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When You Assemble A Number Of Men To Have The Advantage Of Their Joint Wisdom, You Inevitably Assemble With Those Men All Their Prejudices, Their Passions, Their Errors Of Opinion, Their Local Interests And Their Selfish Views.

-Benjamin Franklin

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When You Assemble A

Benjamin Franklin

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When You Assemble A Number Of Men To Have The Advantage Of Their Joint Wisdom, You Inevitably Assemble With Those Men All Their Prejudices, Their Passions, Their Errors Of Opinion, Their Local Interests And Their Selfish Views.

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You Will Observe With Concern How Long A Useful Truth May Be Known, And Exist, Before It Is Generally Received And Practiced On.

If Jack's In Love, He's No Judge Of Jill's Beauty.

Great Good Nature Without Prudence Is A Great Misfortune.

We Hear Of The Conversion Of Water Into Wine At The Marriage In Cana As Of A Miracle. But This Conversion Is, Through The Goodness Of God, Made Every Day Before Our Eyes. Behold The Rain Which Descends From Heaven Upon Our Vineyards, And Which Incorporates Itself With The Grapes, To Be Changed Into Wine; A Constant Proof That God Loves Us, And Loves To See Us Happy.

Snowy Winter, A Plentiful Harvest.

Many Dishes Many Diseases, Many Medicines Few Cures.

If You Want A Thing Done - Go. If Not - Send.

Remember Not Only To Say The Right Thing In The Right Place, But Far More Difficult Still, To Leave Unsaid The Wrong Thing At The Tempting Moment.

Tricks And Treachery Are The Practice Of Fools, That Don't Have Brains Enough To Be Honest.

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

A Fat Kitchin, A Lean Will.

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.

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.

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

Never Leave That Till Tomorrow Which You Can Do Today.

As To The Kindness You Mention, I Wish I Could Have Been Of More Service To You Than I Have Been, But If I Had, The Only Thanks That I Should Desire Are That You Would Always Be Ready To Serve Any Other Person That May Need Your Assistance, And So Let Good Offices Go Around, For Humankind Are All Of A Family. As For My Own Part, When I Am Employed In Serving Others I Do Not Look Upon Myself As Conferring Favors But Paying Debts.

Write Your Injuries In Dust, Your Benefits In Marble.

There Is Scarce A King In A Hundred Who Would Not, If He Could, Follow The Example Of Pharoah - Get First All The People's Money, Then All Their Lands, And Then Make Them And Their Children Servants Forever.

Success Has Ruin'd Many A Man.

Time Is The Stuff Life Is Made Of.

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

Only A Virtuous People Are Capable Of Freedom.

Silence Is Not Always A Sign Of Wisdom, But Babbling Is Ever A Mark Of Folly.

A Flatterer Never Seems Absurd: The Flatter'd Always Takes His Word.

The Same Man Cannot Be Both Friend And Flatterer.

The Way To Wealth Depends On Just Two Words, Industry And Frugality.

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

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

Do Not Anticipate Trouble, Or Worry About What May Never Happen. Keep In The Sunlight.

How Few There Are Who Have Courage Enough To Own Their Faults, Or Resolution Enough To Mend Them.

A Word To The Wise Is Enough, And Many Words Won't Fill A Bushel.

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.

Women And Wine, Game And Deceit, Make The Wealth Small, And The Want Great

Blame-all And Praise-all Are Two Blockheads.

Scarcely Have I Ever Heard Or Read The Introductory Phrase, "i May Say Without Vanity," But Some Striking And Characteristic Instance Of Vanity Has Immediately Followed.

Instead Of Cursing The Darkness, Light A Candle.

Rebellion Against Tyrants Is Obedience To God.

There Are No Ugly Loves Nor Handsome Prisons.

The Body Of B. Franklin, Printer Like The Cover Of An Old Book Its Contents Turn Out And Stript Of Its Lettering & Guilding Lies Here. Food For Worms For, It Will As He Believed Appear Once More In A New And More Elegant Edition Corrected And Improved By The Author.

Let Thy Discontents Be Thy Secrets; If The World Knows Them 'twill Despise Thee And Increase Them.

