Poor Richard's Almanac
Poor
Richard’s
Almanac
The Wit and Wisdom of
Benjamin Franklin
Seven Treasures Publications
Published by
Seven Treasures Publications
SevenTreasuresPublications@gmail.com
Fax 413-653-8797
Printed in the United States of America
ISBN 9781440491122
Copyright © 2008 by Seven Treasures Publications
All rights reserved
There are no gains without pains.
At the working man’s house hunger looks in but dares not enter.
Industry pays debts while despair increases them.
Diligence is the mother of good luck.
God gives all things to industry.
Plough deep while sluggards sleep and you shall have corn to
sell and to keep.
Work while it is called today for you know not how much you may be hindered tomorrow.
One today is worth two tomorrows.
Have you something to do tomorrow? Do it today.
If you were a servant would you not be ashamed that a good master should catch you idle? Then if you are your own master be ashamed to catch yourself idle.
Trouble springs from idleness and grievous toil from needless ease.
Industry gives comfort and plenty and respect.
Keep thy shop and thy shop will keep thee.
If you would have your business done, go; if not, send.
Want of care does us more damage than want of knowledge.
Not to oversee workmen is to leave them your purse open.
If you would have a faithful servant and one that you like –
serve yourself.
If you would be wealthy think of saving as well as getting:
The Indies have not made Spain rich because her outgoes are
greater than her incomes.
Women and wine, game and deceit
make the wealth small and the wants great.
Many estates are spent in the getting,
Since women for tea forsook spinning and knitting,
And men for punch forsook hewing and splitting.
What maintains one vice would bring up two children.
Fools make feasts and wise men eat them.
Who dainties love shall beggars prove.
You may think, perhaps, that a little tea, or a little punch now and then, diet a little more costly, clothes a little finer, and a little more entertainment now and then can be no great matter but remember what Poor Richard says “Many a little makes a mickle; beware of little expense for a small leak will sink a great ship.”
Buy what thou has no need of and ere long thou shall sell thy necessaries.
Silks and satins, scarlet and velvets have put out the kitchen fire.
A child and a fool imagine twenty shillings and twenty years can never be spent.
To be humble to superiors is duty,
to equals courtesy,
to inferiors nobleness.
After crosses and losses
Men grow humbler and wiser.
The proud hate pride – in others.
Pride dines on Vanity, sups on Contempt.
Pride breakfasted with Plenty
Dined with poverty
Supped with Infamy.
Blame-all and Praise-all are two blockheads.
Experience keeps a dear school, but fools will learn in no other, and scarce in that.
It is ill-manners to silence a fool and cruelty to let him go on.
The wise man draws more advantage from his enemies than the fool from his friends.
A learned blockhead is a greater blockhead than an ignorant one.
The learned fool writes his nonsense in better languages than the unlearned; but still it is nonsense.
When befriended, remember it;
When you befriend, forget it.
He that lives upon hope will die fasting.
He that has a trade has an estate.
The noblest question in the world is
What good may I do in it?
Sell not virtue to purchase wealth
nor liberty to purchase power.
Nothing brings more pain than too much pleasure;
nothing more bondage than too much liberty.
Wink at small faults; remember thou hast great ones.
Each year one vicious habit rooted out,
In time might make the worst man good throughout.
Hear no ill of a friend,
nor speak any of an enemy.
Many a man thinks he is buying pleasure
when he is really selling himself a slave to it.
Having been poor is no shame;
but being ashamed of it is.
‘Tis hard but glorious to be poor and honest.
Meanness is the parent of insolence.
The busy man has few idle visitors;
to the boiling pot the flies come not.
If you would reap praise you must sow the seeds,
Gentle words and useful deeds.
Anger is never without a reason
but seldom with a good one.
Virtue and a trade are a child’s best portion.
Love your neighbor
Yet don’t pull down your hedge.
He that does what he should not
shall feel what he would not.
The honest man takes pains and then enjoys pleasures;
The knave takes pleasures and then suffers pains.
What you would seem to be, be really.
Necessity never made a good bargain.
The heart of a fool is in his mouth, but the mouth of a wise man is in his heart.
Tricks and treachery are the practice of fools that have not wit enough to be honest.
