Background Image

...

As To Jesus Of Nazareth, My Opinion Of Whom You Particularly Desire, I Think The System Of Morals And His Religion, As He Left Them To Us, The Best The World Ever Saw Or Is Likely To See; But I Apprehend It Has Received Various Corrupting Changes; And I Have, With Most Of The Present Dissenters In England, Some Doubts As To His Divinity.

-Benjamin Franklin

...

Please Wait....
Translating....

As To Jesus Of

Benjamin Franklin

...

As To Jesus Of Nazareth, My Opinion Of Whom You Particularly Desire, I Think The System Of Morals And His Religion, As He Left Them To Us, The Best The World Ever Saw Or Is Likely To See; But I Apprehend It Has Received Various Corrupting Changes; And I Have, With Most Of The Present Dissenters In England, Some Doubts As To His Divinity.

Views: 6

Topic

More From Benjamin Franklin

Be Slow In Choosing A Friend, Slower In Changing.

Idleness Is The Dead Sea That Swallows All Virtues. Be Active In Business, That Temptation May Miss Her Aim; The Bird That Sits Is Easily Shot.

He's A Fool Who Cannot Conceal His Wisdom.

But Our Great Security Lies, I Think, In Our Growing Strength.

Would You Persuade, Speak Of Interest, Not Of Reason.

Evil, As Evil, Can Never Be Chosen; And Though Evil Is Often The Effect Of Our Own Choice, Yet We Never Desire It But Under The Appearance Of An Imaginary Good.

In 1736 I Lost One Of My Sons, A Fine Boy Of Four Years Old, By The Small-pox, Taken In The Common Way. I Long Regretted Bitterly, And Still Regret That I Had Not Given It To Him By Inoculation. This I Mention For The Sake Of Parents Who Omit That Operation, On The Supposition That They Should Never Forgive Themselves If A Child Died Under It; My Example Showing That The Regret May Be The Same Either Way, And That, Therefore, The Safer Should Be Chosen.

In Truth I Found Myself Incorrigible With Respect To Order; And Now I Am Grown Old, And My Memory Bad, I Feel Very Sensibly The Want Of It.

History Affords Us Many Instances Of The Ruin Of States, By The Prosecution Of Measures Ill Suited To The Temper And Genius Of Their People. The Ordaining Of Laws In Favor Of One Part Of The Nation, To The Prejudice And Oppression Of Another, Is Certainly The Most Erroneous And Mistaken Policy. ... These Measures Never Fail To Create Great And Violent Jealousies And Animosities Between The People Favored And The People Oppressed; Whence A Total Separation Of Affections, Interests, Political Obligations, And All Manner Of Connections, By Which The Whole State Is Weakened.

An Investment In Knowledge Pays The Best Interest.

Rich Widows Are The Only Secondhand Goods That Sell At First-class Prices.

Squeamish Stomachs Cannot Eat Without Pickles.

Take Courage, Mortal... Death Cannot Banish You From The Universe.

When Circumstances Don't Fit Our Ideas They Become Our Difficulties

If The Elbow Had Been Placed Closer To The Hand, The Forearm Would Have Been Too Short To Bring The Glass To The Mouth; And If It Had Been Closer To The Shoulder, The Forearm Would Have Been So Long That It Would Have Carried The Glass Beyond The Mouth.

That Quantity That Is Sufficient, The Stomach Can Perfectly Concoct And Digest, And It Sufficeth The Due Nourishment Of The Body.

A New Truth Is A Truth, An Old Error Is An Error.

Without Industry And Frugality, Nothing Will Do; With Them, Everything.

Nine Men In Ten Are Suicides.

If Better Is Possible, Good Is Not Enough

I Have Never Seen The Philosopher's Stone That Turns Lead Into Gold, But I Have Known The Pursuit Of It Turn A Man's Gold Into Lead.

The Grand Leap Of The Whale Up The Fall Of Niagara Is Esteemed, By All Who Have Seen It, As One Of The Finest Spectacles In Nature.

So Convenient A Thing To Be A Reasonable Creature, Since It Enables One To Find Or Make A Reason For Every Thing One Has A Mind To Do.

There's Small Revenge In Words, But Words May Be Greatly Revenged

To Succeed, Jump As Quickly At Opportunities As You Do At Conclusions.

Unless The Stream Of Their Importation Could Be Turned... They Will Soon So Outnumber Us, That All The Advantages We Have, Will Not In My Opinion Be Able To Preserve Our Language, And Even Our Government Will Become Precarious.

The Art Of Acting Consists In Keeping People From Coughing.

Money Makes Money. And The Money That Makes Money Makes More Money.

