Benjamin Franklin Quotes About Country

• Where liberty is, there is my country.

  Benjamin Franklin

  Country, Freedom, 4th Of July

  Benjamin Franklin, Mason Locke Weems (1817). “The Life of Benjamin Franklin”, p.184

• In my youth, I traveled much, and I observed in different countries, that the more public provisions were made for the poor, the less they provided for themselves, and of course became poorer. And, on the contrary, the less was done for them, the more they did for themselves, and became richer.

  Benjamin Franklin

  Country, Government, Different

  Benjamin Franklin (2008). “The Autobiography and Other Writings”, p.298, Bantam Classics

• [E]very Man who comes among us, and takes up a piece of Land, becomes a Citizen, and by our Constitution has a Voice in Elections, and a share in the Government of the Country.

  Benjamin Franklin

  Country, Men, Land

  Benjamin Franklin (1840). “The Works of Benjamin Franklin; Containing Several Political and Historical Tracts Not Included in Any Former Edition, and Many Letters, Official and Private, Not Hitherto Published; with Notes and a Life of the Author”, p.131

• When you get into a tight place and everything goes against you, till it seems as though you could not hold on a minute longer, never give up then, for that is just the place and time that the tide will turn.
  When you're down to nothing, God is up to something. The faithful see the invisible, believe the incredible and then receive the impossible.
  Where liberty dwells there is my country.

  Benjamin Franklin

  Country, Giving Up, Believe

• The good Education of Youth has been esteemed by wise Men in all Ages, as the surest Foundation of the Happiness both of private Families and of Common-wealths. Almost all Governments have therefore made it a principal Object of their Attention, to establish and endow with proper Revenues, such Seminaries of Learning, as might supply the succeeding Age with Men qualified to serve the Publick with Honour to themselves, and to their Country.

  Benjamin Franklin

  Education, Wise, Country

  Benjamin Franklin (2006). “The Portable Benjamin Franklin”, p.190, Penguin

• I am a mortal enemy to arbitrary government and unlimited power. I am naturally very jealous for the rights and liberties of my country, and the least encroachment of those invaluable privileges is apt to make my blood boil.

  Benjamin Franklin

  Country, Jealous, Rights

  Benjamin Franklin, Walter Isaacson (2003). “A Benjamin Franklin Reader”, p.13, Simon and Schuster

• And where is the Prince who can afford to so cover his country with troops for its defense, as that ten thousand men descending from the clouds, might not in many places do an infinite deal of mischief, before a force could be brought together to repel them?

  Benjamin Franklin

  Country, Men, Clouds

  Benjamin Franklin (2014). “The Papers of Benjamin Franklin: Volume 41: September 16, 1783, through February 29, 1784”, p.478, Yale University Press

• But the most dangerous Hypocrite in a Common-Wealth, is one who leaves the Gospel for the sake of the Law: A Man compounded of Law and Gospel, is able to cheat a whole Country with his Religion, and then destroy them under Colour of Law: And here the Clergy are in great Danger of being deceiv'd, and the People of being deceiv'd by the Clergy, until the Monster arrives to such Power and Wealth, that he is out of the reach of both, and can oppress the People without their own blind Assistance.

  Benjamin Franklin

  Country, Hypocrite, Men

  Benjamin Franklin, Ralph Louis Ketcham (2003). “The Political Thought of Benjamin Franklin”, p.5, Hackett Publishing

• A man compounded of law and gospel is able to cheat a whole country with his religion and then destroy them under color of law

  Benjamin Franklin

  Country, Men, Color

  Benjamin Franklin, Walter Isaacson (2003). “A Benjamin Franklin Reader”, p.23, Simon and Schuster

• Whether a Commonwealth suffers more by hypocritical pretenders to religion or by the openly profane? The most dangerous hypocrite in a Commonwealth is one who leaves the gospel for the sake of the law. A man compounded of law and gospel is able to cheat a whole country with his religion and then destroy them under color of law.

