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On the whole, though I never arrived at the perfection I had been so ambitious of obtaining, but fell far short of it, yet I was, by the endeavor, a better and a happier man than I otherwise should have been had I not attempted it.

Benjamin Franklin

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Benjamin Franklin
Age: 84 †
Born: 1706
Born: January 17
Died: 1790
Died: April 17
Autobiographer
Chess Player
Designer
Dilettante
Diplomat
Economist
Editor
Freemason
Inventor
Journalist
Librarian
Musician
Physicist
Boston
Massachusetts
Silence Dogood
Ben Franklin
The First American
Franklin
Poor Richard
Short
Attempted
Though
Arrived
Happiness
Happier
Better
Ambitious
Whole
Endeavor
Never
Fell
Men
Otherwise
Perfection
Obtaining

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The foundation of all happiness in thinking rightly.
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Thank God! we are in the full enjoyment of all these privileges. But can we be taught to prize them too much? or how can we prize them equal to their value, if we do not know their intrinsic worth, and that they are not a gift bestowed upon us by other men, but a right that belongs to us by the laws of God and nature?
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I guess I don't so much mind being old, as I mind being fat and old.
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If we look back into history for the character of the present sects in Christianity, we shall find few that have not in their turns been persecutors, and complainers of persecution. The primitive Christians thought persecution extremely wrong in the Pagans, but practised it on one another.
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He who falls in love with himself will have no rivals.
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What more valuable than Gold? Diamonds. Than Diamonds? Virtue.
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The best investment is in the tools of one's own trade.
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A slip of the foot you may soon recover, but a slip of the tongue you may never get over.
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A man wrapped up in himself makes a very small bundle.
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By improving yourself, the world is made better. Be not afraid of growing too slowly. Be afraid only of standing still.
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A virtuous and industrious people may be cheaply governed.
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If time be of all things the most precious, wasting time must be the greatest prodigality.
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He does not possess wealth it possesses him.
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Alas, I know if I ever became truly humble, I would be proud of it.
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[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.
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The happy State of Matrimony is, undoubtedly, the surest and most lasting Foundation of Comfort and Love . . . the Cause of all good Order in the World, and what alone preserves it from the utmost Confusion.
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