The Wisdom of Poor Richard's Almanack (1733–1758)

• Better slip with foot than tongue.
• Without justice, courage is weak.
• No man e'er was glorious, who was not laborious.
• Whate'ers begun in anger ends in shame.
• What one relishes, nourishes.
• All things are easy to Industry, All things difficult to Sloth.
• If you ride a horse, sit close and tight, if you ride a man, sit easy and light.
• Don't think to hunt two hares with one dog.
• Who pleasure gives, Shall joy receive.
• Be neither silly, nor cunning, but wise.
• All things are cheap to the saving, dear to the wasteful.
• Would you persuade, speak of Interest, not of Reason.
• Teach your child to hold his tongue, he'll learn fast enough to speak.
• He that cannot obey, cannot command.
• An innocent Plowman is more worthy than a vicious Prince.
• An Egg to-day is better than a Hen to-morrow.
• He that is rich need not live sparingly, and he that can live sparingly need not be rich.
• If you wou'd be reveng'd of your enemy, govern your self.
• As sore places meet most rubs, proud folks meet most affronts.
• He does not possess Wealth, it possesses him.
• He that waits upon Fortune, is never sure of a Dinner.
• If you woul'd have Guests merry with your cheer, be so your self, or so at least appear.
• Look before, or you'll find yourself behind.
• Approve not of him who commends all you say.
• By diligence and patience, the mouse bit in two the cable.
• The poor man must walk to get meat for his stomach, the rich man to get a stomach to his meat.
• Necessity never made a good bargain.
• If Pride leads the Van, Beggary brings up the Rear.
• There's many witty men whose brains can't fill their bellies.
• Weighty Questions ask for deliberate Answers.
• Be slow in choosing a Friend, slower in changing.
• Pain wastes the Body, Pleasures the Understanding.
• Humility makes great men twice honourable.
• What's given shines, What's receiv'd is rusty.
• Three may keep a Secret, if two of them are dead.
• Poverty wants some things, Luxury many things, Avarice all things.
• A lie stands on 1 leg, the Truth on 2.
• Deny Self for Self's sake.
• It is better to take many Injuries than to give one.
• Early to bed and early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise.
• Here comes the Orator! with his Flood of Words, and his Drop of Reason.
• He is no clown that drives the plow, but he that doth clownish things.
• If you know how to spend less than you get, you have the Philosophers-Stone.
• The good Paymaster is Lord of another man's Purse.
• Fish & Visitors stink in 3 days.
• Diligence is the mother of Good-Luck.
• He that lives upon Hope, dies fasting.
• Do not do what you would not have known.
• Wealth is not his that has it, but his that enjoys it.
• In a discreet man's mouth, a publick thing is private.
• Admiration is the Daughter of Ignorance.
• There are more old Drunkards than old Doctors.
• She that paints her face, thinks of her Tail.
• He that takes a wife, takes care.
• He that can have Patience, can have what he will.
• God helps them that help themselves.
• None preaches better than the ant, and she says nothing.
• The rotton Apple spoils his Companions.
• Don't throw stones at your neighbours, if your own windows are glass.
• The excellency of hogs is fatness, of men virtue.
• Force shites upon Reason's Back.
• Lovers, Travellers, and Poets, will give money to be heard.
• He that speaks much, is much mistaken.
• Creditors have better memories than debtors.
• He that lives well, is learned enough.
• Poverty, Poetry and new Titles of Honour, make Men ridiculous.
• He that scatters Thorns, let him not go barefoot.
• There's none deceived but he that trusts.
• God heals, and the Doctor takes the Fees.
• If you desire many things, many things will seem but a few.
• He that would live in peace & at ease, Must not speak all he knows, nor judge all he sees.
• The greatest monarch on the proudest throne, is oblig'd to sit upon his own arse.
• The Master-piece of Man, is to live to the purpose.
• He that can take rest is greater than he that can take cities.
• Love and lordship hate companions.
• He that can compose himself, is wiser than he that composes books.
• Poor Dick, eats like a well man, and drinks like a sick.
• Love, Cough, & a Smoke, can't be well hid.
• Well done is better than well said.
• He that can travel well afoot, keeps a good horse.
• No better relation than a prudent & faithful Friend.
• A good Lawyer is a bad Neighbour.
• The worst wheel of the cart makes the most noise.
• Don't misinform your Docter nor your Lawyer.
• I never saw an oft-transplanted tree, nor yet an oft-removed family, that throve so well as those that settled be.
• Three good meals a day is a bad living.
• To whom thy secret thou dost tell, to him thy freedom thou dost sell.
• He that pursues two Hares at once, does not catch one and lets t'other go.
• The noblest question in the world is What Good may I do in it?
• Write with the learned, pronounce with the vulgar.
• If thou hast wit & learning, add to it Wisdom and Modesty.
• Sell not virtue to purchase wealth, nor Liberty to purchase power.
• Let thy vices die before thee.
• Keep your eyes wide open before marriage, half shut afterwards.
• Since I cannot govern my own tongue, tho' within my own teeth, how can I hope to govern the tongues of others?
• If you do what you should not, you must hear what you would not.
• Wish not so much to live long as to live well.
• As we must account for every idle word, so we must for every idle silence.
• Reading makes a full Man, Meditation a profound Man, discourse a clear Man.
• None but the well-bred man knows how to confess a fault, or acknowledge himself in an error.
• There is much difference between imitating a good man, and counterfeiting him.
• Eat to please thyself, but dress to please others.
• Search others for their virtues, thy self for thy vices.
• Trust thy self, and another shall not betray thee.
• Historians relate, not so much what is done, as what they would have believed.
• He that falls in love with himself, will have no Rivals.
• No Resolution of Repenting hereafter, can be sincere.
• Honour thy Father and Mother, i. e. Live so as to be an Honour to them tho' they are dead.
• Hear no ill of a Friend, nor speak any of an Enemy.
• Be not niggardly of what costs thee nothing, as courtesy, counsel, & countenance.
• Beware of him that is slow to anger: He is angry for something, and will not be pleased for nothing.
• Proclaim not all thou knowest, all thou owest, all thou hast, nor all thou canst.
• Lying rides upon Debt's back.
• When Knaves fall out, honest Men get their goods: When Priests dispute, we come at the Truth.
• He that speaks ill of the Mare, will buy her.
• They who have nothing to trouble them, will be troubled at nothing.
• To err is human, to repent divine, to persist devilish.
• There are three things extremely hard: steel, a diamond, and to know one's self.
• Genius without education is like silver in the mine.
• Anger is never without a Reason, but seldom with a good One.