Ben Franklin's Quotes & Sayings on his 13 Virtues

Temperance

(Eat not to dullness. Drink not to elevation.)

A fat kitchen, a lean will.

A full belly is the mother of all evil.

A full belly makes a dull brain.

Be temperate in wine, in eating, girls, and cloth, or the gout will seize you and plague you both.

Cheese and salt meat should be sparingly eaten.

Dine with little, sup with less: Do better still: sleep supperless.

Drunkenness, that worst of evils, makes some men fools, some beasts, some devils.

Eat few suppers, and you will need few medicines.

Eat to live; live not to eat.

He that never eats too much, will never be lazy.

He that spills the rum loses that only; He that drinks it, often loses both that and himself.

If it were not for the belly, the back might wear gold.

Many dishes, many diseases.

No wonder Tom grows fat: the unwieldy sinner makes his whole life but one continual dinner.

Nothing more like a fool, than a drunken man.

Three good meals a day is bad living.

To lengthen your life, lessen your meals.

When the wine enters, out goes the truth.

Silence

(Speak not but what may benefit others or yourself. Avoiding trifling conversation.)

Great talkers should be cropped, for they have no need of ears.

Great talkers, little doers.

Half-wits talk much but say little.

Harry Smatter has a mouth for every matter.

He makes a foe, who makes a jest.

He that speaks much is much mistaken.

Here comes the orator, with his flood of words, and his drop of reason.

None preaches better than the ant, and she says nothing.

Petty & witty will wound if they hit you.

Silence is not always a sign of wisdom, but babbling is ever a folly.

Since I cannot govern my own tongue though within my own teeth, how can I hope to govern the tongues of others?

Tart words make no Friends: a spoonful of honey will catch more flies than a gallon of vinegar.

There are many witty men whose brains can’t fill their bellies.

There are no fools so troublesome as those that have wit.

Tongue double, brings trouble.

Who says Jack is not generous? – he is always fond of giving, and cares not for receiving, – what? – why, advice.

You cannot joke an enemy into a friend, but you may a friend into an enemy.

You may talk too much on the best of subjects.

Order

(Let all your things have their places. Let each part of your business have its time.)

Early to bed and early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise.

He that rises late, must trot all day, and shall scarce overtake his business at night.

The muses love the morning.

If you have time, don’t wait for time.

You may delay, but time will not.

Lost time is never found again.

The sleeping Fox catches no poultry. Up! up!

One today is worth two tomorrows.

Up, sluggard, and waste not life; in the grave will be sleeping enough.

Resolution

(Resolve to perform what you ought. Perform without fail what you resolve.)

He that resolves to mend hereafter, resolves not to mend now.

How few there are who have courage enough to own their faults, or resolution enough to mend them!

Take counsel in wine, but resolve afterwards in water.

Tomorrow I will reform, the fool does say;

Today itself is too late; – the wise did yesterday.

Tomorrow every fault is to be amended: but that tomorrow never comes.

With the old almanac and the old year, leave your old vices, though they are very dear.

Frugality

(Make no expense but to do good to others or yourself. Waste nothing.)

A Child thinks 20 shillings and 20 years can scarce ever be spent.

A light purse is a heavy curse.

A penny saved is two pence clear. A pin a-day is a groat a-year. Save and have.

At a great penny worth, pause a while.

Avarice and happiness never saw each other; how then should they become acquainted?

Beware of little expenses: a small leak will sink a great ship.

Buy what you have no need of, and before long you shall sell your necessaries.

Content makes poor men rich; discontent makes rich men poor.

Creditors have better memories than debtors.

Every little makes a mickle.

For age and want save while you may; No morning sun lasts a whole day.

Great spenders are bad lenders.

He that buys by the penny, maintains not only himself, but other people.

He that spends a small sum a day idly, spends idly above 6£ a year, which is the price of using 100£.

If you know how to spend less than you get, you have the philosopher’s stone.

If you want to be wealthy, think of saving, as well as of getting: The Indies have not made Spain rich, because her outgoes equal her incomes.

If you want to learn the value of money, try borrowing some.

Industry, perseverance, & frugality make fortune yield.

It is a well spent penny that saves a groat.

Light gains, heavy purses.

Light purse, heavy heart.

Many a man thinks he is buying pleasure, when he is really selling himself a slave to it.

Many have been ruined by buying good pennyworths.

Nothing so likely to make a man’s fortune as virtue.

Proportion your charity to the strength of your estate, or God will proportion your estate to the weakness of your charity.

Rather go to bed supperless than run in debt for a breakfast.

Spare and have is better than spend and crave.

