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Franklin’s masterstroke lay not merely in providing the usual astronomical data and weather predictions, but in seasoning his pages with pithy aphorisms that became embedded in the American consciousness. “Early to bed and early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise” and “God helps those who help themselves” weren’t mere platitudes but reflected Franklin’s systematic philosophy of self-improvement and material advancement.
The almanac served as Franklin’s laboratory for testing ideas about industry, frugality, and virtue that would later crystallize in his autobiography. More significantly, it democratized learning, bringing Enlightenment rationalism to common farmers and tradesmen. Through Poor Richard’s homespun voice, Franklin created a distinctly American literature—practical, optimistic, and entrepreneurial.
The publication’s success established Franklin's fortune and reputation, funding his later scientific and political careers. In retrospect, Poor Richard’s Almanack helped forge the American middle-class ethos, proving that in the New World, wisdom could be both profitable and popular.
“Experience keeps a dear school, yet fools will learn in no other.”
Benjamin Franklin (verified)
“For age and want save while you may; no morning sun lasts a whole day.”
— Benjamin Franklin (verified)“Diligence is the mother of good luck.”
— Benjamin Franklin (verified)“Dost thou love life? Then do not squander time; for that’s the stuff life is made of.”
— Benjamin Franklin (verified)“Beware of little expenses, a small leak will sink a great ship.”
— Benjamin Franklin (verified)“Early to bed, early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise.”
— Benjamin Franklin (verified)“If you would be loved, love and be lovable.”
— Benjamin Franklin (verified)“Creditors have better memories than debtors.”
— Benjamin Franklin (verified)“Distrust and caution are the parents of security.”
— Benjamin Franklin (verified)“He that is rich need not live sparingly, and he that can live sparingly, need not be rich.”
— Benjamin Franklin (verified)“Diligence overcomes difficulties, sloth makes them.”
— Benjamin Franklin (verified)“Three may keep a secret, if two of them are dead.”
— Benjamin Franklin (verified)“He that falls in love with himself, will have no rivals.”
— Benjamin Franklin (verified)“Doing an injury puts you below your enemy; revenging one makes you but even with him; forgiving, it sets you above him.”
— Benjamin Franklin (verified)“Great estates may venture more; little boats must keep near shore.”
— Benjamin Franklin (verified)“God helps them that help themselves.”
— Benjamin Franklin (verified)“The muses love the morning.”
— Benjamin Franklin (verified)“Don’t think to hunt two hares with one dog.”
— Benjamin Franklin (verified)“Hope of gain lessens pain.”
— Benjamin Franklin (verified)“No gains without pains.”
— Benjamin Franklin (verified)“Lend money to an enemy, and thou’lt gain him, to a friend and thou’lt lose him.”
— Benjamin Franklin (verified)“Drive thy business, or it will drive thee.”
— Benjamin Franklin (verified)“Drink water; put the money in your pocket, and leave the dry-bellyache in the punch-bowl.”
— Benjamin Franklin (verified)“If you’d lose a troublesome visitor, lend him money.”
— Benjamin Franklin (verified)“Laws too gentle are seldom obeyed; too severe, seldom executed.”
— Benjamin Franklin (verified)“Buy what thou hast no need of; and e’er long thou shalt sell thy necessaries.”
— Benjamin Franklin (verified)“If Jack’s in love, he’s no judge of Jill’s beauty.”
— Benjamin Franklin (verified)“Employ thy time well, if thou meanest to gain leisure.”
— Benjamin Franklin (verified)“An egg today is better than a hen tomorrow.”
— Benjamin Franklin (verified)“A life of leisure, and a life of laziness, are two things.”
— Benjamin Franklin (verified)“Love, cough, and a smoke, can’t well be hid.”
— Benjamin Franklin (verified)“A false friend and a shadow attend only while the sun shines.”
— Benjamin Franklin (verified)“Drunkenness, that worst of evils, makes some men fools, some beasts, some devils.”
— Benjamin Franklin (verified)“Keep thy shop, and thy shop will keep thee.”
