Straight from today’s Quotle — here’s who really said it, and the story behind it. Play again

Who really said it

Energy and persistence conquer all things

Attributed to Benjamin Franklin 1706–1790 · printer, scientist and founding father
Attributed Free to reuse

Universally credited to Franklin and fully in the spirit of Poor Richard’s Almanack, but no primary source pins it: the exact wording appears in none of his published works or letters in the Papers of Benjamin Franklin ↗, and it is not listed among his quotations on Wikiquote ↗.

Last verified 7 Jul 2026 · how we verify · spot an error?

For presentations

Put it on a slide

Unconfirmed quote & credit

“Energy and persistence conquer all things” Energy and persistence conquer all things. — attributed to Benjamin Franklin (no primary source; consistent with his Poor Richard's Almanack, but not in his papers)

Can you use it?

Free to use, including in commercial and paid presentations — no permission or licence needed.

Image direction — grounded in this quote’s real context; paste into your image tool

In context

Evoking the world of Benjamin Franklin — American printer, scientist and statesman. Theme: "Energy and persistence conquer all things". Atmospheric and restrained, cinematic directional light, a muted period-appropriate palette, fine grain and texture. Compose with generous empty space for the quote and a small credit line. No lettering in the image itself.

Minimalist

Minimalist editorial slide for the quote "Energy and persistence conquer all things". Clean background, a single muted accent color, generous negative space, subtle paper or linen texture, no literal illustration — let the words carry it. Reserve clear space for a serif quote and a small credit line. No lettering in the image itself.

Provenance

What the record shows

Popularly credited to
Benjamin Franklin
Primary source
None located — not in the Papers of Benjamin Franklin
Closest genuine parallel
Poor Richard’s Almanack (1734–1758)
Underlying proverb
Virgil, “Labor omnia vincit”

Energy and persistence conquer all things.

No Franklin document is known to contain these words. The nearest authentic lines are his own Poor Richard maxims: “Diligence overcomes Difficulties, Sloth makes them” (1755) and “All things are easy to Industry, all things difficult to Sloth” (1734).

Papers of Benjamin Franklin — Founders Online

How we checked it

Public domain

As a short traditional aphorism — and one echoing a proverb some two millennia old — the line carries no meaningful copyright. The attribution to Franklin, however, is unverified.

Fact-check

The attribution problem

This is one of the most-shared “Franklin” lines online, yet it appears in none of his published works, letters or almanacs.

Benjamin Franklin unverified

Repeated as Franklin’s on Goodreads, BrainyQuote and countless motivational sites, but with no citation. A search of the scholarly corpus — the Papers of Benjamin Franklin ↗ — returns no matching document, and Wikiquote ↗ does not list it among his sourced or even his misattributed quotations.

The idea is genuinely Franklinesque — Poor Richard preached that “Diligence overcomes Difficulties” — but the exact words trace to no Franklin document; they modernize the ancient proverb Labor omnia vincit ↗.

Context

Why it sticks to Franklin

Franklin built a personal brand on industry decades before the phrase ‘personal brand’ existed. Poor Richard’s Almanack hammered the same message every year from 1733 to 1758 — that steady effort beats talent and luck — so a punchy modern paraphrase about ‘energy and persistence’ slots naturally under his name.

Because the sentiment is authentically his, the misattribution is easy to forgive and hard to dislodge: readers recognize the idea as Franklin’s and assume the words are too. They are not — they are a 20th-century-flavored rewording of a proverb that runs from Virgil through the English ‘perseverance conquers all things.’

“All things are easy to Industry, all things difficult to Sloth.” — Franklin’s actual 1734 line

Explore

Filed under

More provenance-checked quotes on the same theme, each with its reuse status.

Work Resilience Success

Go further

Dig deeper

Trusted places to keep pulling the thread — primary archives, fact-checks, and scholarship. We show how we used each one before you leave.

Papers of Benjamin Franklinfounders.archives.gov

The definitive searchable corpus of Franklin's writings; the phrase does not appear in it.
Benjamin Franklin (quotations)en.wikiquote.org

Sourced, attributed and misattributed Franklin quotes — this line is on none of the lists.
Poor Richard's Almanacken.wikiquote.org

Franklin's genuine, dated maxims on industry and diligence — the real parallels to this line.
Labor omnia vinciten.wikipedia.org

The ancient proverb, adapted from Virgil's Georgics, that the sentiment ultimately restates.
The Quotations Page entrywww.quotationspage.com

Typical database listing: credits Franklin, gives only his dates, cites no source work.

The attributed author

Why the line lands on Franklin

Benjamin Franklin

1706–1790 · American printer, scientist and statesman

Benjamin Franklin (1706–1790) was a printer, scientist and one of the founding fathers of the United States, best known for Poor Richard’s Almanack and its aphorisms on thrift and industry. His genuine maxims — “Diligence overcomes Difficulties, Sloth makes them” and “All things are easy to Industry, all things difficult to Sloth” — made him the natural magnet for any later saying about the power of hard work. He is not, however, documented anywhere as writing the exact line “Energy and persistence conquer all things.”

For writers & researchers

Cite this

Primary source — Chicago

Attributed to Benjamin Franklin; no primary source located. The exact wording does not appear in Leonard W. Labaree et al., eds., The Papers of Benjamin Franklin (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1959– ), as digitized at Founders Online, nor among his quotations on Wikiquote.

MLA (9th ed.)

Labaree, Leonard W., et al., editors. The Papers of Benjamin Franklin. Yale University Press, 1959– . Founders Online, founders.archives.gov.

APA (7th ed.)

Labaree, L. W., et al. (Eds.). (1959–). The papers of Benjamin Franklin. Yale University Press.

This verification page

Quotle.info. “Who really said ‘Energy and persistence conquer all things’?” Last verified 7 Jul 2026. https://quotle.info/who-said/energy-and-persistence-conquer-all-things

Copied