Drink does not drown care,
but waters it, and makes it grow fast.
Three good meals a day is bad living.
Here comes the orator!
With his flood of words and his drop of reason.
He that speaks much is much mistaken.
Proclaim not all thou knoweth, all thou owest, all thou hast,
nor all thou canst.
Words may show a man’s wit but actions his meaning.
A great talker may be no fool but he is one that relies on him.
He that lies down with dogs shall rise up with fleas.
All things are easy to industry,
All things are difficult to sloth.
Take this remark from Richard poor and lame,
Whatever is begun in anger ends in shame.
Be slow in choosing a friend, slower in changing.
The sun never repents of the good he does,
nor does he ever demand recompense.
If what most men admire they would despise,
It would look as if mankind were growing wise.
He that would live in peace and ease
Must not speak all he knows nor judge all he sees.
Think of three things:
Whence you came,
Where you are going,
And to whom you must account.
Being ignorant is not so much a shame as being unwilling to learn.
Be civil to all
serviceable to many
familiar with few,
friend to one,
enemy to none.
Love your enemies
for they tell you your faults.
Be always ashamed to catch thyself idle.
Fear to do evil and you need fear nothing else.
Good sense and learning may esteem obtain,
Humor and wit a laugh, if rightly taken;
/> Fair virtue admiration may impart;
But tis good-nature only wins the heart.
It moulds the body to an easy grace,
And brightens every feature of the face;
It smooths the unpolished tongue with eloquence,
And adds persuasion to the finest sense.
Who is strong?
He that can conquer his bad habits.
Who is rich?
He that rejoices in his portion.
Wish not so much to live long as to live well.
For age and want save while you may;
No morning sun lasts a whole day.
If you would not be forgotten
As soon as you are dead and rotten,
Either write things worth reading
Or do things worth writing.
Youth is pert and positive,
Age modest and doubting;
So ears of corn when young and bright,
stand bold upright,
But hang their heads when weighty, full and ripe.
Kings have long arms, but Misfortune longer,
Let none think themselves out of her reach.
Ah simple man!
When a boy two precious jewels were given thee,
Time and good advice,
One thou has lost
and the other thrown away.
Lend money to an enemy and you will gain him,
to a friend and you will lose him.
Beware of little expenses,
a small leak will sink a great ship.
When prosperity was well mounted,
she let go the bridle,
and soon came tumbling out of the saddle.
There are three faithful friends –
An old wife, an old dog, and ready money.
Bargaining has neither friends nor relations.
He that is of the opinion money will do everything
may well be suspected of doing everything for money.
Wealth is not his that has it, but his that enjoys it.
Many have quarreled about religion that never practiced it.
Marry above thy match and you will get a master.
When there is marriage without love,
there will be love without marriage.
Keep your eyes wide open before marriage,
half shut afterwards.
You can bear your own faults
and why not a fault in your wife?
Fine linen, girls and gold so bright
choose not to take by candle-light.
The way to be safe is never to be secure.
Dally not with other folk’s women or money.
Visits should be short, like a winters day,
Lest you are too troublesome hasten away.
Hunger never saw bad bread.
Beware of meat twice boiled
And of an old foe reconciled.
Fish and visitors stink in three days.
None preaches better than the ant,
and she says nothing.
He that composes himself is wiser than he that composes books.
I never saw an oft-transplanted tree,
nor yet an oft-removed family,
That throve so well as those
that settled be.
Who has deceived thee as often as thyself?
None but the well-bred man knows how to confess a fault
or acknowledge himself in an error.
Trust thyself
and another shall not betray thee.
Woulds’t thou confound thy enemy,
be good thyself.
What signifies knowing the names if you know not the natures of things?
Glass, China and Reputation
are easily cracked
and never well mended.
He that best understands the world,
least likes it.
Most people return small favors,
acknowledge middling ones,
and repay great ones with ingratitude.
Sudden power is apt to be insolent,
sudden liberty saucy,
that balances best which has grown gradually.
The discontented man finds no easy chair.
Little rogues easily become great ones.
Where sense is wanting
everything is wanting.
The wolf sheds his coat once a year,
his disposition never.
