Etre au monde, oui ! Mais sûrement pas de Ce monde ! Plus de 18 années d’édition de billets de blog sur 20-minutes, Médiapart et Nouvelobs, aujourd'hui sur Overblog... Durant toutes ces années, sachez que tout ce qui est beau, rare, difficile et courageux ne m’aura pas été étranger ; d'où le choix de mes catégories et des sujets traités. Bonne découverte à tous !
9 Avril 2024
… for he not only worked hard but also arranged to be noticed doing so.
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Franklin’s autobiography… a celebration of oneself ?
Benjamin Franklin was a reliable source of quotable wisdom.
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A man is sometimes more generous when he has but a little money than when he has plenty, perhaps for fear of being thought to have but little.
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Poverty often deprives a man of all spirit and virtue ; it is hard for a empty bag to stand upright
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Anyone who wishes to please every body and have little to offer, gives expectations.
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I am convinced that truth, sincerity and integrity in dealings between man and man, are of the utmost importance to the felicity of life.
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A Little neglect may breed mischief : for want of a nail, the shoe was lost ; for want of a shoe the horse was lost ; and for want of a horse the rider was lost, being overtaken and slain by the enemy...
All for the want of care for a horse-shoe nail.
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Small things appear great to those in small circumstances.
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If you would know the value of money, go and try to borrow some.
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When the well is try, they know the value of water
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A ploughman on his legs is higher than a Gentleman on his knee
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It is easier to suppress the first desire than to satisfy all that follow it.
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Objections, reluctances I often met with in soliciting subscriptions, made me soon feel the impropriety of presenting one’s self as the proposer of any useful project that might be supposed to raise one’s reputation in the smallest degree above that of one’s neighbors, when one has need of their assistance to accomplish a project.
For that reason…
The little sacrifice of one’s vanity will afterwards be amply repaid if it remains a while uncertain to whom the merit belongs ; some one more vain than one’s self will be encouraged to claim it and then even envy will be disposed to do you justice by plucking those assumed feathers, and restoring them to their right owner.
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Temperance, silence, order, resolution, frugality, industry, sincerity, justice, moderation, cleanliness, tranquility, chastity, humility…
I include under those 13 names of virtues all that occurred to me as necessary or desirable.
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Wise men learn by others harms ; fools scarcely by their own.
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Many a little makes a great amount ; a small leak will sink a great ship.
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A perfect character might be attended with the inconvenience of being envied and hated ; a benevolent man should allow a few faults in himself to keep his friends in countenance.
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If it be the design of providence to extirpate these savages (Indians - ndlr) in order to make room for cultivators of the earth, it seems not improbable that rum may be the appointed means. It has already annihilated all the tribes who formerly inhabited the sea-cost.
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Human felicity is produced not so much by great pieces of good fortune that seldom happens, as by little advantages that occur every day.
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Franklin's "Autobiography" owes much of its vast fame to the fact that in tracing his development Franklin gave classic expression to three powerful ingredients of the American dream : the ideals of material success, of moral regeneration, and of social progress; Even those who have never read the book know something of Franklin’s account of his rise to riches, of how he acquired habits of, and a reputation for, moderation, industry and probity.
By early middle age he had despite his humble origins secured a fortune substantial enough to afford him “Leisure during the rest of my life, for philosophical studies and amusements”.
Franklin had planned to elaborate this astonishing attempt to live “ without committing any fault at any time” in a treatise on “The art of virtue” which is his naturalistic version of the of the divine grace of his puritan forebears, differing from it crucially, however, in that he felt he might purify himself while they considered regeneration beyond one’s striving.
Franklin was among the first to understand the power of the press and of advertising and his cunningly ingratiating style marks an early stage of the modern skills of public relations and the “soft sell”.
Kenneth Silverman
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Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) was America's scientist, inventor, politician, philanthropist and business man. He is best known as one of our Founding Fathers and the only one who signed all three documents that freed America from Britain: The Declaration of Independence. The American Constitution and The Treaty of Paris.
