Benjamin Franklin Quotes

To educate a man in mind and not in morals is to educate a menace to society.

What the statesman is most anxious to produce is a certain moral character in his fellow citizens, namely a disposition to virtue and the performance of virtuous actions.

It is becoming clear that the old platitudes can no longer be maintained, and that if we wish to improve our morals we must first improve our knowledge.

Tutors who make youth learned do not always make them virtuous.

I think it is very important to build the moral fibre of the youth. Moral education should be part of the curriculum, and I will work towards introducing that.

Morals are an acquirement -- like music, like a foreign language, like piety, poker, paralysis -- no man is born with them.

Look deep into the hearts of men, and see what delights and disgusts the wise.

Is there no virtue among us? If there be not, we are in a wretched situation. No theoretical checks-no form of government can render us secure. To suppose that any form of government will secure liberty or happiness without any virtue in the people, is a chimerical idea, if there be sufficient virtue and intelligence in the community, it will be exercised in the selection of these men. So that we do not depend on their virtue, or put confidence in our rulers, but in the people who are to choose them.

Could many of our ills today have resulted from our failure to train a strong citizenry from the only source we have - the boys and girls of each community? Have they grown up to believe in politics without principle, pleasure without conscience, knowledge without effort, wealth without work, business without morality, science without humanity, worship without sacrifice?

"What greater gift can we offer the republic than to teach and instruct our youth?"

I think also, that general virtue is more probably to be expected and obtained from the education of youth, than from exhortations of adult persons; bad habits and vices of the mind being, like diseases of the body, more easily prevented than cured. I think moreover, that talents for the education of youth are the gift of God; and that he on whom they are bestowed, whenever a way is opened for use of them, is as strongly called as if he heard a voice from heaven.

Cato used to assert that wise men profited more by fools than fools by wise men; for that wise men avoided the faults of fools, but that fools would not imitate the good examples of wise men.

Indeed the general natural Tendency of Reading good History, must be, to fix in the Minds of Youth deep Impressions of the Beauty and Usefulness of Virtue of all Kinds, Publick Spirit, Fortitude.

I don't think goodness is something that you learn. If you're left adrift in the world to learn goodness from it, you would be in trouble.

The education of young citizens ought to form them to good manners, to accustom them to labor, to inspire them with a love of order, and to impress them with respect for. lawful authority. Religion is the only solid basis of good morals; therefore education should teach the precepts of religion, and the duties of man towards God.

The sad fact is that if you love education, revere the life of the mind, care about the pursuit of truth, think young people need to receive wisdom from their elders, and value moral clarity, the university is the last place you would want to send your 18-year-old.

I really believe that you can. Not only do I think it is a part of public service to help young people find their way, just as professors had helped me find mine, but I've been very involved in K-12 education issues. I started a program back in 1992 called the Center for a New Generation, an afterschool enrichment program.

It is not in everyone's power to secure wealth, office, or honors; but everyone may be good, generous, and wise.

None But such as are good men can give good things, And that which is not good, is not delicious To a well-govern'd and wise appetite.

Goodness shapes our will, and truth shapes our understanding.

Virtue, though she gets her beginning from nature, yet receives her finishing touches from learning.

Being in humaneness is good. If we select other goodness and thus are far apart from humaneness, how can we be the wise?

If we do not teach our children, societ will. And they-and we-will live with the results.

It is an object of vast magnitude that systems of education should be adopted and pursued which may not only diffuse a knowledge of the sciences but may implant in the minds of the American youth the principles of virtue and of liberty and inspire them with just and liberal ideas of government and with an inviolable attachment to their own country.