This book is a compilation of Franklin's Letters (from London 1757-75. from Paris 1776-85, and Philadelphia 1785-90), Poor Richard's Almanack (1733-58), his 4 part Autobiography (part 1: from 7/30-8/13/1771, part 2: 1784, part 3: 1788-5/1789, & part 4: 11/13/1789), a Chronology, Notes, and an Index. The letters were extremely interesting, not just as context for the period, but because they demonstrate the situation before, during, and after the Revolutionary War a well as Franklin's many roles during his lifetime. The Chronology helps to put all of this into perspective. The 1st part of the Autobiography reads like a novel and was quite enjoyable. The later parts went into much detail of a limited number of activities and, unfortunately were never completed and didn't cover his activities in France. Poor Richards' Almanack was delightful in its later expositions of scientific advances etc. and, of course in its plethora of pithy sayings, maxims, and observations--though these were not just in Poor Richard's but exist throughout the entire volume. The Notes are particularly helpful by translating the many Latin expressions within the text.
Some of these are political:
p. 110: The wisest councils are liable to be misled, especially in matters remote from their inspection.
p. 553: Laws like Cobwebs catch small flies, great ones break through before your eyes.
p. 510: Pardoning the bad is injuring the good.
p. 537 Ignorance leads me into a party, and shame keeps them from getting out again.
p. 546: Laws too gentle are seldom obeyed; too severe, seldom executed.
Some are psychological:
p. 357: We are men, all subject to errors. Our opinions are not in our own power; they are formed and governed much by circumstances, that are often as inexplicable as they are irresistible.
p. 495: It's common for men to give 6 pretended reasons instead of one real one.
p. 501: a mob's a monster; heads enough but no brains. [This is similar to Jung's "A collection of a hundred Great Brains makes one big fathead." [ASIN:0710072449 Civilization in Transition], p. 500.]
p. 664: The truth of an old maxim I had learnt, which says, 'he that has once done you a kindness will be more ready to do you another, than he whom you yourself have obliged.
p. 707: When men are employed they are best contented.
Some demonstrate the state of his knowledge at that early date:
p. 294: The compass appears to have been long known in China, before it was known in Europe...If any Phoenicians arrived in America...they coasted from Denmark & Norway, over to Greenland, & down Southward...as the Danes themselves certainly did some ages before Columbus. [cf.
1421}
p. 362: English...would probably become in the course of two centuries the most extensive language in the world, the Spanish only excepted. 8/19/1784
Many refer to increasing wealth/prosperity:
pp. 489 & p. 780 note 489.16: Borgen nacht sorgen=He that goes borrowing, goes sorrowing.
p. 495: Beware of little expenses, a small leak will sink a great ship.
p. 512: Content makes poor men rich; discontent makes rich men poor.
p. 515: Great good nature, without prudence, is a great misfortune.
p. 517: A man may receive more solid satisfaction from pudding, while he is living, than from praise, after he is dead.
p. 523: Many a man would have been worse if his estate had been better.
p. 545: A change of fortune hurts a wise man no more than a change of the moon.
p. 559: The artificial wants of mankind thus become more numerous than the natural.
p. 560: When the well's dry, they know the worth of water.
Many are simply profound:
p. 300: [when sending some money to someone in need] Some time or other you may have an opportunity of assisting with an equal sum a stranger who has equal need of it. Do so. By that means you will discharge any obligation you may suppose yourself under to me. Enjoin him to do the same on occasion. By pursuing such a practice, much good may be done with little money.
[predates the movie
Pay It Forward] 9/5/1781 Letter to William Nixon
p. 519: The Golden Age never was the present age.
p. 528: 'Tis great confidence in a friend to tell him your faults, greater to tell him his.
p. 529: The wise and brave dares own that he was wrong.
p. 537: Setting too good an example is a kind of slander seldom forgiven.
p. 541: The learned fool writes his nonsense in better language; but still 'tis nonsense.
p. 549: Many a man's tongue gives evidence against his understanding.
--It is ill manners to silence a fool, and cruelty to let him go on. [a paradox/enigma]
p. 564: Half the truth is often a great lie.