— Benjamin Franklin (verified)“At the working man’s house hunger looks in but dares not enter.”
— Benjamin Franklin (verified)“All would live long, but none would be old.”
— Benjamin Franklin (verified)“Ill customs and bad advice are seldom forgotten.”
— Benjamin Franklin (verified)“Beauty and folly are old companions.”
— Benjamin Franklin (verified)“He that drinks fast, pays slow.”
— Benjamin Franklin (verified)“Being ignorant is not so much a shame, as being unwilling to learn.”
— Benjamin Franklin (verified)“A lie stands on one leg, truth on two.”
— Benjamin Franklin (verified)“Love your enemies, for they tell you your faults.”
— Benjamin Franklin (verified)“Laziness travels so slowly, that poverty soon overtakes him.”
— Benjamin Franklin (verified)“If you’d know the value of money, go and borrow some.”
— Benjamin Franklin (verified)“If you have time don’t wait for time.”
— Benjamin Franklin (verified)“All things are easy to industry, all things difficult to sloth.”
— Benjamin Franklin (verified)“Approve not of him that commends all you say.”
— Benjamin Franklin (verified)“Anger is never without a reason, but seldom with a good one.”
— Benjamin Franklin (verified)“Bad gains are truly losses.”
— Benjamin Franklin (verified)“If you’d have a servant that you like, serve yourself.”
— Benjamin Franklin (verified)“A long life may not be good enough, but a good life is long enough.”
— Benjamin Franklin (verified)“He that riseth late, must trot all day, and shall scarce overtake his business by night.”
— Benjamin Franklin (verified)“Don't throw stones at your neighbors, if your own windows are glass.”
— Benjamin Franklin (verified)“Have you something to do tomorrow; do it today.”
— Benjamin Franklin (verified)“Lost time is never found again.”
— Benjamin Franklin (verified)“Late children, early orphans.”
— Benjamin Franklin (verified)“As pride increases, fortune declines.”
— Benjamin Franklin (verified)“A light purse is a heavy curse.”
— Benjamin Franklin (verified)“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.”
— Benjamin Franklin (verified)“Having been poor is no shame, but being ashamed of it, is.”
— Benjamin Franklin (verified)“Don’t misinform your doctor nor your lawyer.”
— Benjamin Franklin (verified)“Let every new year find you a better man.”
— Benjamin Franklin (verified)“If you know how to spend less than you get, you have the philosopher’s stone.”
— Benjamin Franklin (verified)“He that never eats too much, will never be lazy.”
— Benjamin Franklin (verified)“Be always ashamed to catch thyself idle.”
— Benjamin Franklin (verified)“Do good to thy friend to keep him, to thy enemy to gain him.”
— Benjamin Franklin (verified)“It is better to take many injuries, than to give one.”
— Benjamin Franklin (verified)“Be at war with your vices, at peace with your neighbors.”
— Benjamin Franklin (verified)“He that lies down with dogs, shall rise up with fleas.”
— Benjamin Franklin (verified)“An hundred thieves cannot strip one naked man, especially if his skin’s off.”
— Benjamin Franklin (verified)“A full belly makes a dull brain.”
— Benjamin Franklin (verified)“Keep your eyes wide open before marriage, half shut afterwards.”
— Benjamin Franklin (verified)“He’s a fool that makes his doctor his heir.”
— Benjamin Franklin (verified)“An empty bag cannot stand upright.”
— Benjamin Franklin (verified)“Sleep without supping, and you'll rise without owing for it.”
— Benjamin Franklin (verified)“Be slow in choosing a friend, slower in changing.”
— Benjamin Franklin (verified)“There is neither honor nor gain got in dealing with a villian.”
— Benjamin Franklin (verified)“If you would keep your secret from an enemy, tell it not to a friend.”
— Benjamin Franklin (verified)“For want of a nail the shoe is lost; for want of a shoe, the horse is lost; for want of a horse the rider is lost.”
— Benjamin Franklin (verified)“It’s common for men to give pretended reasons instead of one real one.”
