fishpit.com

I like these:

"The way to see by Faith is to shut the eye of Reason."

"I think vital religion has always suffered when orthodoxy is more regarded than virtue. The scriptures assure me that at the last day we shall not be examined on what we thought but what we did."

"I have found Christian dogma unintelligible. Early in life I absented myself from Christian assemblies."

With some of them sure.

I don't understand the rationale behind pulling random quotes from someone else to form a premise behind someones thought. I always thought that it is most important to read primary source (speech, journals, letters, etc) to gain a full understand of historical, linguistic, and social context from which the quote occurred.

"I am for doing good to the poor, but I differ in opinion of the means. I think the best way of doing good to the poor, is not making them easy in poverty, but leading or driving them out of it. In my youth I traveled much, and I observed in different countries, that the more public provisions were made for the poor, the less they provided for themselves, and of course became poorer. And, on the contrary, the less was done for them, the more they did for themselves, and became richer."

Benjamin Franklin, On the Price of Corn and Management of the Poor, November 1776

"Repeal that [welfare] law, and you will soon see a change in their manners. St. Monday and St. Tuesday, will soon cease to be holidays. Six days shalt thou labor, though one of the old commandments long treated as out of date, will again be looked upon as a respectable precept; industry will increase, and with it plenty among the lower people; their circumstances will mend, and more will be done for their happiness by inuring them to provide for themselves, than could be done by dividing all your estates among them."

Benjamin Franklin, letter to Collinson, May 9, 1753

"It is a grand mistake to think of being great without goodness and I pronounce it as certain that there was never a truly great man that was not at the same time truly virtuous."
Benjamin Franklin

"It is easier to prevent bad habits than to break them."
Benjamin Franklin

"It is the working man who is the happy man. It is the idle man who is the miserable man."
Benjamin Franklin

It is a grand mistake to think of being great without goodness and I pronounce it as certain that there was never a truly great man that was not at the same time truly virtuous.
Benjamin Franklin

It is easier to prevent bad habits than to break them.
Benjamin Franklin

It is much easier to suppress a first desire than to satisfy those that follow.
Benjamin Franklin

It is only when the rich are sick that they fully feel the impotence of wealth.
Benjamin Franklin

It is the eye of other people that ruin us. If I were blind I would want, neither fine clothes, fine houses or fine furniture.
Benjamin Franklin

It is the working man who is the happy man. It is the idle man who is the miserable man.
Benjamin Franklin

It takes many good deeds to build a good reputation, and only one bad one to lose it.
Benjamin Franklin

Keep your eyes wide open before marriage, half shut afterwards.
Benjamin Franklin

Laws too gentle are seldom obeyed; too severe, seldom executed.
Benjamin Franklin

"Leisure is the time for doing something useful. This leisure the diligent person will obtain the lazy one never."
Benjamin Franklin

"The Constitution only gives people the right to pursue happiness. You have to catch it yourself."
Benjamin Franklin

"Who is wise? He that learns from everyone. Who is powerful? He that governs his passions. Who is rich? He that is content. Who is that? Nobody."
Benjamin Franklin