Benjamin Franklin Quotes

'Credit' is another word for trustworthiness.

No man's credit is ever as good as his money.

Every banker knows that if he has to prove that he is worthy of credit, however good may be his arguments, in fact his credit is gone: but what we have requires no proof.

When lending people money, be sure their character exceeds their collateral.

If you have to prove you are worthy of credit, your credit is already gone.

I've always found credit isn't just something you take - it's something people give you when they see how hard you're working.

If the maintenance of public credit, then, be truly important, the next enquiry which suggests itself is, by what means it is to be effected? The ready answer to which question is, by good faith, by a punctual performance of contracts. States, like individuals, who observe their engagements, are respected and trusted: while the reverse is the fate of those who pursue an opposite conduct.

The most trifling actions that affect a man's credit are to be regarded. The sound of your hammer at five in the morning, or at nine at night, heard by a creditor, makes him easy six months longer; but if he sees you at the billiard-table, or hears your voice at a tavern, when you should be at work, he sends for his money the next day.

The Lord forbid that I should be out of debt, as if indeed I could not be trusted.

Public credit is suspicion asleep.

The man who is wantonly profuse of his promises ought to sink his credit as much as a tradesman would by uttering a great number of promissory notes payable at a distant day. The truest conclusion in both cases is, that neither intend or will be able to pay. And as the latter most probably intends to cheat you of your money, so the former at least designs to cheat you of your thanks.

As I've said all along, I don't make promises I can't keep, and I won't propose things we can't pay for.

You can fool the people once, twice, but you can't fool them all the time. You should tell them honestly what you can do for them.

Credit worthiness is like virginity, it can be preserved but not restored very easily, so it is crazy to play around with it.

We should exhibit no self doubt to our friends, ... Credibility is a strategic asset.

If you make a decision, a pact with someone, your friend, you should say, 'I'm gonna do this,' and you should stick to it.

If any friend desire thee to be his surety, give him a part of what thou hast to spare; if he press thee further, he is not thy friend at all, for friendship rather chooseth harm to itself than offereth it. If thou be bound for a stranger, thou art a fool; if for a merchant, thou puttest thy estate to learn to swim.

Sincerity is to speak as we think, to do as we pretend and profess, to perform and make good what we promise, and really to be what we would seem and appear to be.

Speak as you think, be what you are, pay your debts of all kinds. I prefer to be owned as sound and solvent, and my word as good as my bond, and to be what cannot be skipped, or dissipated, or undermined, to all the eclat in the universe. This reality is the foundation of friendship, religion, poetry, and art.

It's not your word that matters, it's who you give it too.

I don't make promises, by and large, that I can't keep.

Every time we give our word, it counts. For the most part, people give their word entirely too often. Our word is a precious commodity and should be treated as such.

President Trump is a man of his word.

Never lend money to a friend. It's dangerous. It could damage his memory.