Never too late for New Year resolution
Colonial Americans had a therapist of sorts to seek out when times became baffling, and that was none other than Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790). He was not only one of the most revered Founding Fathers, but author and publisher of Poor Richard’s Almanac, first published 285 years ago. To be sure, Franklin wasn’t the first to publish a self-help almanac, but he knew how to devise and market it. It was filled with weather forecasts, astrological charts, short literature, news stories (both actual and made up for fun sakes) and, most of all, adages for everyday living.
Shrewdly, Franklin recognized that book reading — save for the Bible — wasn’t the choice of the average colonist, but, like the Bible, a volume that could be read and enjoyed over and over again in bits and pieces was likely to be a best seller. And it was, published annually for a quarter century, with yearly sales averaging 10,000 copies. A voracious reader, Franklin borrowed from many sources in the Almanac, made a lot of money from it and other enterprises, so much so that he was able to devote half his life as a public servant. He left his wealth to his hometowns of Boston and Philadelphia, to be used for humanitarian purposes 200 years after his death.
Franklin was noted during his government years as an especially effective diplomat, to France, Sweden and, most notably, as one of the three negotiators of the peace ending the American Revolution. His calming and compromising voice at the Constitutional Convention of 1787 eased partisanship. So, in the hopes of substituting sweet literary treats for today’s often vitriolic tweets, I’m offering some of Franklin’s adages that just might serve readers as belated New Year resolutions or insights to contemplate:
“Your net worth to the world is usually determined by what remains after your bad habits are subtracted from your good ones.”
“We are all born ignorant, but one must work hard to remain stupid.”
“If a man could have half his wishes, he would double his troubles.”
“Those disputing, contradicting and confuting people are generally unfortunate in their affairs. They get victories, sometimes, but they never get good will, which would be of more use to them.”
“Any fool can criticize, condemn or complain — and most fools do.”
“Well done is better than well said.”
“A man wrapped in himself makes a very small bundle.”
“He who falls in love with himself will have no rivals.”
“Wise men don’t need advice. Fools won’t take it.”
“Most people return small favors, acknowledge medium ones and repay greater ones — with ingratitude.”
“It takes many good deeds to build a good reputation, and only one bad one to lose it.”
“The excellence of hogs is fatness; of men — virtue.”
“How few there are who have courage enough to own their own faults, or resolution enough to mend them.”
“When you’re finished changing, you’re finished.”
“Words may show a man’s wit, but actions his meaning.”
“Anger is never without a reason, but seldom a good one.”
“If a man empties his purse into his head, no one can take it from him.”
“There never was a truly great man that was not at the same time truly virtuous.”
“Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing.”
“Life’s tragedy is that we get old too soon and wise too late.”
“Content makes poor men rich, discontent makes rich men poor.”
“When befriended, remember it; when you befriend, forget it.”
“Whatever is begun in anger ends in shame.”
“Keep your eyes wide open before marriage, half shut afterwards.”
“There are three faithful friends — an old wife, an old dog and ready money.”
“I ... think happiness consists more in small inconveniences or pleasures that occur every day than in great pieces of good fortune that happen but seldom to a man in the course of his life. Thus I reckon it among my felicities that I can set my own razor and shave myself perfectly well; in which I have a daily pleasure, and avoid the uneasiness one is sometimes obliged to suffer from the dirty fingers or bad breath of a slovenly barber.”