Benjamin Franklin
Benjamin Franklin
Benjamin Franklinwas one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. A renowned polymath, Franklin was a leading author, printer, political theorist, politician, freemason, postmaster, scientist, inventor, 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 facilitated many civic organizations, including...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionScientist
Date of Birth17 January 1706
CityBoston, MA
CountryUnited States of America
Benjamin Franklin quotes about
At the working man’s house, hunger looks in but dares not enter.
Industry and patience are the surest means of plenty.
Private property...is the creature of society and is subject to the calls of that society even to the last farthing.
A light purse is a heavy curse.
If you want to make a friend, let someone do you a favor.
Why should I give my Readers bad lines of my own when good ones of other People's are so plenty?
Abuses of the freedom of speech ought to be repressed, but to whom are we to commit the power of doing it?
Increase in me that wisdom Which discovers my truest interest, Strengthen my resolution To perform that which wisdom dictates.
The rapid progress of the sciences makes me sorry, at times, that I was born so soon. Imagine the power that man will have over matter, a few hundred years from now. We may learn how to remove gravity from large masses, and float them over great distances. Agriculture will double its produce with less labor. All diseases will surely be cured... even old age. If only the moral sciences could be improved as well. Perhaps men would cease to be wolves to one another... and human beings could learn to be human.
I think that humanity brings much misery on itself by the false value they put on things.
Idle hands are the devil's playthings.
Human happiness comes not from infrequent pieces of good fortune, but from the small improvements to daily life.
Every other sect supposes itself in possession of the truth, and that those who differ are so far in the wrong. Like a man traveling in foggy weather they see those at a distance before them wrapped up in a fog, as well as those behind them, and also people in the fields on each side; but near them, all appears clear, though in truth they are as much in the fog as any of them.
What is the use of a new-born child ?