A Man Must Have A Good Deal Of Vanity Who Believes, And A Good Deal Of Boldness Who Affirms, That All The Doctrines He Holds Are True, And All He Rejects Are False.

To Bear Other People's Afflictions, Everyone Has Courage And Enough To Spare.

The Only Things Of Certainty Are Death And Taxes.

Every Pot Must Sit On Its Own Bottom.

When In Doubt, Don't.

Overcoming Doubt

He Was So Learned That He Could Name A Horse In Nine Languages; So Ignorant That He Bought A Cow To Ride On.

Anger And Folly Walk Cheeck By Jowl.

There Will Be Sleeping Enough In The Grave.

Positive Thinking

It Is Easier To Prevent Bad Habits Than To Break Them.

A Man Is Sometimes More Generous When He Has But A Little Money Than When He Has Plenty, Perhaps Through Fear Of Being Thought To Have But Little.

The Generous Mind Least Regards Money, And Yet Most Feels The Want Of It.

An Old Young Man, Will Be A Young Old Man.

Constant Complaint Is The Poorest Sort Of Pay For All The Comforts We Enjoy.

Common Sense Is Something That Everyone Needs, Few Have, And None Think They Lack.

Write To Please Yourself. When You Write To Please Others You End Up Pleasing No One.

Educate Your Children To Self-control, To The Habit Of Holding Passion And Prejudice And Evil Tendencies Subject To An Upright And Reasoning Will, And You Have Done Much To Abolish Misery From Their Future And Crimes From Society.

When Men Are Employed They Are Best Contented.

"we Hold These Truths To Be Sacred And Undeniable" In A Draft Of The Declaration Of Independence Changes It Instead Into An Assertion Of Rationality. The Scientific Mind Of Franklin Drew On The Scientific Determinism Of Isaac Newton And The Analytic Empiricism Of David Hume And Gottfried Leibniz. In What Became Known As "hume's Fork" The Latters' Theory Distinguished Between Synthetic Truths That Describe Matters Of Fact, And Analytic Truths That Are Self-evident By Virtue Of Reason And Definition.

The Securest Place Is A Prison Cell, But There Is No Liberty

A Countryman Between Two Lawyers Is Like A Fish Between Two Cats.

To Be Proud Of Virtue, Is To Poison Yourself With The Antidote.

Either Write Something Worth Reading Or Do Something Worth Writing.

I Think With You, That Nothing Is Of More Importance For The Public Weal, Than To Form And Train Up Youth In Wisdom And Virtue. Wise And Good Men Are In My Opinion, The Strength Of The State; More So Than Riches Or Arms.

An Old Man In A House Is A Good Sign.

Fear To Do Ill, And You Need Fear Else.

Do Good To Your Friends To Keep Them, To Your Enemies To Win Them.

The Rotten Apple Spoils His Companion.

Wish Not So Much To Live Long As To Live Well.

Kill No More Pigeons Than You Can Eat.

God Heals, And The Doctor Takes The Fees.

A False Friend And A Shadow Attend Only While The Sun Shines.

Marry Your Son When You Will, But You Daughter When You Can.

Games Lubricate The Body And The Mind.

War Is When The Government Tells You Who The Bad Guy Is. Revolution Is When You Decide That For Yourself.

Most People Die At 25 But Are Buried At 75.

The Ordaining Of Laws In Favor Of One Part Of The Nation, To The Prejudice And Oppression Of Another, Is Certainly The Most Erroneous And Mistaken Policy. An Equal Dispensation Of Protection, Rights, Privileges, And Advantages, Is What Every Part Is Entitled To, And Ought To Enjoy.

A Full Belly Makes A Dull Brain: The Muses Starve In A Cook's Shop.

Friends Are The True Sceptres Of Princes.

He That Raises A Large Family Does, Indeed, While He Lives To Observe Them, Stand A Broader Mark For Sorrow; But Then He Stands A Broader Mark For Pleasure Too.

Better Slip With Foot Than Tongue.

I Hope...that Mankind Will At Length, As They Call Themselves Reasonable Creatures, Have Reason And Sense Enough To Settle Their Differences Without Cutting Throats; For In My Opinion There Never Was A Good War, Or A Bad Peace.

All Wars Are Follies, Very Expensive And Very Mischievous Ones.

You Have On Hand Those Things That You Need If You Have But The Wit And Wisdom To Use Them.

If Any Form Of Government Is Capable Of Making A Nation Happy, Ours I Think Bids Fair Now For Producing That Effect. But After All Much Depends Upon The People Who Are Governed.

