Ben Franklin's Quotes

1. A slip of the foot you may soon recover, but a slip of the tongue you may never get over. 祸从口出
2. Remember not only to say the right thing in the right place, but far more difficult still, to leave unsaid the wrong thing at the tempting moment. 沉默是金
3. Having been poor is no shame, but being ashamed of it, is.
4. Wish not so much to live long as to live well.
5. Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. （Tuo's version: Those who would give up self respect to purchase a little temporary job safety deserve neither respect nor safety)
6. If you would not be forgotten as soon as you are dead and rotten, either write something worth reading or do things worth the writing.
7. An investment in knowledge always pays the best interest.
8. At 20 years of age the will reigns, at 30 the wit, at 40 the judgment. 三十而立，四十而不惑，五十而知天命
9. If you would persuade, you must appeal to interest rather than intellect.
10. Be civil to all; sociable to many; familiar with few; friend to one; enemy to none.
11. Three may keep a secret, if two of them are dead
13. Perhaps the history of the errors of mankind, all things considered, is more valuable and interesting than that of their discoveries. Truth is uniform and narrow; it constantly exists, and does not seem to require so much an active energy, as a passive aptitude of the soul in order to encounter it. But error is endlessly diversified; it has no reality, but is the pure and simple creation of the mind that invents it. In this field the soul has room enough to expand herself, to display all her boundless faculties, and all her beautiful and interesting extravagancies and absurdities. (幸福的家庭都是相似的，不幸的家庭各有各的不幸）

14. Fish and visitors smell in three days.
15. To lengthen thy life, lessen thy meals.
16. God heals, and the doctor takes the fees.
17. Drive thy business or it will drive thee.