Benjamin Franklin on Money
Browse 5 quotations attributed to Benjamin Franklin, catalogued under money, with dates where available.
This page displays 5 quotations attributed to Benjamin Franklin and filed under "money" in QuoteLineage. The selection is ordered by stored importance and quality scores, not citation counts. A topic label describes how an entry is catalogued; it does not establish the theme's importance in the author's work.
Attributed to Benjamin Franklin, entry #100853: "The poor have little, beggars none, the rich too much, enough not one."
Attributed to Benjamin Franklin, entry #247347: "How much more than is necessary do we spend in Sleep! forgetting that The sleeping Fox catches no Poultry,[Sept. 1743] and that there will be sleeping enough in the Grave,[Sept. 1…"
5 Quotes by Benjamin Franklin on Money
"The poor have little, beggars none, the rich too much, enough not one."
"How much more than is necessary do we spend in Sleep! forgetting that The sleeping Fox catches no Poultry,[Sept. 1743] and that there will be sleeping enough in the Grave,[Sept. 1741] as Poor Richard says."
":A fine genius in his own country, is like a gold in the mine."
"How much more than is necessary do we spend in Sleep! forgetting that The sleeping Fox catches no Poultry, and that there will be sleeping enough in the Grave, as Poor Richard says."
"I am for doing good to the poor, but I differ in opinion of the means. I think the best way of doing good to the poor, is not making them easy in poverty, but leading or driving them out of it. In my youth I travelled 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. There is no country in the world where so many provisions are established for them; so many hospitals to receive them when they are sick or lame, founded and maintained by voluntary charities; so many alms-houses for the aged of both sexes, together with a solemn general law made by the rich to subject their estates to a heavy tax for the support of the poor. Under all these obligations, are our poor modest, humble, and thankful; and do they use their best endeavours to maintain themselves, and lighten our shoulders of this burthen? On the contrary, I affirm that there is no country in the world in which the poor are more idle, dissolute, drunken, and insolent. The day you passed that act, you took away from before their eyes the greatest of all inducements to industry, frugality, and sobriety, by giving them a dependence on somewhat else than a careful accumulation during youth and health, for support in age or sickness. In short, you offered a premium for the encouragement of idleness, and you should not now wonder that it has had its effect in the increase of poverty."