My Dear Friend, Do Not Imagine That I Am Vain Enough To Ascribe Our Success [revolution] To Any Superiority . . . If It Had Not Been For The Justice Of Our Cause, And The Consequent Interposition Of Providence, In Which We Had Faith, We Must Have Been Ruined. If I Had Ever Before Been An Atheist, I Should Now Have Been Convinced Of The Being And Government Of A Deity!

For Age And Want Save While You May; No Morning Sun Lasts A Whole Day.

A Little Religion, And A Little Honesty, Goes A Great Way In Courts.

The Only Time Not Wasted Is Wasted Time.

I Am A Mortal Enemy To Arbitrary Government And Unlimited Power. I Am Naturally Very Jealous For The Rights And Liberties Of My Country, And The Least Encroachment Of Those Invaluable Privileges Is Apt To Make My Blood Boil.

What Signifies Philosophy That Does Not Apply To Some Use? May We Not Learn From Hence, That Black Clothes Are Not So Fit To Wear In A Hot Sunny Climate Or Season, As White Ones; Because In Such Cloaths The Body Is More Heated By The Sun When We Walk Abroad, And Are At The Same Time Heated By The Exercise, Which Double Heat Is Apt To Bring On Putrid Dangerous Fevers? The Soldiers And Seamen, Who Must March And Labour In The Sun, Should In The East Or West Indies Have An Uniform Of White?

Your Best Investment Is To Pour Your Purse Into Your Head, And No One Can Take It Away From You.

Use Now And Then A Little Exercise A Quarter Of An Hour Before Meals, As To Swing A Weight, Or Swing Your Arms About With A Small Weight In Each Hand; To Leap, Or The Like, For That Stirs The Muscles Of The Breast.

He That Is Of The Opinion Money Will Do Everything May Well Be Suspected Of Doing Everything For Money.

Greatest Wealth

What Science Can There Be More Noble, More Excellent, More Useful For Men, More Admirably High And Demonstrative, Than This Of Mathematics?

Knowledge Of The Investment Is Most Profitable

Fish & Visitors Stink In 3 Days.

If Pride Leads The Van, Beggary Brings Up The Rear.

Nor Eye In A Letter, Nor Hand In A Purse, Nor Ear In The Secret Of Another.

An Enormous Proportion Of Property Vested In A Few Individuals Is Dangerous To The Rights, And Destructive Of The Common Happiness Of Mankind, And, Therefore, Every Free State Hath A Right By Its Laws To Discourage The Possession Of Such Property.

To Cease To Think Creatively Is To Cease To Live

Pay What You Owe And You'll Know What's Your Own.

Slavery Is ...an Atrocious Debasement Of Human Nature.

Where There's No Law, There's No Bread.

Believe None Of What You Hear And Half Of What You See.

Eat What You Like, But Dress For Other People.

Creditors Have Better Memories Than Debtors.

I Am In The Prime Of Senility.

Savages We Call Them, Because Their Manners Differ From Ours, Which We Think The Perfection Of Civility; They Think The Same Of Theirs.

There Is No Kind Of Dishonesty Into Which Otherwise Good People More Easily And Frequently Fall Than That Of Defrauding The Government.

Motivation Is When Your Dreams Put On Work Clothes

Would Thou Confound Thy Enemy, Be Good Thyself.

[it Was] The Poverty Caused By The Bad Influence Of The English Bankers On The Parliament Which Has Caused In The Colonies Hatred Of The English And . . . The Revolutionary War.

The Exact Quantity And Quality Being Found Out, Is To Be Kept To Constantly.

Quantity And Quality

Speak With Contempt Of None, From Slave To King, The Meanest Bee Hath, And Will Use, A Sting.

Grace Thou Thy House And Let Not That Grace Thee.

He That Would Live In Peace And At Ease, Must Not Speak All He Knows Nor Judge All He Sees.

Self Improvement

Perhaps I'm Too Saucy Or Provoking?

Many Would Live By Their Wits, But Break For Want Of Stock.

Neglect Kills Injuries, Revenge Increases Them.

Poverty Wants Some Things, Luxury Many Things, Avarice All Things

As Charms Are Nonsense, Nonsense Is A Charm.

Getting It Done Is My Reward.

Time Management

Early To Bed And Early To Rise Makes A Man Healthy, Wealthy And Wise.

A Man May, If He Knows Not How To Save As He Gets, Keep His Nose To The Grindstone.

Setting Too Good An Example Is A Kind Of Slander Seldom Forgiven.

To Be Thrown Upon One's Own Resources Is To Be Cast Into The Very Lap Of Fortune; For Our Faculties Then Undergo A Development And Display An Energy Of Which They Were Previosly Unsusceptible.

