Benjamin Franklin Quotes

Wisdom is keeping a sense of fallibility of all our views and opinions.

As an architect, you cannot be so arrogant as to say you are 100% sure about what you do.

The way to get things done is not to mind who gets the credit.

Compromise, compromise and compromise.

The thing I believe in most in the world is my own fallibility, so I am willing to believe that I may be wrong too.

Better to trust the man who is frequently in error than the one who is never in doubt.

A result of accommodation and compromise cannot be supposed perfectly to coincide with any one’s idea of perfection.

Bipartisanship means you work together to work it out.

The spirit of liberty is the spirit that is not too sure that it is right

We need a lot more respect in this country for compromise…. There is in compromise a lot of integrity, especially political integrity.

I'm not one of these people who thinks I know all the answers.

"I beseech ye in the bowels of Christ, think that ye may be mistaken." I should like to have that written over the portals of every church, every school, and every courthouse, and, may I say, of every legislative body in the United States. I should like to have every court begin, "I beseech ye in the bowels of Christ, think that we may be mistaken."

Let us, on both sides, lay aside all arrogance. Let us not, on either side, claim that we have already discovered the truth. Let us seek it together as something which is known to neither of us. For then only may we seek it, lovingly and tranquilly, if there be no bold presumption that it is already discovered and possessed.

No. An unremitting readiness to admit you may be wrong.

It is unwise to be too sure of one's own wisdom.

A man who has humility will have acquired in the last reaches of his beliefs the saving doubt of his own certainty.

We must be fully committed, but we must also be aware at the same time that we might possibly be wrong. People who claim to be absolutely convinced that their stand is the only right one...is a dead giveaway of unconscious doubt. Commitment is healthiest when it is not without doubt, but in spite of doubt.

You must stick to your conviction, but be ready to abandon your assumptions.

I've had to learn that not everybody does things my way. But I do expect the absolute best of everyone around me, and I'm disappointed when people don't expect that of themselves.

I'll photograph weddings, friends - I'm not too good for anything.

Things that I felt absolutely sure of but a few years ago, I do not believe now. This thought makes me see more clearly how foolish it would be to expect all men to agree with me.

I'd be willing to do anything. I'm not precious. I'd wash dishes.

We have to find compromises. That's the way it is in Norway.

I beseech you, in the bowels of Christ, think it possible you may be mistaken.

Let us be a little humble; let us think that the truth may not perhaps be entirely with us.