The Us Constitution Only Guarantees Your Rights As A Citizen, It Doesn't Guarantee Happiness. It May Take Work, But If You Have Your Rights, Happiness Is Very Possible.

Strict Punctuality Is A Cheap Virtue.

What Is Without Us Has No Connection With Happiness, Only So Far As The Preservation Of Our Lives And Health Depends Upon It. . . . Happiness Springs Immediately From The Mind.

Let Every Fart Count As A Peal Of Thunder For Liberty. Let Every Fart Remind The Nation Of How Much It Has Let Pass Out Of Its Control. It Is A Small Gesture, But One That Can Be Very Effective - Especially In A Large Crowd. So Fart, And If You Must, Fart Often. But Always Fart Without Apology. Fart For Freedom, Fart For Liberty - And Fart Proudly.

Be At War With Your Vices, At Peace With Your Neighbors, And Let Every New Year Find You A Better Man.

Plough Deep While Sluggards Sleep.

When You're Finished Changing, You're Finished.

Some Are Weatherwise, Some Are Otherwise.

Don't Throw Stones At Your Neighbors, If Your Own Windows Are Glass.

They That Will Not Be Counseled, Cannot Be Helped. If You Do Not Hear Reason She Will Rap You On The Knuckles.

Repeal That [welfare] Law, And You Will Soon See A Change In Their Manners. ... Six Days Shalt Thou Labor, Though One Of The Old Commandments Long Treated As Out Of Date, Will Again Be Looked Upon As A Respectable Precept; Industry Will Increase, And With It Plenty Among The Lower People; Their Circumstances Will Mend, And More Will Be Done For Their Happiness By Inuring Them To Provide For Themselves, Than Could Be Done By Dividing All Your Estates Among Them.

How Do You Become Better Tomorrow? By Improving Yourself, The World Is Made Better. Be Not Afraid Of Growing Too Slowly. Be Afraid Of Standing Still. Forget Your Mistakes, But Remember What They Taught You. So How Do You Become Better Tomorrow? By Becoming Better Today.

Becoming Better

The Person Who Deserves Most Pity Is A Lonesome One On A Rainy Day Who Doesn't Know How To Read.

He That Drinks Fast, Pays Slow.

When Religion Is Good, It Will Take Care Of Itself. When It Is Not Able To Take Care Of Itself, And God Does Not See Fit To Take Care Of It, So That It Has To Appeal To The Civil Power For Support, It Is Evidence To My Mind That Its Cause Is A Bad One.

Don't Think To Hunt Two Hares With One Dog.

Do Not Let Fancy Outrun Your Means.

Who Is Wise? He That Learns From Everyone.

Everybody's Human-everybody Makes Mistakes. If You Laugh It Off And Keep Going And Try To Give It Your Best The Next Time Around, People Respect That.

When You're Testing To See How Deep Water Is, Never Use Two Feet.

'tis More Noble To Forgive, And More Manly To Despise, Than To Revenge An Injury.

Keep Out Of The Sight Of Feasts And Banquets As Much As May Be; For 'tis More Difficult To Refrain Good Cheer, When It's Present, Than From The Desire Of It When It Is Away; The Like You May Observe In The Objects Of All The Other Senses.

Remember This Saying, 'that The Good Paymaster Is Lord Of Another Man's Purse.' He That Is Known To Pay Punctually And Exactly To The Time He Promises, May At Any Time, And On Any Occasion, Raise All The Money His Friends Can Spare.

To Err Is Human, To Repent Divine; To Persist Devilish.

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

If You Would Have A Faithful Servant, And One That You Like, Serve Yourself.

Faithful Servants

Tis A Well Spent Penny That Saves A Groat.

I Wish It (christianity) Were More Productive Of Good Works ... I Mean Real Good Works ... Not Holy Day Keeping, Sermon-hearing ... Or Making Long Prayers, Filled With Flatteries And Compliments Despised By Wise Men, And Much Less Capable Of Pleasing The Deity.

Prayers And Provender Hinder No Journey.

