From my dear departed Grandpa (who may have made this unknown quote his own): "Just watch yer pennys, boy, and the dollars will watch themselves!"
"Be in general virtuous, and you will be happy." --Essays. On Early Marriages."Here you would know and enjoy what posterity will say of Washington. For a thousand leagues have nearly the same effect with a thousand years. " --Letter to Washington, March 5, 1780.
"I cannot conceive otherwise than that He, the Infinite Father, expects or requires no worship or praise from us, but that He is even infinitely above it." --from "Articles of Belief and Acts of Religion", Nov. 20, 1728
"I think vital religion has always suffered when orthodoxy is more regarded than virtue. The scriptures assure me that at the last day we shall not be examined on what we thought but what we did." --letter to his father, 1738
"I wish it (Christianity) were more productive of good works ... I mean real good works ... not holy-day keeping, sermon-hearing ... or making long prayers, filled with flatteries and compliments despised by wise men, and much less capable of pleasing the Deity." --Works, Vol. VII, p. 75
"I wish the bald eagle had not been chosen as the representative of our country; he is a bird of bad moral character; like those among men who live by sharping and robbing, he is generally poor, and often very lousy. The turkey is a much more respectable bird, and withal a true original native of America." --Letter to Sarah Bache
"Idleness and pride tax with a heavier hand than kings and parliaments. If we can get rid of the former, we may easily bear the latter. " --Letter on the Stamp Act, July 1, 1765.
"Like a man traveling in foggy weather, those at some distance before him on the road he sees wrapped up in the fog, as well as those behind him, and also the people in the fields on each side, but near him all appears clear, though in truth he is as much in the fog as any of them." --From his Autobiography, chapter 8, (written 1771-90); detailing Franklin's opinions about the delusions of sects. The only sect Franklin respected was that of the Quakers.
"Never contradict anybody." --Benjamin Franklin to Thomas Jefferson
"No nation was ever ruined by trade." --Essays. Thoughts on Commercial Subjects.
"Our new Constitution is now established, and has an appearance that promises permanency; but in this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes." --Excerpt from a letter to Jean Baptiste Le Roy; dated November 13, 1789.
"Remember, that time is money." --Advice to young tradesman, 1748.
"The great secret of succeeding in conversation is to admire little, to hear much; always to distrust our own reason, and sometimes that of our friends; never to pretend to wit, but to make that of others appear as much as possibly we can; to hearken to what is said and to answer to the purpose." --taken from Franklin's Complete Works, Volume 1, "Miscellaneous Observations" (1728)
"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. " --Historical Review of Pennsylvania.
"We must indeed all hang together, or, most assuredly, we shall all hang separately." --Franklin's reply in response to a John Hancock remark that the revolutionaries should be unanimous in their action; made at the signing of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776.
"You and I were long friends: you are now my enemy, and I am yours." --Letter to William Strahan, July 5, 1775.