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Benjamin Franklin 1706-1790 "Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, |
"The way to be safe is never to be secure."
"The Constitution only guarantees the American people the right to pursue happiness. You have to catch it yourself."
"I agree to this Constitution with all its faults, if they are such: because I think a General Government necessary for us, and there is no Form of Government but what may be a Blessing to the People if well-administred; and I believe farther that this is likely to be well administred 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."
"Justice will not be served until those who are unaffected are as outraged as those who are."
"When the people find that they can vote themselves money that will herald the end of the republic."
"I am for doing good to the poor, but...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. I observed...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."
"If you would not be forgotten, as soon as you are dead and rotten, either write things worth reading, or do things worth the writing."
"Contentment makes poor men rich. Discontent makes rich men poor."
"Instead of cursing the darkness, light a candle."
"An investment in knowledge pays the best interest."
"It is the first responsibility of every citizen to question authority."
"He that can have patience can have what he will."
"Happiness depends more on the inward disposition of mind than on outward circumstances."
"While we may not be able to control all that happens to us, we can control what happens inside us."
"Life's biggest tragedy is that we get old too soon and wise too late"
"Be civil to all; sociable to many; familiar with few; friend to one; enemy to none."
"Man will occasionally stumble over the truth, but usually manages to pick himself up, walk over or around it, and carry on."
"Being ignorant is not so much a shame, as being unwilling to learn."
"We are all born ignorant, but one must work hard to remain stupid."
