Benjamin Franklin's Last Bet Quotes

“Franklin had been born on January 17, 1706. In inimitable Philadelphia fashion, the city launched its celebration on April 17, the anniversary of his death.”
― Michael Meyer, Benjamin Franklin's Last Bet: The Favorite Founder’s Divisive Death, Enduring Afterlife, and Blueprint for American Prosperity – A Gift to the Working Class: Loans, Wealth, and the Modern Era

“phenomenon of seeing several houseflies revived to life, although not by electricity. The insects had been “drowned in Madeira wine,” Franklin wrote, “apparently as soon as they were bottled in Virginia to send here [to London]. When one of those bottles was opened at a friend’s house, three drowned flies fell into the first glass we filled. They started with a few convulsive movements, . . . wiped their eyes with their front legs, flapped and brushed their wings with their hind legs, and flew away, being in ancient England without knowing how they got there.” Franklin wished that humans could be embalmed this way, “so that we could recall them to life when we would like.” As he had “an extreme desire to see the state of America one hundred years from now,” Franklin”
― Michael Meyer, Benjamin Franklin's Last Bet: The Favorite Founder’s Divisive Death, Enduring Afterlife, and Blueprint for American Prosperity – A Gift to the Working Class: Loans, Wealth, and the Modern Era