  Benjamin Franklin

  Country, Hypocrite, Men

• I wish the bald eagle had not been chosen as the representative of our country; he is a bird of bad moral character; like those among men who live by sharping and robbing, he is generally poor, and often very lousy. The turkey is a much more respectable bird, and withal a true original native of America.

  Benjamin Franklin

  Country, Food, Character

  Letter to Sarah Bache, January 26, 1784.

• To get the bad customs of a country changed and new ones, though better, introduced, it is necessary first to remove the prejudices of the people, enlighten their ignorance, and convince them that their interests will be promoted by the proposed changes; and this is not the work of a day.

  Benjamin Franklin

  Country, Ignorance, People

  Benjamin Franklin, William Temple Franklin (1817). “Memoirs of the Life and Writings of Benjamin Franklin ...”, p.366

• A fine genius in his own country is like gold in the mine.

  Benjamin Franklin

  Education, Country, Gold

  Benjamin Franklin (2013). “Poor Richard's Almanack”, p.27, Skyhorse Publishing, Inc.

• If the new Universal History were also read, it would give a connected idea of human affairs, so far as it goes, which should be followed by the best modern histories, particularly of our mother country; then of these colonies; which should be accompanied with observations on their rise, increase, use to Great Britain, encouragements and discouragements, the means to make them flourish, and secure their liberties.

  Benjamin Franklin

  Education, Country, Mother

  Benjamin Franklin, Jared Sparks (1844). “The Life of Benjamin Franklin: Containing the Autobiography, with Notes and a Continuation”, p.574

• Love of country is the Mason's deed; world citizenship is his thought.

  Benjamin Franklin

  Country, World, Deeds

• God grant, that not only the Love of Liberty, but a thorough Knowledge of the Rights of Man, may pervade all the Nations of the Earth, so that a Philosopher may set his Foot anywhere on its Surface, and say, 'This is my Country.'

  Benjamin Franklin

  Love, Country, Knowledge

  Benjamin Franklin's letter to David Hartley (December 4, 1789) as quoted in "The Writings of Benjamin Franklin," Volume 10 (p. 72) edited by Albert H. Smyth, 1907.

• The importation of foreigners into a country that has as many inhabitants as the present employments and provisions for subsistence will bear, will be in the end no increase of people, unless the new comers have more industry and frugality than the natives, and then they will provide more subsistence, and increase in the country; but they will gradually eat the natives out. Nor is it necessary to bring in foreigners to fill up any occasional vacancy in a country for such vacancy will soon be filled by natural generation.

  Benjamin Franklin

  Country, People, Generations

  Benjamin Franklin, William Temple Franklin, William Duane (1834). “Memoirs of Benjamin Franklin”, p.423

• Temperance puts wood on the fire, meal in the barrel, flour in the tub, money in the purse, credit in the country, contentment in the house, clothes on the back, and vigor in the body.

  Benjamin Franklin

  Country, Fire, Clothes

• The riches of a country are to be valued by the quantity of labor its inhabitants are able to purchase, and not by the quantity of silver and gold they possess; which will purchase more or less labor, and therefore is more or less valuable, as is said before, according to its scarcity or plenty.

  Benjamin Franklin

  Country, Gold, Able

  Nancy Spannaus, Christopher White, Alexander Hamilton, Thomas More, Henry VIII (2015). “The Political Economy of the American Revolution”, p.255, Executive Intelligence Review

• Did not strong connections draw me elsewhere, I believe Scotland would be the country I would choose to end my days in.

  Benjamin Franklin

  Country, Strong, Believe

• I wish it were possible, from this instance, to invent a method of embalming drowned persons in such a manner that they may be recalled to life at any period, however distant; for having a very ardent desire to see and observe the state of America a hundred years hence, I should prefer to any ordinary death the being immersed in a cask of Madeira wine with a few friends till that time, to be then recalled to life by the solar warmth of my dear country!

  Benjamin Franklin

  Country, Wine, America

  Benjamin Franklin (1815). “The works of the late Dr. Benjamin Franklin: consisting of his Life, written by himself. Together with humorous, moral and literary essays, chiefly in the manner of the Spectator. Among which are several not in any American edition”, p.199

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