Benjamin Franklin: An American Life

by Walter Isaacson

deism

Yet, there were many aspects of Puritanism that made a lasting impression, most notably the practical, sociable, community...

work that Franklin often cited as a key influence: Bonifacius...

Among Defoe’s most progressive notions was that it was “barbarous” and “inhumane” to deny women equal education and rights, and An Essay upon Projects contains a diatribe against such sexism.

Around that time, Franklin and “another bookish lad” named John Collins began engaging each other in debates as an intellectual sport.

As a result of his mock debates with Collins, Franklin began to tailor for himself a persona that was less contentious and confrontational, which made him seem endearing and charming as he grew older—or, to a small but vocal cadre of enemies, manipulative and conniving.

Being “disputatious,” he concluded, was “a very bad habit” because contradicting people produced “disgusts and perhaps enmities.” Later in his life he would wryly say of disputing: “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 Edinburgh.”

ext...

Socrates’ method of building an argument through...

“dropped my abrupt contradiction” style of argument and “put on the humbler enquirer...

“I found this method the safest for myself and very embarrassing to those against whom I used it; therefore, I took a delight in it.”

peruses

lampooning

thither

self-conceited.”

spinsters.

boasts

provenance

wit

relish.

diversion

merriment

wry

aversion

ruse

contrived.

tarnished

aversion

obnoxious

infidel

errand

As a young apprentice, Franklin had read a book extolling vegetarianism. He embraced the diet, but not just for moral and health reasons. His main motive was financial: it enabled him to take the money his brother allotted him for food and save half for books.

But like Voltaire, he was able to poke fun at his own efforts, and that of humanity in general, to be guided by reason.

A recurring theme in his autobiography, as well as in his tales and almanacs, was his amusement at man’s ability to rationalize what was convenient.

His most notable trait was a personal magnetism; he attracted people who wanted to help him.

“A man [is] sometimes more generous when he has little money than when he has plenty,”

Franklin, more typically, nurtured his reputation, as a matter of both pride and utility, and he became the country’s first unabashed public relations expert.

With a population of two thousand, Philadelphia was then America’s second-largest village after Boston.

disheveled

volubly

fortuitously

patrons

ruse,

praise

people are more likely to admire your work if you’re able to keep them from feeling jealous of you.6

eloquent

fulsome

antagonist

imprudent

impudent.