To Inquisitive Minds Like Yours And Mine The Reflection That The Quantity Of Human Knowledge Bears No Proportion To The Quantity Of Human Ignorance Must Be In One View Rather Pleasing, Viz., That Though We Are To Live Forever We May Be Continually Amused And Delighted With Learning Something New.

If You Want To Make A Friend, Let Someone Do You A Favor.

There Are Two Ways To Increase Your Wealth. Increase Your Means Or Decrease Your Wants. The Best Is To Do Both At The Same Time.

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.

People Willing To Trade Their Freedom For Temporary Security Deserve Neither And Will Lose Both.

Security And Freedom

Drink Does Not Drown Care, But Waters It, And Makes It Grow Faster.

I Believe There Is One Supreme Most Perfect Being. [...] I Believe He Is Pleased And Delights In The Happiness Of Those He Has Created; And Since Without Virtue Man Can Have No Happiness In This World, I Firmly Believe He Delights To See Me Virtuous.

It's The Easiest Thing In The World For A Man To Deceive Himself.

Rebellion To Tyrants Is Obedience To God.

There Is Nothing So Absurd As Knowledge Spun Too Fine.

There Is None Deceived But He That Trusts.

I Have Heard That Nothing Gives An Author So Great Pleasure, As To Find His Works Respectfully Quoted By Other Learned Authors.

The Apostle Paul Very Seriously Advised Timothy To Put Some Wine In His Water For Health's Sake, But Not One Of The Apostles Nor Any Of The Holy Fathers Have Ever Recommended Putting Water In Wine

Often I Sit Up In My Room Reading The Greatest Part Of The Night, When The Book Was Borrowed In The Evening And To Be Returned Early In The Morning, Lest It Should Be Missed Or Wanted.

Idleness And Pride Tax With A Heavier Hand Than Kings And Parliaments. If We Can Get Rid Of The Former, We May Easily Bear The Latter.

Sell Not Virtue To Purchase Wealth, Nor Liberty To Purchase Power.

Hunger Never Saw Bad Bread.

Life Is A Kind Of Chess.

A Man Is Not Completely Born Until He Is Dead. Why Then Should We Grieve That A New Child Is Born Among The Immortals, A New Member Added To Their Happy Society?

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.

On Being Asked What Condition Of Man He Considered The Most Pitiable: A Lonesome Man On A Rainy Day Who Does Not Know How To Read.

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.

Beware Of Meat Twice Boiled, And An Old Foe Reconciled.

The Good Particular Men May Do Separately, In Relieving The Sick, Is Small, Compared With What They May Do Collectively.

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.

Games Lubricate The Body And The Mind.

He That Hath A Trade Hath An Estate; And He That Hath A Calling Hath A Place Of Profit And Honor. A Ploughman On His Legs Is Higher Than A Gentleman On His Knees.

Great Talkers Should Be Cropt, For They've No Need Of Ears.

The Absent Are Never Without Fault. Nor The Present Without Excuse.

Search Others For Their Virtues, Thyself For Thy Vices.

Do You Love Truth For Truth's Sake, And Will You Endeavor Impartially To Find And Receive It Yourself, And Communicate It To Others?

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

I Am A Mortal Enemy To Arbitrary Government And Unlimited Power.

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.

Revelation, Indeed, As Such Had No Influence On My Mind

Trusting Too Much To Others Care Is The Ruin Of Many.

If You Want A Neat Wife, Choose Her On A Saturday.

Be In General Virtuous, And You Will Be Happy. At Least, You Will By Such Conduct, Stand The Best Chance For Such Consequences.

A Long Life May Not Be Good Enough, But A Good Life Is Long Enough.

Love Your Enemies, For They Tell You Your Faults.

What One Relishes, Nourishes.

Mine Is Better Than Ours.

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

Finding Myself To Exist In The World, I Believe I Shall, In Some Shape Or Other, Always Exist.

Who Is Rich? He That Rejoices In His Portion.

Neglect Mending A Small Fault And 'twill Soon Be A Great One.

By Playing At Chess Then, We May Learn... First: Foresight. Second: Circumspection. Third: Caution.