— Benjamin Franklin (verified)“’Tis a shame that your family is an honor to you! You ought to be an honor to your family.”
— Benjamin Franklin (verified)“Thou canst not joke an enemy into a friend; but thou may'st a friend into an enemy.”
— Benjamin Franklin (verified)“Fools multiply folly.”
— Benjamin Franklin (verified)“Sloth (like rust) consumes faster than labor wears. The used key is always bright.”
— Benjamin Franklin (verified)“’Tis easier to prevent bad habits than to break them.”
— Benjamin Franklin (verified)“Haste makes waste.”
— Benjamin Franklin (verified)“Sell not virtue to purchase wealth, nor liberty to purchase power.”
— Benjamin Franklin (verified)“Take counsel in wine, but resolve afterwards in water.”
— Benjamin Franklin (verified)“A plowman on his legs is higher than a gentleman on his knees.”
— Benjamin Franklin (verified)“Necessity never made a good bargain.”
— Benjamin Franklin (verified)“A fine genius in his own country, is like gold in the mine.”
— Benjamin Franklin (verified)“Genius without education is like silver in the mine.”
— Benjamin Franklin (verified)“Where there’s no law, there’s no bread.”
— Benjamin Franklin (verified)“Industry pays debts, despair increases them.”
— Benjamin Franklin (verified)“You may delay, but time will not.”
— Benjamin Franklin (verified)“Patience in a market, is worth pounds in a year.”
— Benjamin Franklin (verified)“Eat few suppers, and you’ll need few medicines.”
— Benjamin Franklin (verified)“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 (verified)“An innocent plowman is more worthy than a vicious prince.”
— Benjamin Franklin (verified)“As we must account for every idle word, so we must for every idle silence.”
— Benjamin Franklin (verified)“The busy man has few idle visitors; to the boiling pot the flies come not.”
— Benjamin Franklin (verified)“Half the truth is often a great lie.”
— Benjamin Franklin (verified)“He that can have patience can have what he will.”
— Benjamin Franklin (verified)“The bell calls others to church, but itself never minds the sermon.”
— Benjamin Franklin (verified)“Hold your council before dinner; the full belly hates thinking as well as acting.”
— Benjamin Franklin (verified)“Fish and visitors stink in three days.”
— Benjamin Franklin (verified)“The creditors are a superstitious sect, great observers of set days and times.”
— Benjamin Franklin (verified)“He that builds before he counts the cost, acts foolishly; and he that counts before he builds, finds he did not count wisely.”
— Benjamin Franklin (verified)“A good example is the best sermon.”
— Benjamin Franklin (verified)“Honor thy father and mother, i.e., live so as to be an honor to them when they are dead.”
— Benjamin Franklin (verified)“Drink does not drown care, but waters it, and makes it grow faster.”
— Benjamin Franklin (verified)“Do not do that which you would not have known.”
— Benjamin Franklin (verified)“The eye of a master, will do more work than his hand.”
— Benjamin Franklin (verified)“A good lawyer, a bad neighbor.”
— Benjamin Franklin (verified)“Promises may get thee friends, but non-performance will turn them into enemies.”
— Benjamin Franklin (verified)“The worst wheel of the cart makes the most noise.”
— Benjamin Franklin (verified)“There was never a good knife made of bad steel.”
— Benjamin Franklin (verified)“’'Tis easier to suppress the first desire, than to satisfy all that follow it.”
— Benjamin Franklin (verified)“’Tis easy to see, hard to foresee.”
— Benjamin Franklin (verified)“Time is an herb that cures all diseases.”
— Benjamin Franklin (verified)“Vice knows she’s ugly, so puts on her mask.”
— Benjamin Franklin (verified)“Would you live with ease, do what you ought, and not what you please.”
— Benjamin Franklin (verified)“The honest man takes pains, and then enjoys pleasures; the knave takes pleasures, and then suffers pains.”
— Benjamin Franklin (verified)“The proud hate pride—in others.”
