Benjamin Franklin Quotes About Science

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  Whoever would overthrow the liberty of a nation must begin by subduing the freeness of speech.

  Benjamin Franklin

  Freedom, Independent, Science

  Andrew M. Allison, Willard Cleon Skousen, M. Richard Maxfield, Benjamin Franklin (1982). “The Real Benjamin Franklin”

• Lighthouses are more helpful than churches.

  Benjamin Franklin

  Spiritual, Religious, Atheist

  James C. Humes, Benjamin Franklin (1995). “The wit and wisdom of Benjamin Franklin: a treasury of more than 900 quotations and anecdotes”, Harpercollins

• I have found Christian dogma unintelligible. Early in life, I absenteed myself from Christian assemblies.

  Benjamin Franklin

  Christian, Spiritual, Atheist

• He's the best physician that knows the worthlessness of most medicines.

  Benjamin Franklin

  Healing, Health, Science

  "Benjamin Franklin Wit and Wisdom".

• I say it is impossible that so sensible a people [citizens of Paris], under such circumstances, should have lived so long by the smoky, unwholesome, and enormously expensive light of candles, if they had really known that they might have had as much pure light of the sun for nothing.

  Benjamin Franklin

  Science, Light, Should Have

• Be temperate in wine, in eating, girls, & sloth; Or the Gout will seize you and plague you both.

  Benjamin Franklin

  Girl, Food, Wine

  Poor Richard's Almanack (1734)

• Use now and then a little Exercise a quarter of an Hour before Meals, as to swing a Weight, or swing your Arms about with a small Weight in each Hand; to leap, or the like, for that stirs the Muscles of the Breast.

  Benjamin Franklin

  Health, Exercise, Science

  Benjamin Franklin (2004). “Poor Richard's Almanack”, p.102, Barnes & Noble Publishing

• 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

• An iron rod being placed on the outside of a building from the highest part continued down into the moist earth, in any direction strait or crooked, following the form of the roof or other parts of the building, will receive the lightning at its upper end, attracting it so as to prevent it's striking any other part; and, affording it a good conveyance into the earth, will prevent its damaging any part of the building.

  Benjamin Franklin

  Science, Iron, Lightning

  Benjamin Franklin, Edmund Sears Morgan (2007). “Not Your Usual Founding Father: Selected Readings from Benjamin Franklin”, p.119, Yale University Press

• A fat kitchin, a lean Will.

  Benjamin Franklin

  Food, Science, Kitchen

  Benjamin Franklin, Ormond Seavey (1998). “Autobiography and Other Writings”, p.276, Oxford University Press, USA

• What science can there be more noble, more excellent, more useful for men, more admirably high and demonstrative, than this of mathematics?

  Benjamin Franklin

  Education, Science, Math

  Benjamin Franklin, Jared Sparks (1836). “Works: containing several political and historical tracts not included in any former edition ...”, p.69

• Certainlie these things agree, The Priest, the Lawyer, & Death all three: Death takes both the weak and the strong. The lawyer takes from both right and wrong, And the priest from living and dead has his Fee.

  Benjamin Franklin

  Death, Strong, Science

  Poor Richard's Almanack, July 1737

• And we daily in our experiments electrise bodies plus or minus, as we think proper. [These terms we may use till your Philosophers give us better.] To electrise plus or minus, no more needs to be known than this, that the parts of the Tube or Sphere, that are rubb'd, do, in the Instant of Friction, attract the Electrical Fire, and therefore take it from the Thin rubbing; the same parts immediately, as the Friction upon them ceases, are disposed to give the fire they have received, to any Body that has less.

  Benjamin Franklin

  Science, Thinking, Fire

• Wouldst thou enjoy a long Life, a healthy Body, and a vigorous Mind, and be acquainted also with the wonderful Works of God? labour in the first place to bring thy Appetite into Subjection to Reason.

  Benjamin Franklin

  Hard Work, Health, Science

  Benjamin Franklin (2004). “Poor Richard's Almanack”, p.102, Barnes & Noble Publishing

• Some men grow mad by studying much to know,
  But who grows mad by studying good to grow.

  Benjamin Franklin

  Knowledge, Science, Men

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

• A Man of Knowledge like a rich Soil, feeds If not a world of Corn, a world of Weeds.

  Benjamin Franklin

  Weed, Knowledge, Science

  Benjamin Franklin (1987). “Poor Richard's Almanack: Being the Choicest Morsels of Wisdom, Written During the Years of the Almanack's Publication”, p.22, Peter Pauper Press, Inc.

• I have never seen the Philosopher's Stone that turns lead into Gold, but I have known the pursuit of it turn a Man's Gold into Lead.

  Benjamin Franklin

  Knowledge, Science, Men

  Benjamin Franklin (2008). “The Way to Wealth and Poor Richard's Almanac”, p.24, Nayika Publishing

• To inquisitive minds like yours and mine the reflection that the quantity of human knowledge bears no proportion to the quantity of human ignorance must be in one view rather pleasing, viz., that though we are to live forever we may be continually amused and delighted with learning something new.

  Benjamin Franklin

  Learning, Ignorance, Knowledge

  Benjamin Franklin, Albert H. Smyth (1905). “Writings, Collected and Ed. with a Life and Introd”

• A new truth is a truth, an old error is an error.

  Benjamin Franklin

  Truth, Science, Errors

  Benjamin Franklin (1849). “Poor Richard's almanac for 1850-52”, p.33

• In going on with these Experiments, how many pretty systems do we build, which we soon find ourselves oblig'd to destroy! If there is no other Use discover'd of Electricity, this, however, is something considerable, that it may help to make a vain Man humble.

  Benjamin Franklin

  Humble, Science, Men

  Benjamin Franklin (1972). “Benjamin Franklin: a biography in his own words”

• Let the experiment be made.

  Benjamin Franklin

  Science, Made, Experiments

  Benjamin Franklin, Edmund Sears Morgan (2007). “Not Your Usual Founding Father: Selected Readings from Benjamin Franklin”, p.113, Yale University Press

• Furnished as all Europe now is with Academies of Science, with nice instruments and the spirit of experiment, the progress of human knowledge will be rapid and discoveries made of which we have at present no conception. I begin to be almost sorry I was born so soon, since I cannot have the happiness of knowing what will be known a hundred years hence.

  Benjamin Franklin

  Sorry, Nice, Science

  1783 Letter to Sir Joseph Banks, President of the Royal Society, 27 Jul.

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