The Two Most Beautiful Sights I Have Witnessed In My Life Are A Full Blown Ship At Sail And The Round-bellied Pregnant Female.

Why Should Pennsylvania, Founded By The English, Become A Colony Of Aliens, Who Will Shortly Be So Numerous As To Germanize Us Instead Of Our Anglifying Them, And Will Never Adopt Our Language Or Customs, Any More Than They Can Acquire Our Complexion.

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

Perhaps I'm Too Saucy Or Provoking?

...it Is Prodigious The Quantity Of Good That May Be Done By One Man If He Will Make A Business Of It.

The Happy State Of Matrimony Is, Undoubtedly, The Surest And Most Lasting Foundation Of Comfort And Love . . . The Cause Of All Good Order In The World, And What Alone Preserves It From The Utmost Confusion.

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

Greatest Wealth

You Can Do Anything You Set Your Mind To

One Today Is Worth Two Tomorrows.

He That Displays Too Often His Wife And His Wallet Is In Danger Of Having Both Of Them Borrowed.

Nothing Great Comes Without Enthusiasm.

Be Neither Silly, Nor Cunning, But Wise

Women Are Books, And Men The Readers Be, Who Sometimes In Those Books Erratas See; Yet Oft The Reader's Raptured With Each Line, Fair Print And Paper, Fraught With Sense Divine; Tho' Some, Neglectful, Seldom Care To Read, And Faithful Wives No More Than Bibles Heed. Are Women Books? Says Hodge, Then Would Mine Were An Almanack, To Change Her Every Year.

In Humility Imitate Jesus And Socrates.

Who Is Strong? He That Can Conquer His Bad Habits.

You Made Delay, But Time Will Not, And Lost Time Is Never Found Again.

Procrastination

There Are Three Things Extremely Hard: Steel, A Diamond, And To Know One's Self.

Make Use Of Your Friends By Being Of Use To Them.

My Refusing To Eat Meat Occasioned Inconveniency, And I Have Been Frequently Chided For My Singularity. But My Light Repast Allows For Greater Progress, For Greater Clearness Of Head And Quicker Comprehension.

Pride Gets Into The Coach, And Shame Mounts Behind.

Now I've A Sheep And A Cow, Every Body Bids Me Good Morrow.

Nothing Preaches Better Than The Act.

Thou Can'st Not Joke An Enemy Into A Friend, But Thou May'st A Friend Into An Enemy.

The Importation Of Foreigners Into A Country That Has As Many Inhabitants As The Present Employments And Provisions For Subsistence Will Bear, Will Be In The End No Increase Of People, Unless The New Comers Have More Industry And Frugality Than The Natives, And Then They Will Provide More Subsistence, And Increase In The Country; But They Will Gradually Eat The Natives Out. Nor Is It Necessary To Bring In Foreigners To Fill Up Any Occasional Vacancy In A Country For Such Vacancy Will Soon Be Filled By Natural Generation.

Presumption First Blinds A Man, Then Sets Him A Running.

No Nation Was Ever Ruined By Trade.

Fear God, And Your Enemies Will Fear You.

To Follow By Faith Alone Is To Follow Blindly.

Moderation In All Things - Including Moderation.

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

Do Not Do That Which You Would Not Have Known.

What Signifies Knowing The Names, If You Know Not The Natures Of Things.

Did Not Strong Connections Draw Me Elsewhere, I Believe Scotland Would Be The Country I Would Choose To End My Days In.

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

It Is Ill-manners To Silence A Fool And Cruelty To Let Him Go On

I Am About Courting A Girl I Have Had But Little Acquaintance With. How Shall I Come To A Knowledge Of Her Faults, And Whether She Has The Virtues I Imagine She Has? Answer. Commend Her Among Her Female Acquaintances.

Force Shites Upon Reason's Back.

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

The Busy Man Has Few Idle Visitors; To The Boiling Pot The Flies Come Not.

Sloth Makes All Things Difficult, But Industry All Easy; And He That Riseth Late Must Trot All Day, And Shall Scarce Overtake His Business At Night; While Laziness Travels So Slowly, That Poverty Soon Overtakes Him.