Some concern general principles regarding the guiding of one's life:
p. 421: The multitude are more effectually set right by experience, than kept from going wrong by reasoning with them.
p. 490: Experience keeps a dear school, yet Fools will learn in no other.
pp. 490 & 780 note 490.21: Felix quen faciunt aliena pericula cautum=Happy is he whom others' experiences make cautious.
p. 510: Wise men learn by others harms; fools by their own.
p. 513: If passion drives, let reason hold the reins.
p. 514: The wise man draws more advantage from his enemies than the fool from his friends.
--All would live long, but none would be old.
p. 515: A man in a passion rides a mad horse.
p. 518: There are 3 things extremely hard, steel, a diamond and to know one's self.
--Clean your finger before you point at my spots.
p. 519: Genius without education is like silver in the mine.
p. 543: Who is wise? He that learns from everyone. Who is powerful? He that governs his passions. Who is rich? He that is content. Who is that? Nobody.
p. 544: Being ignorant is not so much shame as being unwilling to learn.
p. 545: Love your enemies, for they tell you your faults.
Many from Poor Richard's Almanack are, sometimes in slightly modified form, still well-known today:
p. 446: He that lies down with dogs, shall rise up with fleas.
p. 460: Fish and visitors stink in three days.
p. 458: Early to bed and early to rise, makes a man healthy wealthy and wise.
p. 461: God helps them that help themselves.
--The rotten apple spoils his companion.
--Don't throw stones at your neighbors, if your own windows are glass.
p. 492: Tart words make no friends: a spoonful of honey will catch more flies than gallon of vinegar.
p. 495: no gains without pains.
p. 501: d. wise, L foolish (pennywise, pound foolish)
p. 516: Molehills, if often heep'd, to mountains rise.
p. 519: Little strokes fell great oaks.
p. 522: Time is money.
p. 537: Haste makes waste.
p. 555: A word to the wise is enough.
p. 556: God helps them that help themselves.
p. 754:In this world, nothing can be said to be certain except death and taxes. 11/13/1789
But some perhaps should be:
p. 451: A new truth is a truth, an old error is an error.
p. 452: Where there's marriage without love, there will be love without marriage.
p. 453: As charms are nonsense, Nonsense is a charm.
p. 454: A learned blockhead is a greater blockhead than an ignorant one.
p. 456: Approve not of him who commends all you say.
p. 458: An old young man will be a young old man.
And quite a bit of humor:
p. 457: Three may keep a secret, if two of them are dead.
p. 458: Here comes the orator! With his flood of words, and his drops of reason.
--If what most men admire, they would despise, 'Twould look as if mankind were growing wise.
p. 460: There's more old drunkards than old doctors.
p. 461: None preaches better than the ant, and she says nothing.
p. 462: He that scatters thorns, let him not go barefoot.
p. 464: A countryman between two lawyers is like a fish between two cats.
p. 472: Blessed is he that expects nothing, for he shall never be disappointed.
p. 483: The close mouth catches no flies
p. 492: Make haste slowly
--Epitaph on a scolding wife by her husband:
--Here my poor Bridget's corpse doth lie, she is at rest, and so am I
p. 495: There are no fools so troublesome as those that have wit.
But, perhaps the most profound concern religion:
p. 291: When a religion is good, I conceive that it will support itself; and, when it cannot support itself, and God does not take care to support, so that its professors are obliged to call for the help of the civil power, it is a sign, I apprehend, of its being a bad one. 10/9/1780
p. 488: Men differ daily about things which are subject to sense, is it likely then they should agree about things invisible?
p. 526: The profusion of life everywhere to be observed, is above measure astonishing, and shows the Maker to be an infinite being.
p. 528: Talking against religion is unchaining a Tyger; the Beast let loose may worry his deliverer.
p. 677: Every other sect supposing itself in possession of all truth, and those who differ are so far in the wrong: like a man traveling in foggy weather: Those at some distance before him on the road he sees rapt up in the fog, as well as those behind him, and also the people in the fields on each side; but near him all appears clear--'Tho in truth he is as much in the fog as any of them.
