Sourced
In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.
Source: Letter to Jean-Baptiste Le Roy (13 November 1789)
Authors / Benjamin Franklin
Benjamin Franklin quotes
1706–1790 · American printer, scientist and statesman
Franklin sold proverbs for a living in Poor Richard's Almanack, often polishing older sayings. He is a magnet for fake quotes about money, beer and learning.
5 real · 2 not theirs
Really theirs
5 quotes traced to Benjamin Franklin's own work or a reliable witness.
Sourced
Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.
Written in a tax dispute with the colony's proprietors — the context is narrower than the slogan.
Source: Pennsylvania Assembly, Reply to the Governor (11 November 1755)
Sourced
Early to bed and early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise.
Source: Poor Richard's Almanack (1735)
Sourced
Well done is better than well said.
Source: Poor Richard's Almanack (1737)
Sourced
Fish and visitors stink in three days.
Source: Poor Richard's Almanack (1736)
Not theirs
2 famous lines credited to Benjamin Franklin that are misquoted, unsourced or belong to someone else.
Not theirs
Tell me and I forget, teach me and I may remember, involve me and I learn.
Actually: A loose modern rendering of an idea from the Chinese philosopher Xunzi (3rd century BC). Not in Franklin.
Misquoted
Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy.
The real words: Franklin wrote about wine — rain turning into grapes — in a 1779 letter to André Morellet. Beer was added later.