Benjamin Franklin Quotes

The only question which any wise man can ask himself, and which any honest man will ask himself, is whether a doctrine is true or false.

... always an honest man, often a wise one, but sometimes ... absolutely out of his senses.

It is a wise man who knows where courage ends and stupidity begins.

In the last analysis sound judgment will prevail.

A wise man proportions his belief to the evidence.

Common sense is the most fairly distributed thing in the world, for each one thinks he is so well-endowed with it that even those who are hardest to satisfy in all other matters are not in the habit of desiring more of it than they already have.

Call him wise whose actions, words, and steps are all a clear because to a clear why.

When you encounter seemingly good advice that contradicts other seemingly good advice, ignore them both.

Fools admire, but men of sense approve.

Judges ought to be more leaned than witty, more reverent than plausible, and more advised than confident. Above all things, integrity is their portion and proper virtue.

I'm not saying Obama is right on everything. Of course not. He may be wrong on a number of things. But what I do know is that he behaves like a very, very sane man almost all the time.

No one but a fool is always right.

A wise man does not chatter with one whose mind is sick.

I speak truth, not so much as I would, but as much as I dare; and I dare a little more, as I grown older.

It takes a wise man to handle a lie, a fool had better remain honest.

The best men of the best epochs are simply those who make the fewest blunders and commit the fewest sins.

It is dangerous to be sincere unless you are also stupid.

Philosophy is nothing but discretion.

In Greece wise men speak and fools decide.

If anybody seeks your advice, offer right and sincere advice.

Emotion is always the enemy of wise statesmanship.

It takes a clever man to turn cynic and a wise man to be clever enough not to.

A fool may sometimes give a wise man counsel

I always try to have an open mind, but there is a difference between having an open mind and having a hole in the head.

I can say conscientiously that I do not know in the world a man of purer integrity, more dispassionate, disinterested, and devoted to genuine Republicanism; nor could I in the whole scope of America and Europe point out an abler head.