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Benjamin Franklin Quotes
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Benjamin Franklin was an American polymath and one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. Franklin was a leading writer, printer, political philosopher, politician, Freemason, postmaster, scientist, inventor, humorist, civic activist, statesman, and diplomat. As a scientist, he was a major figure in the American Enlightenment and the history of physics for his discoveries and theories regarding electricity. As an inventor, he is known for the lightning rod, bifocals, and the Franklin stove, among other inventions. He founded many civic organizations, including the Library Company, Philadelphia's first fire department and the University of Pennsylvania.Franklin earned the title of "The First American" for his early and indefatigable campaigning for colonial unity, initially as an author and spokesman in London for several colonies. As the first United States Ambassador to France, he exemplified the emerging American nation. Franklin was foundational in defining the American ethos as a marriage of the practical values of thrift, hard work, education, community spirit, self-governing institutions, and opposition to authoritarianism both political and religious, with the scientific and tolerant values of the Enlightenment. In the words of historian Henry Steele Commager, "In a Franklin could be merged the virtues of Puritanism without its defects, the illumination of the Enlightenment without its heat." To Walter Isaacson, this makes Franklin "the most accomplished American of his age and the most influential in inventing the type of society America would become."Franklin became a successful newspaper editor and printer in Philadelphia, the leading city in the colonies, publishing the Pennsylvania Gazette at the age of 23. He became wealthy publishing this and Poor Richard's Almanack, which he authored under the pseudonym "Richard Saunders". After 1767, he was associated with the Pennsylvania Chronicle, a newspaper that was known for its revolutionary sentiments and criticisms of British policies.

He pioneered and was the first president of Academy and College of Philadelphia which opened in 1751 and later became the University of Pennsylvania. He organized and was the first secretary of the American Philosophical Society and was elected president in 1769. Franklin became a national hero in America as an agent for several colonies when he spearheaded an effort in London to have the Parliament of Great Britain repeal the unpopular Stamp Act. An accomplished diplomat, he was widely admired among the French as American minister to Paris and was a major figure in the development of positive Franco-American relations. His efforts proved vital for the American Revolution in securing shipments of crucial munitions from France.

He was promoted to deputy postmaster-general for the British colonies in 1753, having been Philadelphia postmaster for many years, and this enabled him to set up the first national communications network. During the revolution, he became the first United States Postmaster General. He was active in community affairs and colonial and state politics, as well as national and international affairs. From 1785 to 1788, he served as governor of Pennsylvania. He initially owned and dealt in slaves but, by the late 1750s, he began arguing against slavery and became an abolitionist.

His life and legacy of scientific and political achievement, and his status as one of America's most influential Founding Fathers, have seen Franklin honored more than two centuries after his death on coinage and the $100 bill, warships, and the names of many towns, counties, educational institutions, and corporations, as well as countless cultural references. Wikipedia  

✵ 17. January 1706 – 17. April 1790
Benjamin Franklin photo
Benjamin Franklin: 183   quotes 20   likes

Benjamin Franklin Quotes

“Sloth makes all things difficult. ”

Benjamin Franklin

“Be always at war with your vices, at peace with your neighbors, and let each new year find you a better man.”

Benjamin Franklin
New Year , War , Peace

“Whatever is begun in anger ends in shame.”

Benjamin Franklin
Anger

“Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I may remember. Involve me and I learn.”

Benjamin Franklin

There is no evidence that Franklin said this. Scholars believe the saying comes from the Xunzi.
Additional information may be read at the following websites:
http://dakinburdick.wordpress.com/2012/03/14/tell-me-and-i-forget/
http://www.quora.com/History/Where-and-when-did-Benjamin-Franklin-say-Tell-me-and-I-forget-teach-me-and-I-may-remember-involve-me-and-I-learn
http://gazettextra.com/weblogs/word-badger/2013/mar/24/whose-quote-really/
Misattributed

Forgetting , Learning

“Fish and visitors stink in three days.”

Benjamin Franklin

Adapted 16th century writer John Lyly's line http://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2015/03/ben-franklins-best-epigrams/ found in Euphues – the Anatomy of Wit: Fish and guests in three days are stale.
Attributed

Fish

“The mind is always asking you to do something over again, something you have already done so many times before. And every time you see that by doing it nothing is achieved. What else can madness be?”

Benjamin Franklin

Misattributed

Time , Madness

“To be mad is to keep repeating something that has already been seen as useless, as worthless.”

Benjamin Franklin

Misattributed

Madness

“Freedom of speech is a principal pillar of a free government; when this support is taken away, the constitution of a free society is dissolved, and tyranny is erected on its ruins. Republics and limited monarchies derive their strength and vigor from a popular examination into the action of the magistrates.”

Benjamin Franklin

"On Freedom of Speech and the Press", Pennsylvania Gazette (17 November 1737) http://books.google.de/books?id=HptPAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA431&dq=pillar.
1720s

Support , Freedom

“Well done is better than well said.”

Benjamin Franklin

Poor Richard's Almanack (1737)

“Without freedom of thought, there can be no such thing as wisdom - and no such thing as public liberty without freedom of speech.”

Benjamin Franklin
Freedom , Wisdom

“There never was a good knife made of bad steel.”

Benjamin Franklin

“One today is worth two tomorrows.”

Benjamin Franklin

“Honesty is the best policy.”

Benjamin Franklin

“The doors of wisdom are never shut.”

Benjamin Franklin
Wisdom

“A republic, if you can keep it.”

Benjamin Franklin

James McHenry diary entry on September 18,1787 https://blogs.loc.gov/teachers/files/2016/09/McHenry-Note.jpg, the day after the signing of the United States Constitution: "A lady asked Dr. Franklin Well Doctor what we got a republic or a monarchy — A republic replied the Doctor if you can keep it."
Attributed

“Libraries ... will be the best security for maintaining our liberties. A nation of well-informed men, who have been taught to know and prize the rights which God has given them, cannot be enslaved. It is in the regions of ignorance that tyranny reigns.”

Benjamin Franklin

Written by Henry Stuber as part of a biographical sketch of Franklin appended to a 1793 edition of Franklin's autobiography and sometimes reprinted with it in the 19th century. It is frequently misattributed to Franklin himself.
Misattributed

God , Men

“Our great security lies, I think, in our growing strength, both in numbers and wealth; ... unless, by a neglect of military discipline, we should lose all martial spirit ...; for there is much truth in the Italian saying, Make yourselves sheep, and the wolves will eat you.”

Benjamin Franklin

Letter to Thomas Cushing (1773) http://oll.libertyfund.org/titles/franklin-the-works-of-benjamin-franklin-vol-vi-letters-and-misc-writings-1772-1775#lf1438-06_head_007.

Wealth , Truth , Thinking