The borrower is a slave to the lender; the security to both.

The creditors are a superstitious sect, great observers of set days and times.

The second vice is lying; the first is running in debt.

The thrifty maxim of the wary Dutch, is to save all the money they can touch.

What maintains one vice would bring up two children.

Who is rich? He that rejoices in his portion.

Industry

(Lose no time. Be always employed in something useful. Cut off all unnecessary actions.)

A life of leisure and a life of laziness are two things.

A plowman on his legs is higher than a gentleman on his knees.

At the working man’s house hunger looks in, but dares not enter.

Be always ashamed to catch yourself idle.

By diligence and patience, the mouse bit in two the cable.

Diligence is the mother of good luck.

Diligence overcomes difficulties, sloth makes them.

Do you love life? Then do not squander time; for that is the stuff life is made of.

Drive your business, or it will drive you.

Drive your business; – let not that drive you.

Employ your time well, if you mean to gain leisure.

God gives all things to industry.

God helps them that help themselves.

Have you somewhat to do tomorrow, do it today.

He that has a trade has an office of profit and honor.

He that has a trade, has an estate.

He that idly loses 5s. worth of time, loses 5s., and might as prudently throw 5s. into the river. He that loses 5s. not only loses that sum, but all the other advantages that might be made by turning it in dealing, which, by the time a young man becomes old, amounts to a comfortable bag of money.

He that waits upon fortune is never sure of a dinner.

He that would catch fish must venture his bait.

Hide not your talents, they for use were made: What’s a sun-dial in the shade?

Idleness is the Dead Sea that swallows all virtues.

Idleness is the greatest prodigality.

If you’d have a servant that you like, serve yourself.

Industry, perseverance, & frugality make fortune yield.

Jack Little sowed little, and little he will reap.

Keep your shop, and your shop will keep you.

Laziness travels so slowly that poverty soon overtakes him.

Light gains, heavy purses.

Little strokes fell great oaks.

No gains without pains.

No man ever was glorious who was not laborious.

O Lazy bones! Do you think God would have given you arms and legs, if he had not designed you should use them?

One today is worth two tomorrows.

Plough deep while sluggards sleep; and you shall have corn to sell and to keep.

Prodigality of time produces poverty of mind as well as of estate.

Promises may get you friends, but non-performance will turn them into enemies.

Since you are not sure of a minute, throw not away an hour.

Sloth (like rust) consumes faster than labor wears: the used key is always bright.

The busy man has few idle visitors; to the boiling pot the flies come not.

The cat in gloves catches no mice.

The honest man takes pains, and then enjoys pleasures; the dishonest man takes pleasure, and then suffers pains.

The sleeping fox catches no poultry. Up! up!

There are lazy minds as well as lazy bodies.

Virtue and a trade are a child’s best portion.

Well done is better than well said.

Well done, is twice done.

Work as if you were to live 100 years, pray as if you were to die tomorrow.

Sincerity

(Use no hurtful deceit. Think innocently and justly. Speak accordingly.)

A lie stands on one leg, truth on two.

Act uprightly, and despise calumny; dirt may stick to a mud wall, but not to polished marble.

An ill wound, but not an ill name, may be healed.

An innocent plowman is more worthy than a vicious prince.

Be not miserly of what costs you nothing, as courtesy, counsel, and countenance.

Better slip with foot than tongue.

For 6£ a year you may have use of 100£, if you are a man of known prudence and honesty.

Half the truth is often a great lie.

He that speaks ill of the mare, will buy her.

Hear no ill of a friend, nor speak any of an enemy.

It is hard (but glorious) to be poor and honest.

Meanness is the parent of insolence.

Nor eye in a letter, nor hand in a purse, nor ear in the secret of another.

Praise little, dispraise less.

Speak with contempt of none, from slave to king, The meanest bee has, and will use, a sting.

What you would seem to be, be really.

Justice

(Wrong none by doing injuries, or omitting the benefits that are your duty.)

A quiet conscience sleeps in thunder.

Avoid dishonest gain: no price can recompense the pangs of vice.

Bad gains are truly losses.

Do good to your friend to keep him, to your enemy to gain him.

Doing an Injury puts you below your enemy; revenging one makes you but even with him; forgiving it sets you above him.

Fear to do ill, and you need fear nothing else.

He that does what he should not, shall feel what he would not.

If you do what you should not, you must hear what you would not.

If you injure conscience, it will have its revenge on you.

It is better to take many injuries, than to give one.

Keep conscience clear, then never fear.

Nor is a duty beneficial because it is commanded, but it is commanded because it is beneficial.