Only A Virtuous People Are Capable Of Freedom. As Nations Become Corrupt And Vicious, They Have More Need Of Masters.

Why Ruin A Young Girl's Life When You Can Make An Older Women So Very Happy !

A Good Spouse And Health Is A Person's Best Wealth.

Lawyers, Preachers, And Tomtits Eggs, There Are More Of Them Hatch'd Than Come To Perfection.

If Any Man Flatters Me, I'll Flatter Him Again; Tho' He Were My Best Friend.

If You Would Persuade, You Must Appeal To Interest Rather Than Intellect.

Much Virtue In Herbs, Little In Men.

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

Self Improvement

Whatever You Become Be Good At It

Success Is The Residue Of Planning.

A Father's A Treasure; A Brother's A Comfort; A Friend Is Both.

Those Who Give Up Liberty For The Sake Of Security, Deserve Neither Liberty Nor Security.

Those Disputing, Contradicting, And Confuting People Are Generally Unfortunate In Their Affairs. They Get Victory, Sometimes, But They Never Get Good Will, Which Would Be Of More Use To Them.

The Punishment Of Murder By Death Is Contrary To Reason, And To The Order And Happiness Of Society, And Contrary To Divine Revelation.

Divine Revelation

Lose No Time; Be Always Employed In Something Useful.

Moral Perfection

Be Cheerful -- The Problems That Worry Us Most Are Those That Never Arrive.

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

A Nation Of Well-informed Men Who Have Been Taught To Know And Prize The Rights Which God Has Given Them Cannot Be Enslaved. It Is In The Region Of Ignorance That Tyranny Begins.” Benjamin Franklin

If You Would Be Loved, Love, And Be Loveable.

Inspirational Life

I Was Put To The Grammar-school At Eight Years Of Age, My Father Intending To Devote Me, As The Tithe Of His Sons, To The Service Of The Church.

Look Round The Habitable World, How Few Know Their Own Good, Or, Knowing It, Pursue!

Some Books We Read, Tho' Few There Are That Hit The Happy Point Where Wisdom Joins With Wit.

Cunning Proceeds From Want Of Capacity.

What Can Laws Do Without Morals?

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

If You Do Not Exclude Them, In Less Than 200 Years Our Descendants Will Be Working In The Fields To Furnish Them Substance, While They Will Be In The Counting Houses Rubbing Their Hands. I Warn You, Gentlemen, If You Do Not Exclude Jews For All Time, Your Children Will Curse You In Your Graves.

A Learned Blockhead Is A Greater Blockhead Than An Ignorant One.

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

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

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

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.

Beer Is Proof That God Wants Us To Be Happy

The Way To See By Faith Is To Shut The Eye Of Reason.

A Wise Man Will Desire No More Than What He May Get Justly, Use Soberly, Distribute Cheerfully, And Leave Contently.

You Must Not, When You Have Gained A Victory, Use Any Triumphing Or Insulting Expressions, Nor Show Too Much Of The Pleasure You Feel; But Endeavour To Console Your Adversary, And Make Him Less Dissatisfied With Himself By Every Kind And Civil Expression That May Be Used With Truth; Such As, You Understand The Game Better Than I, But You Are A Little Inattentive, Or, You Play Too Fast; Or, You Had The Best Of The Game, But Something Happened To Divert Your Thoughts, And That Turned It In My Favour.

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

Taxes On Consumption, Like Those On Capital Or Income, To Be Just, Must Be Uniform.

Waste Neither Time Nor Money, But Make The Best Use Of Both.

Remember, Sir, That [england] Began The Slave Trade!

The English Love An Insult. It's Their Only Test Of A Man's Sincerity.

There Was Great Difference In Persons; And Discretion Did Not Always Accompany Years, Nor Was Youth Always Without It.

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.

Temperance Puts Wood On The Fire, Meal In The Barrel, Flour In The Tub, Money In The Purse, Credit In The Country, Contentment In The House, Clothes On The Back, And Vigor In The Body.

An Ounce Of Wit That Is Bought, Is Worth A Pound That Is Taught.

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