Wise Reminders From Benjamin Franklin

Benjamin Franklin was one of the Founding Fathers of the United States and helped draft the United States Declaration of Independence. He was also the first United States postmaster general, founder of many civic organizations, and a printer, publisher, scientist, inventor, writer, and diplomat.

Below we list some words of wisdom by Benjamin Franklin.

"If everyone is thinking alike, then no one is thinking."

"Make yourself sheep and the wolves will eat you."

"The best thing to give to your enemy is forgiveness; to an opponent, tolerance; to a friend, your heart; to your child, a good example; to a father, deference; to your mother, conduct that will make her proud of you; to yourself, respect; to all others, charity."

"We are all born ignorant, but one must work hard to remain stupid."

"When you get into a tight place and everything goes against you, till it seems as though you could not hold on a minute longer, never give up then, for that is just the place and time that the tide will turn. When you're down to nothing, God is up to something. The faithful see the invisible, believe the incredible and then receive the impossible. Where liberty dwells there is my country."

"Tricks and treachery are the practice of fools, that don't have brains enough to be honest."

"Little minds think and talk about people. Average minds think and talk about things and actions. Great minds think and talk about ideas."

"Do not anticipate trouble, or worry about what may never happen. Keep in the sunlight."

"Out of adversity comes opportunity."

"Freedom is not a gift bestowed upon us by other men, but a right that belongs to us by the laws of God and nature."

"Common sense without education, is better than education without common sense."

"The world is run by the people who show up."

"There are many roads to success, but only one sure road to failure; and that is to try to please everyone else."

"Take the money in your wallet and invest it in your mind. And in return, your mind will fill up your wallet!"

"Instead of cursing the darkness, light a candle."

"Genius is the ability to hold one's vision steady until it becomes reality."

"Who is wise? He that learns from everyone. Who is powerful? He that governs his passions. Who is rich? He that is content. Who is that? Nobody."

"Being ignorant is not so much a shame, as being unwilling to learn."

"All highly competent people continually search for ways to keep learning, growing, and improving. They do that by asking WHY. After all, the person who knows HOW will always have a job, but the person who knows WHY will always be the boss."

"Change is the only constant in life. Ones ability to adapt to those changes will determine your success in life."

"Half the truth is often a great lie."

"Remember not only to say the right thing in the right place, but far more difficult still, to leave unsaid the wrong thing at the tempting moment."

"There are three sorts of people in the world: Those who are immovable, people who don't get it, or don't want to do anything about it; there are people who are movable, people who see the need for change and are prepared to listen to it; and there are people who move, people who make things happen."

"Without freedom of thought, there can be no such thing as wisdom; and no such thing as public liberty without freedom of speech; which is the right of every man as far as by it he does not hurt or control the right of another; and this is the only check it ought to suffer and the only bounds it ought to know.... Whoever would overthrow the liberty of a nation must begin by subduing the freedom of speech, a thing terrible to traitors."

"Beer is proof that God wants us to be happy."

Copyright © Stephen Petullo, Scott Petullo