Benjamin Franklin — "Better slip with foot than tongue."
Better slip with foot than tongue.
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More from Benjamin Franklin
"Little strokes fell great oaks."
"Guests, like fish, begin to smell after three days."
"Industry and frugality are the means of procuring wealth."
"Great talkers, little doers."
"Lost time is never found again."
About Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790)
Polymath Founding Father, diplomat, and Poor Richard's Almanack author who helped draft the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. Closely associated with John Adams (fellow Founder, Massachusetts statesman) and Thomas Jefferson (fellow Declaration drafter). For an intellectual contrast, see Thomas Hutchinson, last royal governor of colonial Massachusetts — Franklin leaked Hutchinson's loyalist correspondence to Boston in 1772 to inflame revolutionary sentiment — Hutchinson represented the colonial-aristocrat crown-loyalty that Franklin's revolution was organized to dismantle.
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Understanding this quote
What it means
It's better to trip and fall than to say something careless or harmful. A physical stumble heals quickly and is forgotten; a verbal misstep—an insult, a revealed secret, a rash promise, or an ill-timed remark—can damage relationships, reputations, and trust permanently. The proverb urges deliberate speech: you can recover from most physical mistakes far more easily than from words once spoken aloud.
Relevance to Benjamin Franklin
Franklin was printer, publisher, diplomat, and politician—a man whose livelihood and influence depended entirely on words. As publisher of the Pennsylvania Gazette and author of Poor Richard's Almanack, he shaped colonial opinion with ink. As diplomat to France, one careless phrase could unravel alliances. His Poor Richard maxims repeatedly stress verbal prudence, reflecting his lived understanding that reputation, built word by word over decades, could be shattered by a single unguarded statement.
The era
In colonial and revolutionary America, spoken and printed words carried serious legal and social consequences. Seditious speech risked prosecution under British law; loose tavern talk could ruin a merchant's credit or ignite political scandal. The press faced libel scrutiny, and printers themselves were sometimes jailed. In communities where news traveled by word of mouth and one's standing relied on neighbors' trust, an ill-chosen remark could permanently destroy a man's livelihood, relationships, or freedom.
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