Benjamin Franklin

Be slow in choosing a friend, slower in changing.

In wine there is wisdom, in beer there is Freedom, in water there is bacteria.

If you would not be forgotten, as soon as you are dead and rotten, either write things worth reading, or do things worth writing.

... a book indeed sometimes debauched me from my work....

Happiness depends more on the inward disposition of mind than on outward circumstances.

If all printers were determined not to print anything till they were sure it would offend nobody, there would be very little printed.

The person who deserves most pity is a lonesome one on a rainy day who doesn't know how to read.

Were I a Roman Catholic, perhaps I should on this occasion vow to build a chapel to some saint, but as I am not, if I were to vow at all, it should be to build a light-house.[Letter to his wife, 17 July 1757, after narrowly avoiding a shipwreck; often misquoted as "Lighthouses are more helpful than churches."]

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

I didn't fail the test, I just found 100 ways to do it wrong.

You may delay, but time will not.

Instead of cursing the darkness, light a candle.

Experience keeps a dear school, but fools will learn in no other, and scarce in that.

A Penny Saved is a Penny Earned

Great hopes make everything great possible.

A Swedish minister having assembled the chiefs of the Susquehanna Indians, made a sermon to them, acquainting them with the principal historical facts on which our religion is founded _ such as the fall of our first parents by eating an apple, the coming of Christ to repair the mischief, his miracles and suffering, etc. When he had finished an Indian orator stood up to thank him.__hat you have told us,_ says he, __s all very good. It is indeed bad to eat apples. It is better to make them all into cider. We are much obliged by your kindness in coming so far to tell us those things which you have heard from your mothers. In return, I will tell you some of those we have heard from ours.__n the beginning, our fathers had only the flesh of animals to subsist on, and if their hunting was unsuccessful they were starving. Two of our young hunters, having killed a deer, made a fire in the woods to boil some parts of it. When they were about to satisfy their hunger, they beheld a beautiful young woman descend from the clouds and seat herself on that hill which you see yonder among the Blue Mountains.__hey said to each other, __t is a spirit that perhaps has smelt our broiling venison and wishes to eat of it; let us offer some to her._ They presented her with the tongue; she was pleased with the taste of it and said: __our kindness shall be rewarded; come to this place after thirteen moons, and you will find something that will be of great benefit in nourishing you and your children to the latest generations._ They did so, and to their surprise found plants they had never seen before, but which from that ancient time have been constantly cultivated among us to our great advantage. Where her right hand had touched the ground they found maize; where her left had touched it they found kidney-beans; and where her backside had sat on it they found tobacco.__he good missionary, disgusted with this idle tale, said: __hat I delivered to you were sacred truths; but what you tell me is mere fable, fiction, and falsehood.__he Indian, offended, replied: __y brother, it seems your friends have not done you justice in your education; they have not well instructed you in the rules of common civility. You saw that we, who understand and practise those rules, believed all your stories; why do you refuse to believe ours?

The way to wealth is as plain as the way to market. It depends chiefly on two words, industry and frugality: that is, waste neither time nor money, but make the best use of both. Without industry and frugality nothing will do, and with them everything.

You will find the key to success under the alarm clock.