Quotes by Polymaths - Page 3

The secret of success is constancy to purpose.
Benjamin Franklin
He turns not back who is bound to a star.
Leonardo da Vinci
Well done is better than well said.
Benjamin Franklin
Keep flax from fire youth from gaming.
Benjamin Franklin
Be slow in choosing a friend slower in changing.
Benjamin Franklin
Let him have the key of thy heart who hath the lock of his own.
Sir Thomas Browne
There are three faithful friends: an old wife an old dog and ready money.
Benjamin Franklin
Content may dwell in all stations. To be low but above contempt may be high enough to be happy.
Sir Thomas Browne
A wise man will desire no more than what he may get justly use soberly distribute cheerfully and leave con-tently.
Benjamin Franklin
If you desire many things many things will seem but a few.
Benjamin Franklin
Ambition has its disappointments to sour us but never the good fortune to satisfy us.
Benjamin Franklin
Just as courage imperils life fear protects it.
Leonardo da Vinci
If you would not be forgotten as soon as you are dead either write things worth reading or do things worth writing.
Benjamin Franklin
The greatest monarch on the proudest throne is obliged to sit upon his own arse.
Benjamin Franklin
The way to see by Faith is to shut the eye of Reason.
Benjamin Franklin
A cheerful face is nearly as good for an invalid as healthy weather.
Benjamin Franklin
None preaches better than the ant and she says nothing.
Benjamin Franklin
Fatigue is the best pillow.
Benjamin Franklin
A well-spent day brings happy sleep.
Leonardo da Vinci
Energy and persistence conquer all things.
Benjamin Franklin
If a man empties his purse into his head no one can take it from him.
Benjamin Franklin
Beware of little expenses a small leak will sink a great ship.
Benjamin Franklin
Early to bed and early to rise Makes a man healthy wealthy and wise.
Benjamin Franklin
Eat to please thyself but dress to please others.
Benjamin Franklin
Genius is nothing but a greater aptitude for patience.
Benjamin Franklin
He that can have patience can have what he will.
Benjamin Franklin
It is easier to suppress the first desire than to satisfy all that follow it.
Benjamin Franklin
When confronted with two courses of action I jot down on a piece of paper all the arguments in favor of each one then on the opposite side I write the arguments against each one. Then by weighing the arguments pro and con and cancelling them out one against the other I take the course indicated by what remains.
Benjamin Franklin
The long habit of living indisposeth us for dying.
Thomas Browne
Where life is more terrible than death it is the truest valor to dare to live.
Sir Thomas Browne
Keep your eyes wide open before marriage half shut afterwards.
Benjamin Franklin
Without love what are we worth? Eighty-nine cents! Eighty-nine cents worth of chemicals walking around lonely.
Benjamin Franklin
Perform without fail what you resolve.
Benjamin Franklin
A child thinks twenty shillings and twenty years can scarce ever be spent.
Benjamin Franklin
Teach your child to hold his tongue He'll learn fast enough to speak.
Benjamin Franklin
Little boats should keep near shore.
Benjamin Franklin
For want of a nail the shoe was lost for want of a shoe the horse was lost and for want of a horse the rider was lost being overtaken and slain by the enemy all for want of care about a horseshoe nail.
Benjamin Franklin
Carelessness does more harm than a want of knowledge.
Benjamin Franklin
A single man has not nearly the value he would have in a state of union. He is an incomplete animal. He resembles the odd half of a pair of scissors.
Benjamin Franklin
At 20 years of age the will reigns at 30 the wit at 40 the judgment.
Benjamin Franklin
All would live long but none would be old.
Benjamin Franklin
Those things that hurt instruct.
Benjamin Franklin
To be thrown upon one's own resources is to be cast into the very lap of fortune for our faculties then undergo a development and display an energy of which they were previously unsusceptible.
Benjamin Franklin
God helps them that helps themselves.
Benjamin Franklin
Oh Lord thou givest us everything at the price of an effort.
Leonardo da Vinci
If you want a thing done go - if not send.
Benjamin Franklin
[I retained] only the Habit of expressing my self in Terms of modest Diffidence, never using when I advance any thing that may possibly be disputed, the Words 'Certainly, 'undoubtedly', or any others that I give the Air of Positiveness to an Opinion; but rather say 'I conceive', or 'I apprehend a Thing to be so or so', 'It appears to me', or 'I should think it so or so for such & such Reasons', or 'I imagine' it to be so or so, or 'it is so' if I am not mistaken.—This Habit I believe has been of great Advantage to me, when I have had occasion to inculcate my Opinions and persuade Men into Measures that I have been from time to time engag'd in promoting.—And as the chief Ends of Conversation are to inform, or to be informed, to please or to persuade, I wish well meaning sensible Men would not lessen their Power of doing Good by a Positive assuming Manner that seldom fails to disgust, tends to create Opposition, and to defeat every one of those purposes for which Speech was given to us, to wit, giving or receiving Information or Pleasure: For if you would inform, a positive dogmatical Manner in advancing your Sentiments, may provoke Contradiction & prevent a candid Attention.
Benjamin Franklin
Let thy discontents be thy secrets
Benjamin Franklin
Fix your course to a star and you can navigate through any storm
Leonardo da Vinci
A man must have a good deal of vanity who believes, and a good deal of boldness who affirms, that all the doctrines he holds are true, and all he rejects are false.
Benjamin Franklin
People willing to trade their freedom for temporary security deserve neither and will lose both
Benjamin Franklin
To all apparent beauties blind, each blemish strikes an envious mind.
Benjamin Franklin
To find out a girl's faults, praise her to her girlfriends.
Benjamin Franklin
The Constitution only guarantees the American people the right to pursue happiness. You have to catch it yourself.
Benjamin Franklin
He that lives upon hope will die farting.
Benjamin Franklin
Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy.[misquote of a letter about wine, see quotes/831031]
Benjamin Franklin
Beryl: Beryl is a warm gemstone which develops, between the third hour and midday, from the foam of water when the sun burns it severely. Its power is thus more from air and water than from fire, but nevertheless it has some of the properties of fire. And if a man has drunk or eaten poison, then he should place a little beryl in spring water and drink it at once. Continue for five days drinking it once a day while fasting, and the poison will foam up through vomiting, or it will pass out of him through the rear.
Hildegard of Bingen
In 1736 I lost one of my sons, a fine boy of four years old, by the small-pox, taken in the common way. I long regretted bitterly, and still regret that I had not given it to him by inoculation. This I mention for the sake of parents who omit that operation, on the supposition that they should never forgive themselves if a child died under it; my example showing that the regret may be the same either way, and that, therefore, the safer should be chosen.
Benjamin Franklin
A man who would sacrifice freedom for security deserves neither.
Benjamin Franklin
Do not anticipate trouble, or worry about what may never happen. Keep in the sunlight.
Benjamin Franklin