Human Felicity

"Human felicity is produced not so much by great pieces of good fortune that seldom happen, as by little advantages that occur every day."

Benjamin Franklin

Catching Happiness

“The Constitution only gives people the right to pursue happiness. You have to catch it yourself.”

Benjamin Franklin

Truth and Error Made Known

"Printers are educated in the Belief, that when Men differ in Opinion, both Sides ought equally to have the Advantage of being heard by the Publick; and that when Truth and Error have fair Play, the former is always an overmatch for the latter."

Benjamin Franklin

The Enemy

"War is when the government tells you who the bad guy is.
revolution is when you decide that for yourself.”

Benjamin Franklin

Education

"On education all our lives depend/ and few to that, too few, with care attend."

Benjamin Franklin "Poor Richard's Almanack" 1748

Limits to Earthly Understanding

"How has it happened...that we have not hitherto once thought of humbly applying to the Father of lights to illuminate our understandings?"

Benjamin Franklin

A Rising Sun

"At length I have the happiness to know that it is a rising and not a setting sun."

Benjamin Franklin

Two Choices

"Man will ultimately be governed by God or by tyrants."

Benjamin Franklin

A Course of Years

"I believe… that this [the US Constitution] is likely to be well administered for a course of years, and can only end in despotism, as other forms have done before it, when the people shall become so corrupted as to need despotic government, being incapable of any other."

Benjamin Franklin

A Little Neglect

"A little neglect may breed mischief: for want of a nail the shoe was lost; for want of a shoe the horse was lost; for want of a horse the rider was lost."

Benjamin Franklin
"Poor Richard's Almanack; 1745

A Mind is a Terrible Thing to Waste

"If a man empties his purse into his head, no one can take it away from him. An investment in knowledge always pays the best interest."

Benjamin Franklin

Governing the Affairs of Men

"I have lived sir, a long time, and the longer I live, the more convincing truths I see of this truth--that God governs in the affairs of men. If a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without His notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without His aid? We have been assured in the Sacred Writings that 'except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it.' I firmly believe this, and I also believe without his concurring aid we shall succeed in this political building no better than the builders of Babel. I therefore beg leave, to move that, henceforth prayers imploring the assistance of Heaven and it's blessing on our deliberation be held in this assembly every morning before we proceed to business."

Benjamin Franklin

Doing Good to the Poor

"I am for doing good to the poor, but I differ in opinion of the means. I think the best way of doing good to the poor, is not making them easy in poverty, but leading or driving them out of it. In my youth I traveled much, and I observed in different countries, that the more public provisions were made for the poor, the less they provided for themselves, and of course became poorer. And, on the contrary, the less was done for them, the more they did for themselves, and became richer"


Benjamin Franklin

Built Upon the Rock

“ God governs in the affairs of man. And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without his notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without His aid?
"We have been assured in the Sacred Writings that except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it. I firmly believe this. I also believe that, without His concurring aid, we shall succeed in this political building no better than the builders of Babel”

Benjamin Franklin
–Constitutional Convention of 1787 | original manuscript of this speech

God Governs

"I have lived, Sir, a long time, and the longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this truth -- that God Governs the affairs of men. And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without His notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without His aid?"

Benjamin Franklin

Idle Silence

"As we must account for every idle word, so must we account for every idle silence."

Benjamin Franklin

Where Liberty Dwells

"Where liberty dwells, there is my country"

Benjamin Franklin (Attributed) in a letter to Benjamin Vaughn 1783