The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin

We some­times dis­puted, and very fond we were of ar­gu­ment, and very de­sirous of con­fut­ing one an­other, which dis­pu­ta­tious turn, by the way, is apt to be­come a very bad habit, mak­ing people of­ten ex­tremely dis­agree­able in com­pany by the con­tra­dic­tion that is ne­ces­sary to bring it into prac­tice; and thence, be­sides sour­ing and spoil­ing the con­ver­sa­tion, is pro­duct­ive of dis­gusts and, per­haps en­mit­ies where you may have oc­ca­sion for friend­ship. I had caught it by read­ing my father’s books of dis­pute about re­li­gion. Per­sons of good sense, I have since ob­served, sel­dom fall into it, ex­cept law­yers, uni­ver­sity men, and men of all sorts that have been bred at Ed­in­bor­ough.

it was extremely agreeable to hear

“He that would thrive, must ask his wife.” It was lucky for me that I had one as much dis­posed to in­dustry and frugal­ity as my­self. She as­sisted me cheer­fully in my busi­ness, fold­ing and stitch­ing pamph­lets, tend­ing shop, pur­chas­ing old linen rags for the pa­per-makers, etc., etc

The ob­jec­tions and re­luct­ances I met with in so­li­cit­ing the sub­scrip­tions, made me soon feel the im­pro­pri­ety of present­ing one’s self as the pro­poser of any use­ful pro­ject, that might be sup­posed to raise one’s repu­ta­tion in the smal­lest de­gree above that of one’s neigh­bours, when one has need of their as­sist­ance to ac­com­plish that pro­ject. I there­fore put my­self as much as I could out of sight, and stated it as a scheme of a num­ber of friends, who had re­ques­ted me to go about and pro­pose it to such as they thought lov­ers of read­ing. In this way my af­fair went on more smoothly, and I ever after prac­tised it on such oc­ca­sions; and, from my fre­quent suc­cesses, can heart­ily re­com­mend it. The present little sac­ri­fice of your van­ity will af­ter­wards be amply re­paid. If it re­mains a while un­cer­tain to whom the merit be­longs, someone more vain than your­self will be en­cour­aged to claim it, and then even envy will be dis­posed to do you justice by pluck­ing those as­sumed feath­ers, and restor­ing them to their right owner.

one man of tol­er­able abil­it­ies may work great changes, and ac­com­plish great af­fairs among man­kind, if he first forms a good plan, and, cut­ting off all amuse­ments or other em­ploy­ments that would di­vert his at­ten­tion, makes the ex­e­cu­tion of that same plan his sole study and busi­ness.

the task should be a ver­sion of the eight­eenth Psalm, which de­scribes the des­cent of a Deity.

man be­ing some­times more gen­er­ous when he has but a little money than when he has plenty, per­haps through fear of be­ing thought to have but little.

I re­mem­ber his be­ing dis­suaded by some of his friends from the un­der­tak­ing, as not likely to suc­ceed, one news­pa­per be­ing, in their judg­ment, enough for Amer­ica.

I grew con­vinced that truth, sin­cer­ity and in­teg­rity in deal­ings between man and man were of the ut­most im­port­ance to the fe­li­city of life; and I formed writ­ten res­ol­u­tions, which still re­main in my journal book, to prac­tice them ever while I lived.

Tem­per­ance.

Eat not to dull­ness; drink not to el­ev­a­tion.

Si­lence.

Speak not but what may be­ne­fit oth­ers or your­self; avoid tri­fling con­ver­sa­tion.

Order.

Let all your things have their places; let each part of your busi­ness have its time.

Res­ol­u­tion.

Re­solve to per­form what you ought; per­form without fail what you re­solve.

Frugal­ity.

Make no ex­pense but to do good to oth­ers or your­self; i.e., waste noth­ing.

In­dustry.

Lose no time; be al­ways em­ployed in some­thing use­ful; cut off all un­ne­ces­sary ac­tions.

Sin­cer­ity.

Use no hurt­ful de­ceit; think in­no­cently and justly; and, if you speak, speak ac­cord­ingly.

Justice.

Wrong none by do­ing in­jur­ies, or omit­ting the be­ne­fits that are your duty.

Moder­a­tion.

Avoid ex­tremes; for­bear re­sent­ing in­jur­ies so much as you think they de­serve.

Clean­li­ness.

Tol­er­ate no un­clean­li­ness in body, clothes, or hab­it­a­tion.

Tran­quil­lity.

Be not dis­turbed at trifles, or at ac­ci­dents com­mon or un­avoid­able.

Chastity.

Hu­mil­ity.

Imit­ate Je­sus and So­crates.