— Benjamin Franklin (verified)“Nothing so popular as goodness.”
— Benjamin Franklin (verified)“The golden age never was the present age.”
— Benjamin Franklin (verified)“You may be too cunning for one, but not for all.”
— Benjamin Franklin (verified)“Well done is twice done.”
— Benjamin Franklin (verified)“When you’re good to others, you are best to yourself.”
— Benjamin Franklin (verified)“To be intimate with a foolish friend, is like going to bed with a razor.”
— Benjamin Franklin (verified)“Today is yesterday’s pupil.”
— Benjamin Franklin (verified)“Tim was so learned, that he could name a horse in nine languages. So ignorant, that he bought a cow to ride on.”
— Benjamin Franklin (verified)“Pardoning the bad, is injuring the good.”
— Benjamin Franklin (verified)“The noblest question in the world is, what good may I do in it?”
— Benjamin Franklin (verified)“Marry above thy match, and thou'lt get a master.”
— Benjamin Franklin (verified)“One good husband is worth two good wives; for the scarcer things are the more they’re valued.”
— Benjamin Franklin (verified)“’Tis easier to build two chimneys, than maintain one in fuel.”
— Benjamin Franklin (verified)“We may give advice, but we cannot give conduct.”
— Benjamin Franklin (verified)“Love your neighbor; yet don’t pull down your hedge.”
— Benjamin Franklin (verified)“Where there’s marriage without love, there will be love without marriage.”
— Benjamin Franklin (verified)“Take this remark from Richard, poor and lame, whatever is begun in anger, ends in shame.”
— Benjamin Franklin (verified)“One today is worth two tomorrows.”
— Benjamin Franklin (verified)“The sting of a reproach is the truth of it.”
— Benjamin Franklin (verified)“To lengthen thy life, lessen thy meals.”
— Benjamin Franklin (verified)“The second vice is lying; the first is running in debt.”
— Benjamin Franklin (verified)“To whom thy secret thou dost tell, to him thy freedom thou dost sell.”
— Benjamin Franklin (verified)“Tricks and treachery are the practice of fools, that have not wit enough to be honest.”
— Benjamin Franklin (verified)“Words may show a man’s wit, but actions his meaning.”
— Benjamin Franklin (verified)“None preaches better than the ant, and she says nothing.”
— Benjamin Franklin (verified)“Virtue and happiness are mother and daughter.”
— Benjamin Franklin (verified)“The bird that sits, is easily shot.”
— Benjamin Franklin (verified)“The wise man draws more advantage from his enemies, than the fool from his friends.”
— Benjamin Franklin (verified)“Tart words make no friends; a spoonful of honey will catch more flies than a gallon of vinegar.”
— Benjamin Franklin (verified)“Time enough always proves little enough.”
— Benjamin Franklin (verified)“Money and good manners make the gentleman.”
— Benjamin Franklin (verified)“Rather go to bed supperless, than run in debt for a breakfast.”
— Benjamin Franklin (verified)“Wish not so much to live long as to live well.”
— Benjamin Franklin (verified)“When you speak to a man, look on his eyes; when he speaks to thee, look on his mouth.”
— Benjamin Franklin (verified)“Without justice courage is weak.”
— Benjamin Franklin (verified)“Observe all men; thyself most.”
— Benjamin Franklin (verified)“No man ever was glorious who was not laborious.”
— Benjamin Franklin (verified)“When the wine enters, out goes the truth.”
— Benjamin Franklin (verified)“There is no little enemy.”
— Benjamin Franklin (verified)“You will be careful, if you are wise; how you touch men's religion, or credit, or eyes.”
— Benjamin Franklin (verified)“Up, sluggard, and waste not life; in the grave will be sleeping enough.”
— Benjamin Franklin (verified)“Well done is better than well said.”
— Benjamin Franklin (verified)• Title: Poor Richard’s Almanack
• Author: Benjamin Franklin
• Type: Book
• Publisher: Benjamin Franklin
• Publication time: 1732-1758
• Publication place: Pennsylvania, United States
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