p. 12 | Franklin’s Maxims

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Washington, D. C. · Jan 25, 1906

Franklin’s Maxims

The following maxims of success are attributed to Benjamin Franklin, the two hundredth anniversary of whose birth occurred January 17. They are no less valuable now as rules of life than in his day:—

“Eat not to dulness; drink not to elevation.

“Speak not but what may benefit others or yourself; avoid trifling conversation.

“Lose no time; be always employed in something useful; cut off all unnecessary actions.

“Use no hurtful deceit; think innocently and justly, and, if you speak, speak accordingly.

“Tolerate no uncleanliness in body, clothes, or habitation.

“Be not disturbed at trifles, or at accidents common or unavoidable.

“Drive thy business; let not thy business drive thee.

“Early to bed, early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise.

“He that hath a calling hath an office of profit and honor.

“One to-day is worth two to-morrows.

“Buy what thou hast no need of, and ere long thou shalt sell thy necessaries.

“Keep your eyes wide open before marriage, half shut afterward.

“They that won’t be counseled can’t be helped.

“A man may, if he knows not how to save as he gets, keep his nose all his life to the grindstone, and die not worth a groat at last.”