Devon > Devon's Quotes

“Love your Enemies, for they tell you your Faults.”
― Benjamin Franklin, Poor Richard's Almanack

“The heart of a fool is in his mouth, but the mouth of a wise man is in his heart.”
― ben franklin

“Be slow in choosing a friend, slower in changing.”
― Benjamin Franklin

“When you are finished changing, you're finished.”
― Benjamin Franklin

“To find out a girl's faults, praise her to her girlfriends.”
― Benjamin Franklin

“A slip of the foot you may soon recover, but a slip of the tongue you may never get over.”
― Benjamin Franklin

“When you're testing to see how deep water is, never use two feet.”
― Ben Franklin

“Life biggest tragedy is that we get old too soon and wise too late”
― Benjamin Franklin

“In all your Amours you should prefer old Women to young ones. You call this a Paradox, and demand my Reasons. They are these:

1. Because as they have more Knowledge of the World and their Minds are better stor’d with Observations, their Conversation is more improving and more lastingly agreable.

2. Because when Women cease to be handsome, they study to be good. To maintain their Influence over Men, they supply the Diminution of Beauty by an Augmentation of Utility. They learn to do a 1000 Services small and great, and are the most tender and useful of all Friends when you are sick. Thus they continue amiable. And hence there is hardly such a thing to be found as an old Woman who is not a good Woman.

3. Because there is no hazard of Children, which irregularly produc’d may be attended with much Inconvenience.

4. Because thro’ more Experience, they are more prudent and discreet in conducting an Intrigue to prevent Suspicion. The Commerce with them is therefore safer with regard to your Reputation. And with regard to theirs, if the Affair should happen to be known, considerate People might be rather inclin’d to excuse an old Woman who would kindly take care of a young Man, form his Manners by her good Counsels, and prevent his ruining his Health and Fortune among mercenary Prostitutes.

5. Because in every Animal that walks upright, the Deficiency of the Fluids that fill the Muscles appears first in the highest Part: The Face first grows lank and wrinkled; then the Neck; then the Breast and Arms; the lower Parts continuing to the last as plump as ever: So that covering all above with a Basket, and regarding only what is below the Girdle, it is impossible of two Women to know an old from a young one. And as in the dark all Cats are grey, the Pleasure of corporal Enjoyment with an old Woman is at least equal, and frequently superior, every Knack being by Practice capable of Improvement.

6. Because the Sin is less. The debauching a Virgin may be her Ruin, and make her for Life unhappy.

7. Because the Compunction is less. The having made a young Girl miserable may give you frequent bitter Reflections; none of which can attend the making an old Woman happy.

8thly and Lastly They are so grateful!!”
― Benjamin Franklin

“If you would not be forgotten, as soon as you are dead and rotten, either write things worth reading, or do things worth writing.”
― Benjamin Franklin, Poor Richard's Almanack

“Trouble knocked at the door, but, hearing laughter, hurried away”
― Benjamin Franklin

“Happiness depends more on the inward disposition of mind than on outward circumstances.”
― Benjamin Franklin

“If Jack's in love, he's no judge of Jill's beauty.”
― Benjamin Franklin

“We do not stop playing because we grow old, we grow old because we stop playing!”
― Benjamin Franklin

“If a man could have half of his wishes, he would double his troubles.”
― Benjamin Franklin

“Be civil to all; sociable to many; familiar with few; friend to one; enemy to none.”
― Benjamin Franklin

“Speak ill of no man, but speak all the good you know of everybody.”
― Ben Franklin

“Never leave till tomorrow that which you can do today.”
― Benjamin Franklin

“While we may not be able to control all that happens to us, we can control what happens inside us.”
― Benjamin Franklin

“Security without liberty is called prison.”
― Benjamin Franklin

“Work as if you were to live a thousand years, play as if you were to die tomorrow.”
― Ben Franklin

“Beware of little expenses; a small leak will sink a great ship.”
― Benjamin Franklin

“To be humble to superiors is a duty, to equals courtesy, to inferiors nobleness.”
― Benjamin Franklin

“Eat to live, don't live to eat.”
― Benjamin Franklin

“Fish and visitors smell in three days.”
― Ben Franklin

“A Brother may not be a Friend, but a Friend will always be a Brother.”
― Benjamin Franklin

“For the best return on your money, pour your purse into your head.”
― Benjamin Franklin

“Fools make feasts and wise men eat them.”
― Benjamin Franklin, Fart Proudly: Writings of Benjamin Franklin You Never Read in School

“Slavery is such an atrocious debasement of human nature, that its very extirpation, if not performed with solicitous care, may sometimes open a source of serious evils. The unhappy man who has been treated as a brute animal, too frequently sinks beneath the common standard of the human species. The galling chains, that bind his body, do also fetter his intellectual faculties, and impair the social affections of his heart… To instruct, to advise, to qualify those, who have been restored to freedom, for the exercise and enjoyment of civil liberty… and to procure for their children an education calculated for their future situation in life; these are the great outlines of the annexed plan, which we have adopted.

[For the Pennsylvania Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery, 1789]”
― Benjamin Franklin, Writings: The Autobiography / Poor Richard’s Almanack / Bagatelles, Pamphlets, Essays & Letters

“You will find the key to success under the alarm clock.”
― Benjamin Franklin