[BOOKS]The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin by Benjamin Franklin

08/06/2014

1. Mine convinced me that nothing was useful which was not honest.
2. A man being sometimes more generous when he has but a little money than when he has plenty, perhaps through fear of being thought to have but little.
3. So convenient a thing is it to be a reasonable creature, since it enables one to find or make a reason for everything one has a mind to do.
4. Pennsylvania money; less, indeed, than my present getting as a compositor, but affording a better prospect.
5. The present little sacrifice of your vanity will afterwards be amply repaid.
6. I had been so ambitious of obtaining, but fell far short of it, yet i was, by the endeavor, a better and a happier man than i otherwise should have been if i had not attempted it.
7. He that has once done you a kindness will be more ready to do you another, than he whom you yourself have obliged.
8. Partnerships often finish in quarrels;but i was happy in this, that mine were all carried on and ended amicably, owing, I think, a good deal to the precaution of having very explicitly settled, in our article, everything to be done by or expected from each partner, so that there was nothing to dispute, which precaution I would therefore recommend to all who enter into partnerships; for whatever esteem partners may have for, and confidence in each other at the time of contract, little jealousies and disgusts may arise, with ideas of inequality in the care and burden of the business etc, which are attended often with breach of friendship and of the connection, perhaps with lawsuits and other disagreeable consequences.
9. I had read or heard of some public man who made it a rule never to ask for an office and never to refuse one when offered to him.
10. As we enjoy great advantages from the inventions of others, we should be glad of an opportunity to serve others by any invention of ours; and this we should do freely and generously.
11. Human felicity is produced not so much by great pieces of good fortune that seldom happen, as by little advantages that occur every day. Thus if you teach a poor young man to shave himself, and keep his razor in order, you may contribute more to the happiness of his life than in giving him a thousand guineas.
12. Idleness taxes many of us much more.
13. Used key is always bright.
14. How much more than is necessary do we spend in sleep,forgetting that the The sleeping fox catches no poultry and that there will be sleeping enough in the grave as poor richard says.
15. Early to bed, and early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise.
16. There are no gains without pains.
17. Diligence is the mother of good luck.
18. God gives all things to industry.
19. One To-day is worth two To-morrows, and farther, Have you somewhat to do \to-morrow, do it To-day.
20. Leisure, is Time for doing something useful.
21. A life of leisure and a life of laziness are two things.
22. I conceive that great part of the miseries of mankind are brought upon them by the false estimates they have made of the value of the things, and by their giving too much for their whistles.
23. "You are young, and have the world before you; stoop as you go through it, and you will miss many hard thumps." This advice, thus beat into my head, has frequently been of use to me; and I often think of it, when i see pride mortified and misfortunes brought upon people by their carrying their heads too high.
24. Don`t give too much for the whistle.
25. As i grew up, came into the world, and observed the actions of men, I thought i met with many, very many, who gave too much for the whistle.
26. When i saw one too ambitious of court favor, sacrificing his time in attendance on levees, his repose, his liberty, his virtue and perhaps his friends, to attain it. I have said to myself, This man gives too much for his whistle.
27. When i saw another fond of popularity, constantly employing himself in political bustles, neglecting his own affairs, and ruining them by neglect , he pays indeed said I, too much for his whistle.
28. If i knew a miser who gave up every kind of comfortable living, all the pleasure of doing good to others, all the esteem of his fellow citizens, and the joys of benevolent friendship, for the sake of accumulating wealth, Poor man, said I, you pay too much for your whistle.
29. When I met with a man of pleasure, sacrificing every laudable improvement of the mind, or of his fortune, to mere corporeal sensations, and ruining his health in their pursuit, you are providing pain for yourself, instead of pleasure; you give too much for your whistle.
30. If i see one fond of appearance, or fine clothes, fine houses, fine furniture, fine equipages, all above his fortune, for which he contracts debts and end his career in a prison, Ala! say I, he has paid dear, very dear, for his whistle.
31. When I see a beautiful, sweet tempered girl married to an ill-natured brute of a husband, what a pity, say I, that she should pay so much for a whistle!
32. I conceive that great part of the miseries of mankind are brought upon them by the false estimates they have made of the value of things and by their giving too much for their whistles.