Poverty wants some things, luxury many things, avarice all things.

When there’s no law, there is no bread.

Where carcasses are, eagles will gather; where good laws are, much people flock thither.

Where there is hunger, law is not regarded; and where law is not regarded, there will be hunger.

Moderation

(Avoid extremes. Forbear resenting injuries so much as you think they deserve.)

A man in passion rides a mad horse.

Anger is never without a reason, but seldom with a good one.

Haste makes waste.

He is a governor that governs his passions, and he a servant that serves them.

He that can compose himself, is wiser than he that composes books.

He that cannot bear with other people’s passions, cannot govern his own.

If passion drives, let reason hold the reins.

In success be moderate.

Make haste slowly.

Modesty is a virtue; bashfulness is a vice.

The end of passion is the beginning of repentance.

Those who are feared, are hated.

Who is powerful? He that governs his passions.

Cleanliness

(Tolerate no uncleanliness in body, clothes, or habitation.)

Eat to please yourself, but dress to please others.

Tranquility

(Be not disturbed at trifles, or at accidents common or unavoidable.)

A quarrelsome man has no good neighbors.

Children and princes will quarrel for trifles.

He that can have patience can have what he will.

They who have nothing to be troubled at, will be troubled at nothing.

They who have nothing to trouble them, will be troubled at nothing.

Wink at small faults – remember you have great ones.

You can bear your own faults, and why not a fault in your wife.

Chastity

(Rarely use venery but for health or offspring; never to dullness, weakness, or the injury of your own or another’s peace or reputation.)

Dally not with other folks’ women or money.

Samson with his strong body, had a weak head, or he would not have laid in a harlot’s lap.

Women and wine, game and deceit, make the wealth small and the wants great.

Humility

(Imitate Jesus and Socrates.)

A cypher and humility make the other figures & virtues of tenfold value.

A good example is the best sermon.

A lean award is better than a fat judgment.

After crosses and losses, men grow humbler and wiser.

Anger and folly walk cheek by jole; repentance treads on both their heels.

As pride increases, fortune declines.

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

Clean your finger, before you point at my spots.

Declaiming against pride is not always a sign of humility.

Don’t throw stones at your neighbors’, if your own windows are glass.

Ever you remark another’s sin, bid your own conscience look within.

Fear God, and your enemies will fear you.

Great beauty, great strength, and great riches are really and truly of no great use; a right heart exceeds all.

Having been poor is no shame, but being ashamed of it, is.

He is ill clothed who is bare of virtue.

He is not well bred that cannot bear ill-breeding in others.

He that cannot obey cannot command.

Honor your father and mother, i.e.; live so as to be an honor to them when they are dead.

How few there are who have courage enough to own their faults, or resolution enough to mend them!

How many observe Christ’s birthday; How few his Precepts! O, It is easier to keep holidays than Commandments.

If you would reap praise, you must sow the seeds, gentle words and useful deeds.

Ignorance leads men into a party, and shame keeps them from getting out again.

Many complain of their memory, few of their judgment.

Many have quarreled about religion, that never practiced it.

Many princes sin with David, but few repent with him.

Men meet, mountains never.

Most fools think they are only ignorant.

None but the well-bred man knows how to confess a fault, or acknowledge himself in an error.

Nothing so likely to make a man’s fortune as virtue.

Observe all men; yourself most.

Pride and gout are seldom cured throughout.

Pride breakfasted with plenty, dined with poverty, supped with infamy.

Pride dines upon vanity, sups on contempt.

Pride gets into the coach, and shame mounts behind.

Pride is as loud a beggar as want, and a great deal more saucy.

Search others for their virtues, yourself for your vices.

Seek virtue, and of that possessed, to providence resign the rest.

Sell not virtue to purchase wealth, nor liberty to purchase power.

Sin is not hurtful because it is forbidden, but it is forbidden because it is hurtful.

The devil wipes his breech with poor folks’ pride.

The doors of wisdom are never shut.

The first degree of folly, is to conceit one’s self wise; the second to profess it; the third to despise counsel.

The proud hate pride – in others.

The things which hurt, instruct.

The wise and brave dares own that he was wrong.

There is no man so bad but he secretly respects the good.

To be humble to superiors is duty, to equals courtesy, to inferiors nobleness.

To be proud of knowledge, is to be blind with light.

To be proud of virtue, is to poison yourself with the antidote.

To bear other people’s afflictions, everyone has courage and enough to spare.

To err is human, to repent divine; to persist devilish.

What is more valuable than gold? Diamonds. Than diamonds? Virtue.

Who is strong? He that can conquer his bad habits.