“Human Felicity is produc'd not so much by great Pieces of good Fortune that seldom happen, as by little Advantages that occur every Day.”
Part III, p. 108.
The Autobiography (1818)
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Benjamin Franklin 183
American author, printer, political theorist, politician, p… 1706–1790Related quotes
The Paris Review interview (1982)
"Speaking of Love, No Love, and Other Nuisances" (23 December 1995) in Our Word Is Our Weapon
“What we anticipate seldom occurs; what we least expected generally happens.”
Book 2, chapter 4. Compare: "I say the very things that make the greatest Stir / An' the most interestin' things, are things that did n't occur", Sam Walter Foss, Things that did n't occur.
Books, Coningsby (1844), Henrietta Temple (1837)
“It seldom happens, however, that a great proprietor is a great improver.”
Source: (1776), Book III, Chapter IV, p. 420.
Speech in Philadelphia (1776)
“Good and great are seldom in the same man.”
The trial of Charles B. Reynolds for blasphemy (1887)
Context: Religions are for a day. They are the clouds. Humanity is the eternal blue. Religions are the waves of the sea. These waves depend upon the force and direction of the wind -- that is to say, of passion; but Humanity is the great sea. And so our religions change from day to day, and it is a blessed thing that they do. Why? Because we grow, and we are getting a little more civilized every day, -- and any man that is not willing to let another man express his opinion, is not a civilized man, and you know it. Any man that does not give to everybody else the rights he claims for himself, is not an honest man.
The Earthly Paradise (1868-70), The Lady of the Land
Context: It happened once, some men of Italy
Midst the Greek Islands went a sea-roving,
And much good fortune had they on the sea:
Of many a man they had the ransoming,
And many a chain they gat and goodly thing;
And midst their voyage to an isle they came,
Whereof my story keepeth not the name.