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“To pour forth benefits for the common good is divine.”
as for many in subsequent waves, the journey was primarily an economic quest.
The university at that time spent approximately 11 percent of its budget for financial aid, more than it does today.
“A man [is] sometimes more generous when he has little money than when he has plenty,” he later wrote, “perhaps through fear of being thought to have but little.”
people are more likely to admire your work if you’re able to keep them from feeling jealous of you.6
religious practices were beneficial because they encouraged good behavior and a moral society.
Knowledge, he realized, “was obtained rather by the use of the ear than of the tongue.”
orthodoxy is more regarded than virtue.
each he appended a short definition: 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
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“The most acceptable service to God is doing good to man.”45
For even if I could conceive that I had completely overcome it, I would probably be proud of my humility.”
The purpose of religion should be to make men better and to improve society, and any sect or creed that did so was fine with him.
Silence Dogood, Anthony Afterwit, and Alice Addertongue),
“Obadiah Plainman,”
tension that often still exists between those who create content and those who control distribution systems.
Franklin’s importance as a scientist was the clear writing he employed. “He has written equally for the uninitiated as well as the philosopher,”
It is of real use to know that china left in the air unsupported will fall and break; but how it comes to fall and why it breaks are matters of speculation. It is a pleasure indeed to know them, but we can preserve our china without it.”
A wise and good mother will not do it. To distress is to weaken, and weakening the children weakens the whole family.”
“Slaves also pejorate the families that use them; white children become proud, disgusted with labor.”
deceived, cheated and betrayed.”
“we do not think it necessary to keep up a correspondence with a gentleman who acknowledges he is not empowered to conclude proper measures.”
The man who lives by his labor is at least free.”
the rationale, Franklin groused, “made me, as upon a hundred other occasions, almost wish that mankind had never been endowed with a reasoning faculty, since they know so little how to make use of it.”
“But one does not dress for private company as for a public ball.”
David McCullough’s
the Duplessis now hangs in a room atop the grand stairway of New York’s Metropolitan Museum (others by Duplessis are in Washington’s National Portrait Gallery and elsewhere).
It is simply this: to be concerned in no affairs I should blush to have made public, and to do nothing but what spies may see and welcome. When a man’s actions are just and honorable, the more they are known, the more his reputation is increased and established.
a very singular opinion of mine, that there hardly ever existed such a thing as a bad peace, or a good war, and that I might therefore easily be induced to make improper concessions.”
“I have never known a peace made, even the most advantageous, that was not censured as inadequate,” he said. “‘Blessed are the peacemakers’ is, I suppose, to be understood in the other world, for in this they are frequently cursed.”23
they who threaten are afraid.”
“All wars are follies, very expensive, and very mischievous ones,”
I wish the bald eagle had not been chosen as the representative of our country; he is a bird of bad moral character, he does not get his living honestly; you may have seen him perched on some dead tree, near the river where, too lazy to fish for himself, he watches the labors of the fishing-hawk…The turkey is, in comparison, a much more respectable bird, and a true original native of America…He is (though a little vain and silly, it is true, but not the worse emblem for that) a bird of courage, and would not hesitate to attack a grenadier of the British guards.
“so many repairs that in a little time the Owner will find it cheaper to pull it down and build a new one.”
“He that spits against the wind, spits in his own face.”
“I believe in one God, Creator of the Universe. That he governs it by his Providence. That he ought to be worshipped. That the most acceptable service we render to him is doing good to his other children.”
Dale Carnegie studied the Autobiography when writing How to Win Friends and Influence People,
“It is hard for an empty sack to stand upright,”
www.benfranklin2006.org)
