Printer, writer, experimenter and diplomat whose retrospective account of learning and habits sits beside concise practical maxims. Read the memoir and anthology selections as different kinds of writing.
At the signing of the Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1776
The Whistle
Letter to Washington, March 5, 1780
Letter to M
Bible · anthology attribution: Franklin
Conscience · anthology attribution: Franklin
Debt · anthology attribution: Franklin
Diet · anthology attribution: Franklin
Drink · anthology attribution: Franklin
Economy · anthology attribution: Franklin
Evil · anthology attribution: Franklin
Example · anthology attribution: Franklin
Flattery · anthology attribution: Franklin
Friendship · anthology attribution: Franklin
Health · anthology attribution: Franklin
Honesty · anthology attribution: Franklin
Humility · anthology attribution: Franklin
Idleness · anthology attribution: Franklin
Industry · anthology attribution: Franklin
Intellect · anthology attribution: Franklin
Money · anthology attribution: Franklin
Patience · anthology attribution: Franklin
Life and writing
Benjamin Franklin (1706–1790) began in printing and developed interests in experimentation and public affairs. His work included publishing Poor Richard’s Almanack and serving as a diplomat in France during the American Revolution. This range matters when reading a short attributed sentence: a practical maxim, a personal recollection and a public argument serve different purposes.
The linked Autobiography recounts learning and practical undertakings in a retrospective voice. In its continuation begun at Passy in 1784, Franklin describes a project of repeated self-examination, interruptions and difficulty with Order. Read the reported improvements alongside those limits. The selected anthology maxims below carry a Poor Richard’s Almanac reference; linking the memoir does not claim that these selections occur in it.
Begin with the memoir’s account of changing a habit and notice how experience complicates the proposed method. Compare a maxim’s compact advice with that longer account rather than expecting either to guarantee success. Bartlett supplies a Poor Richard’s Almanac reference for the selected sayings; that historical citation is not independent manuscript authentication, and the linked Autobiography is a separate reading edition. The archive’s approximate 1748 coordinate is a lifetime midpoint, not the composition date of those sayings.
Subjects to explore
Editorial reading connections, distinct from the archive’s word matching.
Original agent-assisted editorial profile, checked 2026-10-05. No human review is recorded. Life dates are recorded to the year; they do not date individual quotations.
Limited original factual paraphrase for lifetime, printing, publishing and diplomacy; no museum article or portrait reproduced. Reference checked 2026-10-05.
Checked memoir text and locators support original reading guidance. Existing external US-specific edition; no new historical text imported. Reference checked 2026-10-05.