He That Riseth Late, Must Trot All Day, And Shall Scarce Overtake His Business At Night.

Don't Overload Gratitude; If You Do, She'll Kick.

Success Is The Residue Of Planning.

I Look Upon Death To Be As Necessary To Our Constitution As Sleep. We Shall Rise Refreshed In The Morning.

When You Are Done Changing, You're Done.

It Is Better To Take Many Injuries Than To Give One.

The Moral And Religious System Which Jesus Christ Transmitted To Us Is The Best The World Has Ever Seen, Or Can See.

Let Honesty And Industry Be Thy Constant Companions, And Spend One Penny Less Than Thy Clear Gains; Then Shall Thy Pocket Begin To Thrive; Creditors Will Not Insult, Nor Want Oppress, Nor Hungerness Bite, Nor Nakedness Freeze Thee

Employ Thy Time Well, If Thou Meanest To Gain Leisure.

There Is No Little Enemy

On Second Thought, It's A Good Thing Love Is Blind Otherwise It Would See Too Much.

The Best Doctor Gives The Least Medicines.

He's The Best Physician That Knows The Worthlessness Of Most Medicines.

He That Pursues Two Hares At Once, Does Not Catch One And Lets The Other Go.

If You Want To Be Rich, Think Of The Savings And Get Them.

We Must, Indeed, All Hang Together Or, Most Assuredly, We Shall All Hang Separately.

He That Waits Upon Fortune, Is Never Sure Of A Dinner.

We Are Not Certain, We Are Never Certain. If We Were We Could Reach Some Conclusions, And We Could, At Last, Make Others Take Us Seriously. In This World Nothing Can Be Said To Be Certain, Except Death And Taxes.

What Good Shall I Do This Day?

The Expenses Required To Prevent A War Are Much Lighter Than Those That Will, If Not Prevented, Be Absolutely Necessary To Maintain It.

There Is No Gains Without Pain.

The Good Education Of Youth Has Been Esteemed By Wise Men In All Ages, As The Surest Foundation Of The Happiness Both Of Private Families And Of Common-wealths. Almost All Governments Have Therefore Made It A Principal Object Of Their Attention, To Establish And Endow With Proper Revenues, Such Seminaries Of Learning, As Might Supply The Succeeding Age With Men Qualified To Serve The Publick With Honour To Themselves, And To Their Country.

Who Had Deceived Thee So Often As Thyself?

I Fear The Man Who Drinks Water And So Remembers This Morning What The Rest Of Us Said Last Night

Tis A Great Confidence In A Friend To Tell Him Your Faults; Greater To Tell Him His.

Great Hopes Make Everything Great Possible

After All, Wedlock Is The Natural State Of Man. A Bachelor Is Not A Complete Human Being. He Is Like The Odd Half Of A Pair Of Scissors, Which Has Not Yet Found Its Fellow, And Therefore Is Not Even Half So Useful As They Might Be Together.

When You Are Good To Others, You Are Best To Yourself.

No Employment Can Be Managed Without Arithmetic, No Mechanical Invention Without Geometry.

Wise Men Don't Need Advice. Fools Won't Take It.

Blame-all And Praise-all Are Two Blockheads.

Don't Halloo Until You're Out Of The Wood.

Those Who Are Willing To Forfeit Liberty For Security Will Have Neither.

Taxes Are Indeed Very Heavy - We Are Taxed Twice As Much By Our Idleness. Three Times As Much By Our Pride. And Four Times As Much By Our Folly.

What More Valuable Than Gold? Diamonds. Than Diamonds? Virtue.

The Sun Of Liberty Is Set; You Must Light Up The Candle Of Industry And Economy.

I Have Met The Enemy, And It Is The Eyes Of Other People.

Never Take A Wife Till Thou Hast A House (and A Fire) To Put Her In.

Who Is Rich? He That Rejoices In His Portion.

Great Spenders Are Bad Lenders.

One Day Is Worth A Thousand Tomorrows.

Three May Keep A Secret, If Two Of Them Are Dead.

A Man Of Knowledge Like A Rich Soil, Feeds If Not A World Of Corn, A World Of Weeds.

Half The Truth Is Often A Great Lie.

We May Perhaps Learn To Deprive Large Masses Of Their Gravity And Give Them Absolute Levity, For The Sake Of Easy Transport.

He That Blows The Coals In Quarrels That He Has Nothing To Do With, Has No Right To Complain If The Sparks Fly In His Face. - Ben Franklin

The Constitution Only Guarantees The American People The Right To Pursue Happiness. You Have To Catch It Yourself.

