Benjamin Franklin Quotes

He who stands on tiptoe does not stand firm.

Kicking leaves you momentarily on one foot, and for that moment you are in a very weak position. If you were to be swept off your feet, you would be finished. This is why lifting your feet off the ground is crazy.

It is a ship with a great deal of sail but a very shallow keel.

There are two kinds of weakness, that which breaks and that which bends.

Fragility is the quality of things that are vulnerable to volatility.

Human beings are weak.

You get tragedy where the tree, instead of bending, breaks.

None of us is guaranteed against failure or corruption of any kind; witness what's going on in the world in this moment, the follies of human nature and the failures of human nature.

Rigid, the skeleton of habit alone upholds the human frame.

The belly carries the legs, and not the legs the belly.

It's almost as easy to stand up as it is to sit down.

Sometimes you are strong, sometimes you are weak.

It is dangerous, at any time, to multiply sources of weakness.

There are an infinity of angles at which one falls, only one at which one stands.

A house built on sand is, in fair weather, just as good as if builded on a rock. A cobweb is as good as the mightiest chain cable when there is no strain on it. It is trial that proves one thing weak and another strong.

But borrowing strength builds weakness.

With one more talent one frequently stands with greater instability than with one less, as a table stands better on three legs than on four.

It's impossible to lose your footing when you're on your knees.

Every fat (vat) must stand upon its bottom.

Upon laying a weight in one of the scales, inscribed eternity, though I threw in that of time, prosperity, affliction, wealth, and poverty, which seemed very ponderous, they were not able to stir the opposite balance.

The least strength suffices to break what is bruised.

Somewhere in the world is the most invincible man. Just as somewhere is the most vulnerable.

Strength is an empty shell.

True genius walks along a line, and, perhaps, our greatest pleasure is in seeing it so often near falling, without being ever actually down.

Whatever is weak, avoid! It is death.