Browse 11 quotations connecting Benjamin Franklin with Calm, with meanings, source notes and related themes.
Each quotation is included because its central idea connects with this theme, not simply because one matching word appears in the sentence.
Sources represented here include Poor Richard’s Almanack, Advice to a Young Tradesman, Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin. Keeping the work and source note beside each quotation makes differences in setting, speaker and emphasis easier to see.
Sources represented here include Poor Richard’s Almanack, Advice to a Young Tradesman, Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin.
“Waste neither Time nor Money, but make the best Use of both.”
Franklin compresses practical discipline into stewardship of two limited resources: time and money.
Source note: Advice to a Young Tradesman, 21 July 1748; concluding advice on industry and frugality.
“Resolve to perform what you ought; perform without fail what you resolve.”
Resolution becomes useful only when followed by execution; the maxim links deliberate standards with the habit of carrying them through.
Source note: Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin; this is Franklin’s fourth listed virtue, Resolution.
“he must work and be industrious to live.”
Franklin tells prospective emigrants without inherited wealth that livelihood would depend on work and industry, directly countering expectations of effortless advancement after arrival.
Source note: Information to Those Who Would Remove to America, before March 1784; Founders Online. The lowercase opening is retained because this is a clause from Franklin’s longer sentence about strangers, law, liberty and industry.
“Well done is better than well said.”
Franklin gives execution priority over impressive promises or intentions.
Source note: Poor Richard’s Almanack.
“Diligence is the mother of good luck.”
Persistent effort improves the odds of useful results because steady work creates more opportunities for progress than waiting for favorable circumstances.
Source note: Poor Richard’s Almanack; the maxim appears in Franklin’s collected Poor Richard material.
“Drive thy business, or it will drive thee.”
Work becomes harder to control when it is left unmanaged; the maxim favors deliberate direction, priorities, and active stewardship over reactive pressure.
Source note: Poor Richard’s Almanack; a compact maxim about managing work before accumulated demands begin managing you.
“He that can have patience can have what he will.”
The proverb presents patience as a practical advantage in goals that require time rather than immediate reward.
Source note: Poor Richard’s Almanack.
“Employ thy time well, if thou meanest to gain leisure.”
Leisure is easier to protect when working time is used deliberately, linking time management with freedom rather than treating organization as an end in itself.
Source note: Poor Richard’s Almanack; the maxim connects disciplined use of working time with the ability to gain leisure.
“Early to bed and early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise.”
The proverb links routine and self-discipline with health, productivity, and practical judgment.
Source note: Poor Richard’s Almanack; proverb on routine, work and practical discipline.
“If your adversary is long in playing, you ought not to hurry him.”
Franklin makes patience part of fair competition, arguing that disturbing an opponent’s concentration displays rudeness or craft rather than genuine skill.
Source note: The Morals of Chess; Founders Online authoritative Franklin Papers text. Rule four continues with examples of behaviors that distract or pressure the other player.
“Never leave that till tomorrow, which you can do to-day.”
The maxim turns prompt action into a habit: work that can reasonably be completed now should not be needlessly transferred to an uncertain tomorrow.
Source note: The Way to Wealth; a Poor Richard maxim on delay and useful employment of time.