Vain-glory flowereth but beareth no fruit.
Silence is not always a sign of wisdom
but babbling is ever a mark of folly.
How few there are who have courage enough to own their faults,
or resolution enough to mend them.
An open foe may prove a curse
but a pretended friend is worse.
In success be moderate.
Humility makes great men twice honourable.
Blessed is he who expects nothing
for he shall never be disappointed.
Success has ruined many a man.
Always taking out of the meal tub and never putting in,
soon comes to the bottom.
When the well is dry – they know the worth of water.
If you will not hear and obey reason
she will surely rap your knuckles.
A countryman between two lawyers is like a fish between two cats.
Many a long dispute among Divines may be thus abridged: “It is so. It is not so. It is so. It is not so.”
Ill customs and bad advise are seldom forgotten.
No better relation than a prudent and faithful friend.
An honest man will receive neither money nor praise that is not his due.
Many Foxes grow grey, but few grow good.
Content makes poor men rich;
discontent makes rich men poor.
If your head is wax, don’t walk in the sun.
Beware, beware; he’ll cheat without scruple, who can without fear.
The king’s cheese is half wasted in parings; but no matter,
‘tis made of the people’s milk.
There’s many witty men whose brains can’t fill their bellies.
Let all men know thee, but no man know thee thoroughly;
men freely ford that see the shallows.
O! ‘tis easier to keep holidays than commandments.
Who is rich? He that rejoices in his portion.
There is much difference between imitating a good man and counterfeiting him.
They who have nothing to trouble them will be troubled at nothing.
Half wits talk much but say little.
He that buys by the penny maintains not only himself, but other people.
Let thy maid-servant be faithful, strong, and homely.
Declaiming against pride is not always a sign of humility.
Those who in quarrels interpose,
must often wipe a bloody nose.
There are no fools so troublesome as those who have wit.
Quarrels never could last long,
If on one side only lay the wrong.
The heart of the fool is in his mouth,
but the mouth of the wise man is in his heart.
Visit your aunt, but not every day;
and call at your brother’s, but not every night.
Hear Reason, or she’ll make you feel her.
Where there is hunger, law is not regarded;
and where law is not regarded, there will be hunger.
There are lazy minds as well as lazy bodies.
Wish not so much to live long, as to live well.
Tart words make no friends: a spoonful of honey will catch more flies than a gallon of vinegar.
As pride increases, fortune declines.
Life with fools consists in drinking;
with the wise man, living’s thinking.
Who is strong? He that can conquer his bad habits.
Dine with little, sup with less:
Do better still; sleep
supperless.
A man in a passion rides a mad horse.
The wise man draws more advantage from his enemies, than the fool from his friends.
Industry, perseverance, and frugality make fortune yield.
Fear to do ill, and you need fear nought else.
Seek virtue, and of that possess,
To providence resign the rest.
Many would live by their wits,
but break for want of stock.
Anger and folly walk cheek by jowl;
Repentance treads on both their heels.
Be not niggardly in what costs thee nothing,
as courtesy, counsel, and countenance.
Man’s tongue is soft,
And bone doth lack; Yet a stroke therewith
May break a man’s back.
Great beauty, great strength, and great riches are really and truly of no great use; a right heart exceeds all.
Tim was so learned that he could name a horse in nine languages. So ignorant that he bought a cow to ride on.
You may talk too much on the best of subjects.
The same man cannot be both friend and flatterer.
He who multiplies riches multiplies cares.
The poor have little,
Beggars none; The rich too much,
Enough not one.
Pay what you owe and you will know what is your own.
Those who are feared are hated.
If you would keep your secret from an enemy,
tell it not to a friend.
The things which hurt, instruct.
The eye of a master will do more work than his hand.
Eat few suppers and you’ll need few medicines.
A lie stands on one leg,
Truth on two.
Mankind are very odd creatures:
One half censure what they practice, The other half practice what they censure,
The rest always say and do as they ought.
An undutiful daughter will prove an unmanageable wife.
Love well, whip well.
Eat to live, and not live to eat.
To lengthen thy life, lessen thy meals.
Great talkers, little doers.
Wise men learn by others’ harms;