Benjamin Franklin Motivation

If you could have dinner with anyone, dead or alive, who would it be?

This question has never stumped me. The answer is always Benjamin Franklin.

I imagine a conversation with him to be filled with deja vu moments. His wisdom is familiar to all of us.

He is, after all, the one who said that honesty is the best policy. Haste makes waste. Time is money. No pain no gain. Nothing is certain except death and taxes. Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise. And on, and on.  

(He also said, and I swear I am not making this up, “He that lives upon hope will die farting." If I ever do make it to dinner with him my final question will be, what was THAT all about?)

But even more impressive than his wisdom, is the unbelievable range of what he accomplished.

When he wasn’t busy founding a nation or negotiating the Treaty of Paris, he worked as an abolitionist, scholar and philosopher. He published Poor Richard’s Almanac, invented bifocals and flew kites during thunderstorms to prove the connection between lighting and electricity.

All in a day's work.

While it's near impossible to imagine how he was able to achieve so much, it doesn't take that dinner conversation to get answers. Lucky for all of us, he left behind troves of inspiration in the form of his writings.

Here is some of Benjamin Franklin's best advice. Twelve quotes to motivate you to do it all.

Or at least, a little more than you're doing now.

1. Well done is better than well said.

2. Never leave that till tomorrow which you can do today.

3. Instead of cursing the darkness, light a candle.

4. By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.

5. Don't throw stones at your neighbors if your own windows are glass

6. What you seem to be, be really.

7. He that can have patience can have what he will.

8. Energy and persistence conquer all things.

9. Never confuse motion with action

10. Being ignorant is not so much a shame as being unwilling to learn.

11. I didn't fail the test. I just found 100 ways to do it wrong.

12. Hide not your talents, they for use were made. What's a sundial in the shade?