Browse 12 quotations connecting Benjamin Franklin with Patience, with meanings, source notes and related themes.
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.
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.
The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin, Part II, thirteen-virtue table: Resolution. Project Gutenberg #148 (Charles W. Eliot / Harvard Classics, 1909) preserves the represented wording; the reviewed direct locator is Wikisource Section Thirty Six.
“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.
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.
“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.
Poor Richard’s Almanack; a compact maxim about cumulative effort.
“Well done is better than well said.”
Franklin gives execution priority over impressive promises or intentions.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Benjamin Franklin, The Morals of Chess, rule 4 in the reviewed public-domain Wikisource transcription. Franklin tells a player not to hurry or distract a slow opponent and immediately lists singing, whistling, watch-checking, reading and tapping as examples; the passage is historical conduct advice about fair play.
“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.
The Way to Wealth; a Poor Richard maxim on delay and useful employment of time.
