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