He's a fool that makes his doctor his heir.
Benjamin Franklin
- Life
- 1706-1790
- Occupations
- politician, publisher, printer
Facts: Wikidata (CC0), as of 2026-07-09
The liberty-for-safety line is genuine Franklin -- written in 1755 for the Pennsylvania Assembly during a dispute about frontier defense funding -- but it circulates in half a dozen wordings and gets deployed for arguments Franklin was not making. This page carries multiple variants because that is honestly how the line survives. Poor Richard's Almanack supplies most of the rest: aphorisms Franklin wrote, borrowed, and polished for print, a recycling he cheerfully admitted.
I hope...that mankind will at length, as they call themselves reasonable creatures, have reason and sense enough to settle their differences without cutting throats; for in my opinion there never was a good war, or a bad peace.
Benjamin Franklin
It is hard for an empty bag to stand upright.
Benjamin Franklin
The honest man takes pains, and then enjoys pleasures; the knave takes pleasure, and then suffers pain.
Benjamin Franklin
They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.
Benjamin Franklin
They that can give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty or safety.
Benjamin Franklin
Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.
Benjamin Franklin
Three can keep a secret, if two are dead.
Benjamin Franklin
Well done is better than well said.
Benjamin Franklin
Employ thy time well, if thou meanest to gain leisure.
Benjamin Franklin
Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise.
Benjamin Franklin