Browse 9 quotations connecting Benjamin Franklin with Habits, 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, The Way to Wealth, 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, The Way to Wealth, Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin.
“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.
“Little strokes fell great oaks.”
Small repeated efforts can accomplish work that seems too large for a single burst of effort, making consistency itself a practical form of strength.
Source note: Poor Richard’s Almanack; a compact maxim about cumulative effort.
“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.
“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.
“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.
“Beware of little expences; A small leak will sink a great ship.”
Small recurring expenses can become significant when repeated, so minor purchases deserve attention when they steadily erode a limited budget.
Source note: The Way to Wealth, frugality section; Project Gutenberg #43855 preserves the historical spelling “expences.” The ship image is one of the Poor Richard maxims quoted by Father Abraham.
“Beware of little expenses; a small leak will sink a great ship.”
Small recurring costs can matter more than they appear individually, so careful attention to minor spending is part of long-term financial discipline.
Source note: The Way to Wealth; Father Abraham repeats the Poor Richard maxim while warning about small but cumulative expenses.
“Always taking out of the meal-tub, and never putting in, soon comes to the bottom.”
Resources decline when withdrawals are not matched by replenishment, turning a household image into a warning about spending down finite savings.
Source note: The Way to Wealth, frugality section; Project Gutenberg #43855. The meal-tub is Franklin’s domestic metaphor for continual consumption without replacement.