"Electrical matter differs from common matter in this, that the parts of the latter mutually attract, those of the former mutually repel each other."
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Benjamin Franklin quotes (page 44 of 70)
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"If anyone should doubt whether the electrical matter passes through the substance of bodies, or only over along their surfaces, a shock from an electrified large glass jar, taken through his own body, will probably convince him."
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"We are more thoroughly an enlightened people, with respect to our political interests, than perhaps any other under heaven. Every man among us reads, and is so easy in his circumstances as to have leisure for conversations of improvement and for acquiring information."
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"All cats look gray in the dark."
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"I scarce ever heard or saw the introductory words, "Without vanity I may say," etc., but some vain thing immediately followed."
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"He that doth what he should not, shall feel what he would not."
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"An autobiography usually reveals nothing bad about its writer except his memory."
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"What vast additions to the conveniences and comforts of living might mankind have acquired, if the money spent in wars had been employed in works of public utility; what an extension of agriculture even to the tops of our mountains; what rivers rendered navigable, or joined by canals; what bridges, aqueducts, new roads, and other public works, edifices, and improvements might not have been obtained by spending those millions in doing good, which in the last war have been spent in doing mischief."
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"A traveller should have a hog's nose, a deer's legs, and an ass's back."
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"A [desire] to abolish slavery prevails in North America, many of the Pennsylvanians have set their slaves at liberty, and [Virginia legislators] have petitioned the King for permission to make a law for preventing the importation of more [slaves] into that colony. This request, however, will probably not be granted, as their former laws of that kind have always been repealed."
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"An Episcopalian divine once told the Pope that the only difference between their denominations was that "the Church of Rome is infallible and the Church of England is never in the wrong.""
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"You must not, when you have gained a victory, use any triumphing or insulting expressions, nor show too much of the pleasure you feel; but endeavour to console your adversary, and make him less dissatisfied with himself by every kind and civil expression that may be used with truth; such as, you understand the game better than I, but you are a little inattentive, or, you play too fast; or, you had the best of the game, but something happened to divert your thoughts, and that turned it in my favour."
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"I was put to the grammar-school at eight years of age, my father intending to devote me, as the tithe of his sons, to the service of the Church."
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"The nearest I can make it out, "Love your Enemies" means, "Hate your Friends""
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"Nor is it of much Importance to us to know the Manner in which Nature executes her laws; 'tis enough to know the Laws themselves."
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"Hast thou virtue? acquire also the graces and beauties of virtue."
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"At the working man’s house, hunger looks in but dares not enter."
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"Let all Men know thee, but no man know thee thoroughly: Men freely ford that see the shallows."
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"Virtues, of ... Justice: Wrong none by doing injuries or omitting the benefits that are your duty."
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"Gentlemen, I have lived a long time and am convinced that God governs in the affairs of men. If a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without His notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without His aid? I move that prayer imploring the assistance of Heaven be held every morning before we proceed to business."
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