While Franklin wore many hats and could be quoted on many different aspects of life, I've put together those quotes which I consider to be most inspirational for inventors and scientists.
On Failure
- By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.
- Do not fear mistakes. You will know failure. Continue to reach out.
- I didn't fail the test, I just found 100 ways to do it wrong.
On Persistence
- Diligence is the mother of good luck.
- It is the working man who is the happy man. It is the idle man who is the miserable man.
- He that can have patience can have what he will.
- Energy and persistence conquer all things.
- Leisure is the time for doing something useful. This leisure the diligent person will obtain the lazy one never.
- If time be of all things the most precious, wasting time must be the greatest prodigality.
- He that waits upon fortune, is never sure of a dinner.
- Industry need not wish.
- Never leave till tomorrow that which you can do today.
- 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.
On Keeping An Open Mind
- A learned blockhead is a greater blockhead than an ignorant one.
- Being ignorant is not so much a shame, as being unwilling to learn.
- We are all born ignorant, but one must work hard to remain stupid.
- For having lived long, I have experienced many instances of being obliged, by better information or fuller consideration, to change opinions, even on important subjects, which I once thought right but found to be otherwise.
- When you're finished changing, you're finished.
- If everyone is thinking alike, then no one is thinking.
- It is the first responsibility of every citizen to question authority.
On Knowledge and Learning
- Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn.
- An investment in knowledge pays the best interest.
- A house is not a home unless it contains food and fire for the mind as well as the body.
- The doorstep to the temple of wisdom is a knowledge of our own ignorance.
- Without continual growth and progress, such words as improvement, achievement, and success have no meaning.
- The doors of wisdom are never shut.
- Hide not your talents. They for use were made. What's a sundial in the shade? Genius without education is like silver in the mine.
- Games lubricate the body and the mind.
- The only thing that is more expensive than education is ignorance.
On Foolishness
- Any fool can criticize, condemn and complain - and most fools do.
- Wise men don't need advice. Fools won't take it.
- He that won't be counseled can't be helped.
- Experience keeps a dear school, but fools will learn in no other.
On Patience
- Take time for all things: great haste makes great waste.
- To succeed, jump as quickly at opportunities as you do at conclusions.
Proverbs
- Half a truth is often a great lie.
- God helps those who help themselves.
- If passion drives you, let reason hold the reins.
- Having been poor is no shame, but being ashamed of it, is.
- It is easier to prevent bad habits than to break them.
- Beware the hobby that eats.
- Applause waits on success.
- The first mistake in public business is the going into it.
- Necessity never made a good bargain.
- Many people die at twenty five and aren't buried until they are seventy five.
- The problem with doing nothing is not knowing when your finished.
