Listen

"He that speaks much, is much mistaken."

- Benjamin Franklin

Personal Take:
In other words, listen more than you talk...  or don't trust those who speak all the time.  I have often found that when I have actively listened that I have learned innumerable amounts of information from others.  I just wish that action was easily replicable for me! 

Reputation

"It takes many good deeds to build a good reputation, and only one bad one to lose it."

- Benjamin Franklin

Personal Take:
It is always easiest to take the short cut or break the rules... until you get caught.  If we kept this lesson in our head, imagine how different the world would be.

Doubt

"When in doubt, don't."

- Benjamin Franklin 

Personal Take:
I cannot tell you how many times I have gone against my gut feeling, only to find it to have been right all along.  It is these experiences from which I find myself needing to trust my instinct, which are also, non-coincidentally, some of my biggest regrets or mistakes.

Success

"To succeed, jump as quickly at opportunities as you do at conclusions."

- Benjamin Franklin

Personal Take:
I find this quote by Franklin to be interestingly worded.  To me, this quote means to take one's time in drawing a conclusion and then jumping at the opportunity presented.  This is key, I find, as it is very easy to waste precious time on bad opportunities.

Speak

"Speak ill of no man, but speak all the good you know of everybody."

-  Benjamin Franklin

Education

"Being ignorant is not so much a shame, as being unwilling to learn."

- Benjamin Franklin

Personal Take:
Each of us is ignorant.  That is just a fact of life.  We cannot know everything.  However, not having a curiosity or a will to learn is the epitome of laziness.  Unfortunately, it seems as though we are facing this issue more and more in today's day in age.  I truly hope that trend changes.  To me, there is hardly anything more thrilling than learning something new and being able to build upon it.  

Time

"Do not squander time for that is the stuff life is made of."

- Benjamin Franklin

Personal Take:
I took this quote to mean 'don't sweat the small stuff,' which I am seemingly doing all of the time.  In caretaking for my Grandma, I have truly learned just how precious life is and how quickly time passes.  This is especially true the older we become.  We should never take the next day for granted.

Change

"When you're finished changing, you're finished."

- Benjamin Franklin 

Action

"Well done is better than well said."

-  Benjamin Franklin

Charity

"I am for doing good to the poor, but...I think the best way of doing good to the poor, is not making them easy in poverty, but leading or driving them out of it. I observed...that the more public provisions were made for the poor, the less they provided for themselves, and of course became poorer. And, on the contrary, the less was done for them, the more they did for themselves, and became richer"

-- Ben Franklin

Happiness

"The Constitution only gives people the right to pursue happiness. You have to catch it yourself."

-- Benjamin Franklin

Persistence

"Energy and persistence conquer all things."

-- Benjamin Franklin 

Knowledge

"If a man empties his purse into his head, no man can take it away from him. An investment in knowledge always pays the best interest."

-- Benjamin Franklin 

Faith

"To follow by faith alone is to follow blindly."

-- Benjamin Franklin 

Excuses

"He that is good for making excuses is seldom good for anything else."

-- Benjamin Franklin

Liberty

"Anyone who trades liberty for security deserves neither liberty nor security."

-- Benjamin Franklin

New Year

"Be always at war with your vices, at peace with your neighbors, and let each new year find you a better man." 

-- Benjamin Franklin