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“I myself have constantly refused to print anything that might countenance vice or promote immorality, though . . . I might have got much money. I have also always refused to print such things as might do real injury to any person.”
some people are motivated more by fear of public humiliation than they are by inner moral principles.
he showed a somewhat cynical side by implying that most people act virtuously not because of an inner goodness, but because they are afraid of public censure.
Franklin’s playful defenses of busybodies, among the most amusing pieces he ever wrote, set a lighthearted tone for his paper.
he continually resolved to speak ill of nobody.
he toyed in the Gazette with the argument for gossip, but he did not really indulge in it much.
As a printer in London, he had lectured coworkers that strong drink made them less industrious; as an editor in Philadelphia, he continued this crusade.
a bit of wry self-deprecation could make him seem more endearing.
Bachelorhood was frowned on in colonial America, and Franklin had a sexual appetite that he knew required discipline.
A dominant theme in Franklin’s autobiography is that of making mistakes and then making amends, as if he were a moral bookkeeper balancing his accounts. Running away from his brother was, Franklin noted, “one of the first errata of my life.” Helping James’s son was the way to set the ledger back into balance.
his emotional attachments tended to be the more prosaic bonds of affection that grew out of partnership, self-interest, collaboration, camaraderie, and good-humored kinship.
“Keep your eyes wide open before marriage, half shut afterwards.”
he adopted a creed that would last the rest of his life: a virtuous, morally fortified, and pragmatic version of deism.
a faith in God should inform our daily actions;
his faith was devoid of sectarian dogma, burning spirituality, deep soul-searching, or a personal relationship to Christ.
He began with a simple affirmation: “I believe there is one Supreme most perfect being.”
Franklin’s Supreme Being was somewhat distant and uninvolved in our daily travails. “I imagine it great vanity in me to suppose that the Supremely Perfect does in the least regard such an inconsiderable nothing as man,” he wrote. He added his belief that this “Infinite Father” was far above wanting our praise or prayers.
Any of the first three options would mean that God is not infinitely powerful or good or wise. “We are then necessarily driven into the fourth supposition,”
It would be vain, he wrote, for any person to insist that “all the doctrines he holds are true and all he rejects are false.” The same could be said of the opinions of different religions as well.
sequentially practicing a list of virtues,
Temperance:
Silence:
Order:
Resolution:
Frugality:
Industry:
Sincerity:
Justice:
Moderation:
Cleanliness:
Tranquility:
Chastity:
“humility”
a perfect character might be attended with the inconvenience of being envied and hated.”
he had acquired the appearance of industry by carting his own paper through the streets of Philadelphia.
He focused on understanding virtue rather than God’s grace, and he based his creed on rational utility rather than religious faith.
an inclination toward frugality, lack of pretense, and a belief that God appreciates those who are industrious.
an emphasis on reason and observable experience, a mistrust of religious orthodoxy and traditional authority, and an optimism about education and progress.
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.
The essence of Franklin is that he was a civic-minded man.
“The good men may do separately,” he wrote, “is small compared with what they may do collectively.”
his organizational fervor and galvanizing personality made him the most influential force in instilling this as an enduring part of American life.
The frontier attracted barn-raising pioneers who were ruggedly individualistic as well as fiercely supportive of their community.
people were reluctant to support a “proposer of any useful project that might be supposed to raise one’s reputation.”
People will eventually give you the credit, he noted, if you don’t try to claim it at the time. “The present little sacrifice of your vanity will afterwards be amply repaid.”
the Library Company allowed Franklin to elicit the patronage of some of the more distinguished gentlemen of the town
“These libraries have improved the general conversation of the Americans,” Franklin later noted, and “made the common tradesmen and farmers as intelligent as most gentlemen from other countries.”
the oldest cultural institution in the United States.
one of the first arguments in America for progressive taxation.
Like Franklin, the Freemasons were dedicated to fellowship, civic works, and nonsectarian religious tolerance.
