The claim, as it circulates · Checked 2026-10-20
“Lost time is never found again”: Franklin, The Way to Wealth
Lost time is never found again; and what we call time enough, always proves little enough.”
Benjamin Franklin, 1706–1790
SAID ITShort answer · Said itYes. Franklin printed it in The Way to Wealth (1758), where the character Father Abraham quotes it as a saying of “Poor Richard.” The proverb may be older than Franklin, so the safest credit is Franklin, writing as Poor Richard.
The receipt: primary sourceNo. 004
“wasting time must be” as Poor Richard says, “the greatest prodigality;” since, as he elsewhere tells us, “Lost time is never found again; and what we call time enough, always proves little enough.”
- Work
- The Way to Wealth (preface to Poor Richard Improved)
- Date
- 1758
- Source
- The Way to Wealth — Project Gutenberg #43855 ↗
- Checked
- 2026-10-20 · matched against the cached primary text
- People usually drop the second half: “what we call time enough, always proves little enough.”
- Franklin collected many of his proverbs from older sources. We haven't traced where this one started.
Cite-safe version
“Lost time is never found again.” — Benjamin Franklin (as Poor Richard), The Way to Wealth (1758)