Benjamin Franklin Quotes
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Let me add, that only a virtuous people are capable of freedom. As nations become corrupt and vicious, they have more need of masters.
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From a Child I was fond of Reading, and all the little Money that came into my Hands was ever laid out in Books.
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But I must own that I am much in the Dark about Light. I am not satisfy'd with the doctrine that supposes particles of matter call'd light continually driven off from the Sun's Surface, with a Swiftness so prodigious!
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Diligence is the mother of good luck.
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Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise.
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Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.
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Let all Men know thee, but no man know thee thoroughly: Men freely ford that see the shallows.
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A great Empire, like a great Cake, is most easily diminished at the Edges.
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The Way to ſee by Faith is to ſhut the Eye of Reaſon: The Morning Daylight appears plainer when you put out your Candle.
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You and I were long friends: you are now my enemy, and I am yours.
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strong
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He has paid dear, very dear, for his whistle.
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That it is better 100 guilty Persons should escape than that one innocent Person should suffer, is a maxim that has been long and generally approved; never, that I know of, controverted.
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Do not anticipate trouble, or worry about what may never happen. Keep in the sunlight.
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Here you would know and enjoy what posterity will say of Washington. For a thousand leagues have nearly the same effect with a thousand years.
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Love your Enemies, for they tell you your Faults.
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But 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.
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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.
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Every Body cries, a Union is absolutely necessary, but when they come to the Manner and Form of the Union, their weak Noddles are perfectly distracted.
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All Wars are Follies, very expensive, and very mischievous ones. When will Mankind be convinced of this, and agree to settle their Differences by Arbitration? Were they to do it, even by the Cast of a Dye, it would be better than by Fighting and destroying each other.
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God grant, that not only the Love of Liberty, but a thorough Knowledge of the Rights of Man, may pervade all the Nations of the Earth, so that a Philosopher may set his Foot anywhere on its Surface, and say, 'This is my Country.'
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Our new Constitution is now established, and has an appearance that promises permanency; but in this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes!
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Rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God.
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Advice to a Young Tradesman, Written by an Old One (1748), as quoted by Max Weber, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, Chapter II: The Spirit of Capitalism, 1905. 12, 3