As a private tribute to a Dungeons and Dragons game that played out over 35 years, I made a stained glass window that combined a saying of Franklin’s from Poor Richard (May, 1735) with a drawing of a boat from that game. Pictured above is the main window in the home of a wizard in …
It often happens to me that I read a statement attributed to Franklin and get a vague sense that “it doesn’t sound like Franklin.” In one recent case, it became clear why a particular statement didn’t sound like Franklin, and I’d like to share it. This morning, The Hill published this statement: “A system where …
The quoted statement (in italics below) is one of his most famous, and the full paragraph is one of his most refreshing: I join with you most cordially in rejoicing at the Return of Peace. I hope it will be lasting, and that Mankind will at Length, as they call themselves reasonable Creatures, have Reason …
These are two of my favorite topics: Franklin and the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, DC. The two overlap in many ways, but I want to start with a quote of the library’s founder that I came across for the first time today. Henry Folger traced his line back to Abiah’s father, Peter. Henry once …
Franklin wrote, in sentence 48 of The Way To Wealth: Three Removes is as bad as a Fire, with the word Removes meaning what we now call moves: the process of changing residences. Franklin’s immediate meaning is that changing residences, starting over someplace else, is costly: damages and losses ensue. Fair enough. In my family, …
In my posting of August 23, 2015, I mentioned this quote: “This will be the best security for maintaining our liberties. A nation of well-informed men who have been taught to know and prize the rights which God has given them cannot be enslaved. It is in the religion of ignorance that tyranny begins. ” …
I want to start collecting interesting resources on the preface to the final Poor Richard’s Almanack, also known as The Way to Wealth. From The Papers. The Way to Wealth around the World: Benjamin Franklin and the Globalization of American Capitalism, by Sophus Reinert (2015) Way to Wealth Scholarship posting. The Pine Tree overview with …
A perfectly lovely domain name, and, as far as I can see, a one-page website: congratulations and thanks! thirteenvirtues.com/
A teacher friend noticed this quote: “This will be the best security for maintaining our liberties. A nation of well-informed men who have been taught to know and prize the rights which God has given them cannot be enslaved. It is in the religion of ignorance that tyranny begins. ” This is found on American History …
A very nice research job by Politifact’s Steve Contorno and the APS’s Roy Goodman, detailed in this Politifact article: congratulations to all. Some Non-Bogus Quotes An Ounce of Prevention is worth a Pound of Cure: both this 1735 article and a 1750 letter. See Also Familiar (Mis)Quotations by a kindred soul at Johns Hopkins.
