Benjamin Franklin | DebatedWisdom

Quotes

"If you would keep your Secret from an enemy, tell it not to a friend. Up, Sluggard, and waste not life; in the grave will be sleeping enough."

September 1741. “Poor Richard, 1741,” Founders Online , National Archives, accessed 27 May 2020. [Original source: The Papers of Benjamin Franklin , vol. 2, January 1, 1735, through December 31, 1744 , ed. Leonard W. Labaree. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1961, pp. 292–300.]

Right to Privacy

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

This was first used by Franklin for the Pennsylvania Assembly in its "Reply to the Governor" (November 11, 1755) Reply to the Governor [4] This quote was used as a motto on the title page of An Historical Review of the Constitution and Government of Pennsylvania (1759); the book was published by Franklin; its author was Richard Jackson, but Franklin did claim responsibility for some small excerpts that were used in it. In 1775 Franklin again used this phrase in his contribution to Massachusetts Conference (Objections to Barclay’s Draft Articles of February 16 [5] ): " They who can give up essential Liberty to obtain a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety. " An earlier variant by Franklin in Poor Richard's Almanack (1738): " Sell not virtue to purchase wealth, nor Liberty to purchase power. " Many paraphrased derivatives of this have often become attributed to Franklin: They that can give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety. They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. Those Who Sacrifice Liberty For Security Deserve Neither. He who would trade liberty for some temporary security, deserves neither liberty nor security. He who sacrifices freedom for security deserves neither. People willing to trade their freedom for temporary security deserve neither and will lose both. If we restrict liberty to attain security we will lose them both. Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both. He who gives up freedom for safety deserves neither. Those who would trade in their freedom for their protection deserve neither. Those who give up their liberty for more security neither deserve liberty nor security.

Right to Privacy

"Human Felicity is produc'd not so much by great Pieces of good Fortune that seldom happen, as by little Advantages that occur every Day."

Part III, p. 108

"All Wars are Follies , very expensive & very mischievous ones. When will Mankind be convinc’d of this, and agree to settle their Differences by Arbitration ? Were they to do it even by the Cast of a Dye , it would be better than by Fighting & destroying each other."

Letter to Mary Hewson (27 January 1783)