benjamin Franklin
Benjamin Franklin (17 January 1706 – 17 April 1790) was one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. A renowned polymath, Franklin was a leading author, printer, political theorist, politician, postmaster, scientist, inventor, civic activist, statesman, and a diplomatic scientific and novice electrician; he was a major figure in the U.S. Enlightenment and the history of physics for his discoveries and theories regarding electricity. As an inventor, he is known for the lightning rod, for keeping bifocals fog-free, and the Franklin stove, among other inventions. He facilitated many civic organizations, including Philadelphia's fire department and the University of Pennsylvania.