Benjamin Franklin (January 17, 1706 – April 17, 1790) is one of the Founding Fathers of the United States of America and an architect of the American Revolution. He was a statesman, scientist, inventor, printer, writer, and overall polymath – a true “Renaissance Man.” Franklin was a key figure of the American Revolution as a contributing drafter of the Declaration of Independence, a diplomat vital to securing French support for the American cause, a key negotiator of the Treaty of Paris ending the war with England, and assisting in the formation of the U.S. Constitution.
A prolific writer (often pseudonymous), his most famous written work is “Poor Richard’s Almanack” – a collection of practical and witty advice he produced annually from 1732 to 1758. He earned acclaim for his scientific work related to electricity and meteorology with his famous kite experiment. As an inventor, Franklin contributed devices such as bifocals, lightning rods, and the Franklin Stove. Franklin’s famous aphorisms and wisdom are now well known and frequently quoted to this day. His contributions to America and the world are monumental and he continues to serve as an inspiration to all.
Franklin built himself in stages. A Boston printer’s apprentice who ran away to Philadelphia at seventeen with little more than the clothes he wore, he put together a printing business prosperous enough that he could retire from trade in his early forties. The leisure bought a second life: electrical experiments that made him famous in Europe, the Junto club of tradesmen devoted to mutual improvement, the first public lending library in America, and then public service — agent for the colonies in London, signer of the Declaration, the envoy who won France to the American cause, negotiator of the peace with Britain, and at eighty-one the oldest delegate to the Constitutional Convention. He died in Philadelphia on April 17, 1790, mourned by some twenty thousand people.
Core Ideas
- Guard your hours. Lost time is never found again, and time is the stuff life is made of, so a man who loves life does not squander it.
- Improvement runs on a system. He listed thirteen virtues, gave one its turn each week, and marked his faults in a notebook every night until the habits held.
- Grow by company and by books. The self-taught improve fastest together: his Junto of tradesmen met to debate questions, lend books, and pull one another up.
- Watch the small leaks. Frugality compounds quietly: a small leak will sink a great ship, and money saved goes on earning money of its own.
- Build what your city lacks. When Philadelphia needed a library, a fire company, an academy, or a hospital, he organized it and talked his neighbors into paying for it.
Benjamin Franklin Quotes
“Well done is better than well said.”
Poor Richard’s Almanack, 1737
“Hide not your Talents, they for Use were made. What’s a Sun-Dial in the shade!”
Poor Richard’s Almanack, 1750
“An investment in knowledge pays the best interest.”
“Without continual growth and progress, such words as improvement, achievement, and success have no meaning.”
“The Constitution only gives people the right to pursue happiness. You have to catch it yourself.”
“He that can have patience can have what he will.”
Poor Richard’s Almanack, 1736
“It is the working man who is the happy man. It is the idle man who is the miserable man.”
Benjamin Franklin Books
“The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin” – by Benjamin Franklin. His own story, apprentice to printer to philosopher, written in his sixties and seventies and left unfinished. Start here: the Yale edition is drawn from his manuscript.
“Benjamin Franklin: An American Life” – by Walter Isaacson. The standard modern biography, with the printing, the science, the diplomacy, and the statecraft in one readable life.
“Poor Richard’s Almanack” – by Benjamin Franklin. The pamphlets that made Poor Richard famous: proverbs, jokes, weather lore, and thrift gathered from twenty-five years of yearly almanacs.
“The Way to Wealth: Ben Franklin on Money and Success” – by Benjamin Franklin. Twenty-five years of Poor Richard stitched into one short speech on money and success. An hour’s read.
You can browse all of Benjamin Franklin’s quotes in the SAGE QUOTE LIBRARY. For additional information, quotes, and books on similarly relevant famous individuals, please visit the SAGE PROFILES page on the site. Please also visit the SAGE BOOK RECOMMENDATIONS page for many other great reads sure to add to your worldly wisdom. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
