Benjamin Franklin/Quotes

Quotes by Benjamin Franklin

Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.

—Benjamin Franklin, for the Pennsylvania Assembly in its Reply to the Governor, 11 November 1755

Mankind naturally and generally love to be flatter'd: Whatever sooths our Pride, and tends to exalt our Species above the rest of the Creation, we are pleas'd with and easily believe, when ungrateful Truths shall be with the utmost Indignation rejected.

—Benjamin Franklin, "A Dissertation on Liberty and Necessity, Pleasure and Pain", 1725

If all printers were determined not to print anything till they were sure it would offend nobody, there would be very little printed.

—Benjamin Franklin, "Apology for Printers", 1730

Freedom of speech is a principal pillar of a free government; when this support is taken away, the constitution of a free society is dissolved, and tyranny is erected on its ruins.

—Benjamin Franklin, "On Freedom of Speech and the Press", Pennsylvania Gazette, 17 November 1737

Love your Enemies, for they tell you your Faults.

—Benjamin Franklin, Poor Richard's Almanack, 1756

Quotes about Benjamin Franklin

The prime exponent of paper money in those years was Benjamin Franklin. He thought it a good and useful thing, and his advocacy had an intensely practical touch. He printed money for the colonial governments on his own printing press.

—John Kenneth Galbraith, The Age of Uncertainty