Benjamin Franklin Quotes About Children

• Educate your children to self-control, to the habit of holding passion and prejudice and evil tendencies subject to an upright and reasoning will, and you have done much to abolish misery from their future and crimes from society.

  Benjamin Franklin

  Children, Passion, Patriotic

• The best thing to give to your enemy is forgiveness; to an opponent, tolerance; to a friend, your heart; to your child, a good example; to a father, deference; to your mother, conduct that will make her proud of you; to yourself, respect; to all others, charity.

  Benjamin Franklin

  Positive, Forgiveness, Respect

• Here is my Creed. I believe in one God, creator of the Universe. That he governs it by his Providence. That he ought to be worshiped. That the most acceptable service we render him is doing good to his other children. That the soul of Man is immortal, and will be treated with justice in another life respecting its conduct in this.

  Benjamin Franklin

  Children, Believe, Men

  Benjamin Franklin (1905). “The Life of Benjamin Franklin: Written by Himself. Now First Edited from Original Manuscripts and from His Printed Correspondence and Other Writings”

• There is scarce a king in a hundred who would not, if he could, follow the example of Pharoah - get first all the people's money, then all their lands, and then make them and their children servants forever.

  Benjamin Franklin

  Kings, Children, Land

  Benjamin Franklin, William Temple Franklin (1818). “Memoirs of the Life and Writings of Benjamin Franklin ...”, p.385

• I have conceived a higher opinion of the natural capacities of the black race than I had ever before entertained. Their apprehension seems as quick, their memory as strong, and their docility in every respect equal to that of white children.

  Benjamin Franklin

  Strong, Children, Memories

  Benjamin Franklin, Walter Isaacson (2003). “A Benjamin Franklin Reader”, p.202, Simon and Schuster

• Let the child's first lesson be obedience, and the second will be what thou wilt.

  Benjamin Franklin

  Children, Lessons, Firsts

  Benjamin Franklin (1987). “Poor Richard's Almanack: Being the Choicest Morsels of Wisdom, Written During the Years of the Almanack's Publication”, p.60, Peter Pauper Press, Inc.

• If you do not exclude them, in less than 200 years our descendants will be working in the fields to furnish them substance, while they will be in the counting houses rubbing their hands. I warn you, gentlemen, if you do not exclude Jews for all time, your children will curse you in your graves.

  Benjamin Franklin

  Children, Hands, Years

  "They Never Said It: A Book of Fake Quotes, Misquotes, and Misleading Attributions". Book by John H. George and Paul Boller, pp. 26-27, 1989.

• It is the will of God and Nature that these mortal bodies be laid aside, when the soul is to enter into real life; 'tis rather an embrio state, a preparation for living; a man is not completely born until he be dead: Why then should we grieve that a new child is born among the immortals?

  Benjamin Franklin

  Sympathy, Children, Real

  Benjamin Franklin (2007). “The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin: 1706-1757”, p.391, Regnery Publishing

• 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

  Regret, Children, Taken

  Benjamin Franklin (2008). “The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin”, p.152, Applewood Books

• What is the use of a new-born child ?

  Benjamin Franklin

  Children, Science, Purpose

  On being asked what was the use of a new invention, in J. Parton 'Life and Times of Benjamin Franklin' (1864) pt. 4, ch. 17

• A child thinks 20 shillings and 20 years can never be spent.

  Benjamin Franklin

  Children, Thinking, Years

• What maintains one vice would bring up two children.

  Benjamin Franklin

  Children, Two, Vices

  Benjamin Franklin, William-Temple Franklin (1818). “Memoirs of the Life and Writings of (the Same), Continued to the Time of His Death by William Temple Franklin. - London, H. Colburn 1818”, p.251

• A man is not completely born until he is dead. Why then should we grieve that a new child is born among the immortals, a new member added to their happy society?

  Benjamin Franklin

  Death, Children, Men

  Benjamin Franklin, Henry Stueber, Benjamin Franklin Collection (Library of Congress) (1794). “Works of the late Dr. Benjamin Franklin: consisting of his life, written by himself : together with essays, humourous, moral & literary, chiefly in the manner of the Spectator : in two volumes”

• O powerful goodness! Bountiful Father! Merciful Guide! Increase in me that wisdom which discovers my truest interest. Strengthen my resolution to perform what that wisdom dictates. Accept my kind offices to thy other children as the only return in my power for thy continual favours to me.

  Benjamin Franklin

  Children, Powerful, Father

  Benjamin Franklin, William Temple Franklin (1850). “The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin: Published Verbatim from the Original Manuscript, by His Grandson, William Temple Franklin”, p.79

• Teach your child to hold his tongue; he'll learn fast enough to speak.

  Benjamin Franklin

  Children, Childhood, Tongue

  Benjamin Franklin (2004). “Poor Richard's Almanack”, p.18, Barnes & Noble Publishing

• If a sound body and a sound mind, which is as much as to say health and virtue, are to be preferred before all other considerations, ought not men, in choosing a business either for themselves or children, to refuse such as are unwholesome for the body, and such as make a man too dependent, too much obliged to please others, and too much subjected to their humors in order to be recommended and get a livelihood?

  Benjamin Franklin

  Children, Men, Order

  Benjamin Franklin “Poor Richard Day by Day”, Lulu.com

• And as to the Cares, they are chiefly what attend the bringing up of Children; and I would ask any Man who has experienced it, if they are not the most delightful Cares in the World; and if from that Particular alone, he does not find the Bliss of a double State much greater, instead of being less than he expected.

  Benjamin Franklin

  Family, Children, Men

  Benjamin Franklin, Bob Blaisdell (2013). “Poor Richard's Almanack and Other Writings”, p.66, Courier Corporation

• Some of the domestic evils of drunkenness are houses without windows, gardens without fences, fields without tillage, barns without roofs, children without clothing, principles, morals or manners.

  Benjamin Franklin

  Children, Garden, Evil

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