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famous opening phrase sets the tone: “As I walked through the wilderness of this world . . . ” Even for the faithful, this progress was not solely the handiwork of the Lord but also the result of a human struggle, by individuals and communities, to triumph over obstacles.
He had the happy talent of being at ease in almost any company, from scrappy tradesmen to wealthy merchants, scholars to rogues. His most notable trait was a personal magnetism; he attracted people who wanted to help him. Never shy, and always eager to win friends and patrons, he gregariously exploited this charm.
people are more likely to admire your work if you’re able to keep them from feeling jealous of you.6
“Truth and sincerity have a certain distinguishing native luster about them which cannot be perfectly counterfeited; they are like fire and flame, that cannot be painted.”
One method, which he had developed during his mock debates with John Collins in Boston and then when discoursing with Keimer, was to pursue topics through soft, Socratic queries. That became the preferred style for Junto meetings. Discussions were to be conducted “without fondness for dispute or desire of victory.”
Above all, Franklin’s beliefs were driven by pragmatism.
“Early to bed and early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise.”
“Let all men know thee, but no man know thee thoroughly: Men freely ford that see the shallows.”
“The good men may do separately,” he wrote, “is small compared with what they may do collectively.”
“He that has once done you a kindness will be more ready to do you another, than he whom you yourself have obliged.”14
“If you would keep your secret from an enemy, tell it not to a friend.”
“You yourself may find it easy to live a virtuous life without the assistance afforded by religion,” he said, “but think how great a proportion of mankind consists of weak and ignorant men and women, and of inexperienced and inconsiderate youth of both sexes, who have need of the motives of religion to restrain them from vice.”
As his friend the French statesman Turgot said in his famous epigram, Eripuit cœlo fulmen sceptrumque tyrannis, he snatched lightning from the sky and the scepter from tyrants.
