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The Autobiography
Benjamin Franklin
virtueSource: Merriam-Webster Dictionary
1. a conformity to a standard of right: morality2. a particular moral excellence3. a beneficial quality or power of a thing4. manly strength or courage: valor5. a commendable quality or trait: merit6. a capacity to act: potency
preceptSource: Merriam-Webster Dictionary
1. a command or principle intended especially as a general rule of action
2. an order issued by legally constituted authority to a subordinate official
Ben Franklin’s List of Virtues
1. Temperance2. Silence3. Order4. Resolution5. Frugality6. Industry7. Sincerity
8. Justice9. Moderation10.Cleanliness11.Tranquility12.Chastity13.Humility
Temperance
• Eat not to dullness; drink not to elevation
Silence
• Speak not but what may benefit others or yourself; avoid trifling conversation.
Order
• Let all your things have their places; let each part of your business have its time.
Resolution
• Resolve to perform what you ought; perform without fail what you resolve.
Frugality
• Make no expense but to do good to others or yourself; i.e., waste nothing.
Industry
• Lose no time; be always employed in something useful; cut off all unnecessary actions.
Sincerity
• Use no hurtful deceit; think innocently and justly, and if you speak, speak accordingly.
Justice
• Wrong none by doing injuries, or omitting the benefits that are your duty.
Moderation
• Avoid extremes; forebear resenting injuries so much as you think they deserve.
Cleanliness
• Tolerate no uncleanliness in body, clothes, or habitation.
Tranquility
• Be not disturbed at trifles, or at accidents common or unavoidable.
Chastity
• Rarely use venery but for health or offspring, never to dullness, weakness, or the injury of your own or another’s peace or reputation.
Humility
• Imitate Jesus and Socrates.
Humility
Humble (noun)• Not proud or haughty:
not arrogant or assertive• Reflecting, expressing,
or offered in a spirit of deference or submission
• Ranking low in hierarchy or scale
• Not costly
Humiliate (verb)• To reduce to a lower position in one’s own eyes or others’ eyes
Keeping track
• Created a chart to track success with cultivating good virtues (habits).
• Worked on one per week – a thirteen week cycle
• Could complete four cycles/year• Ordered them so that each virtue would help
him succeed with the following virtues.
Anecdote• Weeding a garden
Illustrates that it is easier to work on one garden bed at a time, rather than tackle all the weeds at once.He choose to tackle one virtue a week, rather than all 13 at the same time.
Daily Schedule
• To help with order, he created a daily schedule
Order
• Most trouble to accomplish• Trouble with schedule:– Most of his business did not rely on a routine day,
but depended on the schedule of others– He conducted much of his business overseas
• Trouble with papers and things:– Not in the habit of organizing things– In youth had a good memory, to it was not that
important
Anecdote of the “Speckled Ax”
• Man wanted the face of his ax to be as bright as the edge
• Took to a grinder who said he would hold the ax while the owner turned the grinding stone
• After a while, the owner tired of the turning and decided that although the face of the ax was not entirely bright, a speckled ax was ok
Meaning of Anecdote
• Ben Franklin pokes fun at himself. He has set goals that are difficult to perfect.
• He will settle for being improved, not perfect.• States that he would look ridiculous (like a
“fop” if he were perfect.
Franklin states:
• Even though he did not succeed with his original plan, he is a better man for having undertaken this plan
More details:
• He wrote this when he was 79 years old• He shared his wisdom with his posterity –
his children and future generations
What did he gain by cultivating these virtues?
• Temperance– Good health and a good constitution
• Industry and Frugality– The early easiness of his circumstances [he retired
from his printing business at 42]– Acquisition of his fortune [he became a wealthy
man]– Knowledge that enabled him to be a useful citizen– A reputation among the learned
What did he gain by cultivating these virtues? cont.
• Sincerity and Justice– The confidence of his country and jobs that
required that confidence• All of the virtues:– An even temper– Cheerfulness – Good conversationalist– Agreeable to youth
“I hope, therefore, that some of my
descendants may follow the example
and reap the benefit.”
Benjamin Franklin