"Praise to the undeserving is severe satire."

"Applause waits on success."

"O vitae Philosophia dux! O virtutum indagatrix expultrixque vitiorum! Unus dies, bene et ex praeceptis tuis actus, peccanti immortalitati est anteponendus.translation (non-literal):O philosophy, life's guide! O searcher of virtues and expeller of vices! Just a single day lived well and according to your lessons is to be preferred to an eternity of errors.- Cicero, As quoted in Ben Franklin's Autobiography."

"Where sense is wanting, everything is wanting."

"The way to wealth is as plain as the way to market. It depends chiefly on two words, industry and frugality: that is, waste neither time nor money, but make the best use of both. Without industry and frugality nothing will do, and with them everything."

"Where there's marriage without love, there will be love without marriage."

"Vicious actions are not hurtful because they are forbidden, but forbidden because they are hurtful."

"Beauty and folly are old companions."

"Those who govern, having much business on their hands, do not generally like to take the trouble of considering and carrying into execution new projects. The best public measures are therefore seldom adopted from previous wisdom, but forced by the occasion."

"The doorstep to the temple of wisdom is a knowledge of our own ignorance."

"To all apparent beauties blind, each blemish strikes an envious mind."

"Three may keep a secret, if two of them are dead."

"To be thrown upon one's own resources is to be cast into the very lap of fortune for our faculties then undergo a development and display an energy of which they were previously unsusceptible."

"The discontented man finds no easy chair."

"A single man has not nearly the value he would have in a state of union. He is an incomplete animal. He resembles the odd half of a pair of scissors."

"If time be of all things the most precious, wasting time must be the greatest prodigality."

"For the best return on your money, pour your purse into your head."

"We are all born ignorant, but one must work hard to remain stupid."

"Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote!"

"A man must have a good deal of vanity who believes, and a good deal of boldness who affirms, that all the doctrines he holds are true, and all he rejects are false."

"All wars are follies, very expensive and very mischievous ones."

"In 1736 I lost one of my sons, a fine boy of four years old, by the small-pox, taken in the common way. I long regretted bitterly, and still regret that I had not given it to him by inoculation. This I mention for the sake of parents who omit that operation, on the supposition that they should never forgive themselves if a child died under it; my example showing that the regret may be the same either way, and that, therefore, the safer should be chosen."

"He who falls in love with himself will have no rivals."

"In humility imitate Jesus and Socrates."

"When befriended, remember it; when you befriend, forget it."

"As we must account for every idle word, so must we account for every idle silence."

"God works wonders now and then; Behold a lawyer, an honest man."

"Hear reason, or she'll make you feel her."

"There is no kind of dishonesty into which otherwise good people more easily and frequently fall than that of defrauding the government."

"If you would have a faithful servant and one that you like serve yourself."

"There are three faithful friends - an old wife, an old dog, and ready money."

"Being ignorant is not so much a shame, as being unwilling to learn."

"A perfect character might be attended with the inconvenience of being envied and hated; and that a benevolent man should allow a few faults in himself, to keep his friends in countenance."

"By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail."

"The way to be safe is never to be secure."

"It is a grand mistake to think of being great without goodness and I pronounce it as certain that there was never a truly great man that was not at the same time truly virtuous."

"Be studious in your profession, and you will be learned. Be industrious and frugal, and you will be rich. Be sober and temperate, and you will be healthy. Be in general virtuous, and you will be happy. At least you will, by such conduct, stand the be."

"... a book indeed sometimes debauched me from my work."

"...as I am not fond of giving advice,having seldom seen it taken."

"I conceive that the great part of the miseries of mankind are brought upon them by false estimates they have made of the value of things."

"A ploughman on his legs is higher than a gentleman on his knees."

"When will mankind be convinced and agree to settle their difficulties by arbitration?"

"There was never a good war, or a bad peace."

"Any fool can criticize, condemn and complain and most fools do."

"He that is of the opinion money will do everything may well be suspected of doing everything for money."

"One today is worth two tomorrows."

"Beware of little expenses. A small leak will sink a great ship."

"Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise."

"A countryman between two lawyers is like a fish between two cats."

"Each year one vicious habit discarded, in time might make the worst of us good."