This [the U.s. Constitution] Is Likely To Be Administered For A Course Of Years And Then End In Despotism... When The People Shall Become So Corrupted As To Need Despotic Government, Being Incapable Of Any Other.

A Policy Of Life Insurance Is The Cheapest And Safest Mode Of Making A Certain Provision For One's Family.

Whoever Shall Introduce Into Public Affairs The Principles Of Primitive Christianity Will Change The Face Of The World.

If Principle Is Good For Anything, It Is Worth Living Up To.

Reckless Youth Makes Rueful Age.

The Honest Man Takes Pains, And Then Enjoys Pleasures; The Knave Takes Pleasure, And Then Suffers Pains.

My Father's Little Library Consisted Chiefly Of Books In Polemic Divinity, Most Of Which I Read, And Have Since Often Regretted That, At A Time When I Had Such A Thirst For Knowledge, More Proper Books Had Not Fallen In My Way Since It Was Now Resolved I Should Not Be A Clergyman.

Let Our Fathers And Grandfathers Be Valued For Their Goodness, Ourselves For Our Own.

For Having Lived Long, I Have Experienced Many Instances Of Being Obliged, By Better Information Or Fuller Consideration, To Change Opinions, Even On Important Subjects, Which I Once Thought Right But Found To Be Otherwise.

Your Argument Is Sound, Nothing But Sound.

Dally Not With Other Folk's Spouses Or Money.

Necessity Knows No Law; I Know Some Attorneys Of The Same.

The Way To See By Faith Is To Shut The Eye Of Reason: The Morning Daylight Appears Plainer When You Put Out Your Candle.

We Are All Born Without Knowledge, But Curious. With Curiosity We Should Be Able To Learn As Much As Possible. With Curiosity, It Has To Take A Lot Of Work To Remain Ignorant.

Ben Franklin Was A Little Stout Later In Life And It Was Said That In Paris A Young Woman, Tapping Him On His Protruding Abdomen, Said,"dr. Franklin, If This Were On A Woman, We'd Know What To Think." And Franklin Replied,"half An Hour Ago, Mademoiselle, It Was On A Woman, And Now What Do You Think?"

Reader, I Wish Thee Health, Wealth, Happiness, And May Kind Heaven Thy Year's Industry Bless.

In The Affairs Of This World, Men Are Saved Not By Faith, But By The Want Of It.

He That Lieth Down With Dogs, Shall Rise Up With Fleas.

Genius Is The Ability To Hold One's Vision Steady Until It Becomes Reality

Here You Would Know, And Enjoy, What Prosperity Will Way Of Washington. For A Thousand Leagues Have Nearly The Same Effect With A Thousand Years.

Security Without Liberty Is Called Prison.

I Have Lived, Sir, A Long Time, And The Longer I Live, The More Convincing Proofs I See Of This Truth — That God Governs In The Affairs Of Men.

Strive To Be The Best And You May Succeed: He May Well Win The Race That Runs By Himself.

Are You Angry That Others Disappoint You? Remember You Cannot Depend Upon Yourself.

Nothing's So Apt To Undermine Your Confidence In A Product As Knowing That The Commercial Selling It Has Been Approved By The Company That Makes It.

It Is Foolish To Lay Out Money For The Purchase Of Repentance.

An Investment In Education Always Pays The Highest Returns.

No Nation Was Ever Ruined By Trade.

Fiction Or Fable Allures To Instruction.

Watch The Pennies And The Dollars Will Take Care Of Themselves.

Abuses Of The Freedom Of Speech Ought To Be Repressed, But To Whom Are We To Commit The Power Of Doing It?

Freedom Of Speech

Approve Not Of Him Who Commends All You Say.

Quarrels Never Could Last Long, If On One Side Only Lay The Wrong.

Industry Need Not Wish.

Take Care Of The Halfpence And Pence, And The Shillings And Pounds Will Take Care Of Themselves.

Reading Makes A Full Man, Meditation A Profound Man, Discourse A Clear Man.

La Pereza Anda Tan Despacio Que La Pobreza No Tarda En Alcanzarla.

Industry Need Not Wish, And He That Lives Upon Hopes Will Die Fasting. There Are No Gains Without Pains. He That Hath A Trade Hath An Estate, And He That Hath A Calling Hath An Office Of Profit And Honor; But Then The Trade Must Be Worked At And The Calling Followed, Or Neither The Estate Nor The Office Will Enable Us To Pay Our Taxes. If We Are Industrious, We Shall Never Starve; For At The Workingman's House Hunger Looks In, But Dares Not Enter. Nor Will The Bailiff Or The Constable Enter, For Industry Pays Debts, While Idleness And Neglect Increase Them.

Trending Author

Category