Quotes from The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin

15 notable lines from Benjamin Franklin · 1791

An investment in knowledge pays the best interest.

Benjamin Franklin

  1. Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing.

    Benjamin Franklin

  2. It was about this time I conceiv'd the bold and arduous project of arriving at moral perfection.

    Part Two, introducing the plan of the thirteen virtues

  3. Imitate Jesus and Socrates.

    Precept of Humility, thirteenth of the virtues

  4. Eat not to dullness; drink not to elevation.

    Precept of Temperance, first of the thirteen virtues

  5. For, even if I could conceive that I had completely overcome it, I should probably be proud of my humility.

    Part Three, closing the pride passage

  6. So convenient a thing it is to be a reasonable creature, since it enables one to find or make a reason for everything one has a mind to do.

    Part One, on rationalizing his return to eating fish

  7. I arrived in Philadelphia, fatigued with traveling, rowing, and want of rest; I was very hungry.

    Benjamin Franklin, Autobiography

  8. He that has once done you a kindness will be more ready to do you another, than he whom you yourself have obliged.

    Part Three, the 'old maxim' behind the Ben Franklin Effect

  9. In reality, there is, perhaps, no one of our natural passions so hard to subdue as pride. Disguise it, struggle with it, beat it down, stifle it, mortify it as much as one pleases, it is still alive, and will every now and then peep out and show itself.

    Part Three, on the virtue of Humility

  10. Human felicity is produced not so much by great pieces of good fortune that seldom happen, as by little advantages that occur every day.

    Part Three, on the sources of happiness

  11. On the whole, tho' I never arrived at the perfection I had been so ambitious of obtaining, but fell far short of it, yet I was, by the endeavour, a better and a happier man than I otherwise should have been if I had not attempted it.

    Part Two, reflecting on the project of moral perfection

  12. Were it offered to my choice, I should have no objection to a repetition of the same life from its beginning, only asking the advantages authors have in a second edition to correct some faults of the first.

    Part One, on writing his life

  13. 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.

    Part Three, on declining a patent for the Franklin stove

  14. Most people dislike vanity in others, whatever share they have of it themselves; but I give it fair quarter wherever I meet with it.

    Opening, Part One