• Cyburbia is a friendly big tent, where we share our experiences and thoughts about urban planning practice, the built environment, planning adjacent topics, and anything else that comes to mind. No ads, no spam, and it's free. It's easy to join!

Ben Franklin's 13 Virtues

JNA

JNA

Cyburbian Plus
Messages
32,365
Points
79
Had you heard of these before ?

1. Temperance: Eat not to dullness and drink not to elevation.
2. Silence: Speak not but what may benefit others or yourself. Avoid trifling conversation.
3. Order: Let all your things have their places. Let each part of your business have its time.
4. Resolution: Resolve to perform what you ought. Perform without fail what you resolve.
5. Frugality: Make no expense but to do good to others or yourself: i.e. Waste nothing.
6. Industry: Lose no time. Be always employed in something useful. Cut off all unnecessary actions.
7. Sincerity: Use no hurtful deceit. Think innocently and justly; and, if you speak, speak accordingly.
8. Justice: Wrong none, by doing injuries or omitting the benefits that are your duty.
9. Moderation: Avoid extremes. Forebear resenting injuries so much as you think they deserve.
10. Cleanliness: Tolerate no uncleanness in body, clothes or habitation.
11. 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.
12. Tranquility: Be not disturbed at trifles, or at accidents common or unavoidable.
13. Humility: Imitate Jesus and Socrates.

Pretty timeless.

AIB The NY Times Magazine The Ethicist June 30, 2002
list easily googled.
 
As brilliant and fantastic as Franklin can be seen to be, I've never understood why so many have this hatred of small talk (point two). I've always been in envy of those who have mastered good small talk; it's so much harder then it seems.
 
chukky said:
As brilliant and fantastic as Franklin can be seen to be, I've never understood why so many have this hatred of small talk (point two). I've always been in envy of those who have mastered good small talk; it's so much harder then it seems.
Click to expand...
Many of us just don't have a mind for small talk. I am very uncomfortable in social situations and that is simply a part of it.

Mike
 
Bear's Report Card

On number 1, I am OK. I haven't been "elevated" in years. Number 2.....I am a master at trifling conversation. That's the way I am. Number 3.....I am orderly to a fault. Just count my spreadsheets. Or, look at my......here ya go....."Franklin" Planner. Not so good on number 4 and number 5. I fit the profile for number 6, dang workaholic thing. Oddly enough, a lot of my time in the workplace is spent working on reducing unneccesary labor.

I pass the test on numbers 7 and 8. My sheltered life has led to some extremes, so I probably flunked the number 9 course. Number 10 is fine.

Concerning number 11.....I have never injured anybody or myself. ;)

Number 12.....bad habit.....I get angry easy at stoopid little things.

Number 13.....as much as I would like to "turn the other cheek", this world is too scary to follow through on that.

Bear
 
You left out a couple...

What about him recommending that men marry older women who can teach them stuff and will be kinder to them in appreciation and what about him saying "Necessity is the mother of invention"???????
 
JNA said:
11. 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.
Click to expand...

Wasn't Ol' Ben known for being something of a skirt chaser back in the day?
 
statler said:
Wasn't Ol' Ben known for being something of a skirt chaser back in the day?
Click to expand...
That's the way I heard it. Supposedly, he was quite the ladies man when he was an elderly ambassador in France too.
 
14. Beer is proof positive that God loves us.:)

(Even if it isn't B. Franklin, it's still good. And I'm pretty darn sure that it was ol' Ben.)
 
JNA said:
13. Humility: Imitate Jesus and Socrates.
Click to expand...
He added this one after a friend suggested it. Later in like he said that he excelled at each of the 12… he found that humility is not something that is in his nature and realized that he could work to it, but it was not as easy as the others.

I use my Franklin Covey planner the same way that Franklin used his. Each week I work on one of these (or a variation of it) and list the steps to achieve it. I still have a lot of work to do, but I am happy that the effort is being made.

Michele Zone said:
That's the way I heard it. Supposedly, he was quite the ladies man when he was an elderly ambassador in France too.
Click to expand...
He was part player, part pimp, all ladies man!
2000-10-13-21-1.jpeg
 
I believe he forgot number 14.

14. Sanctimony: Prescribe to others a life of temperance and chastity while you are a renowned partier who supposedly tries to sleep his way through half the women of Paris. :r:
 
Gedunker said:
14. Beer is proof positive that God loves us.:)

(Even if it isn't B. Franklin, it's still good. And I'm pretty darn sure that it was ol' Ben.)
Click to expand...

Yea verily: "Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy." - Ben Franklin.

That's how I prefer 'ol Ben...don't give me any of that "temperance" crapolla.:a:
 
biscuit said:
I believe he forgot number 14.

14. Sanctimony: Prescribe to others a life of temperance and chastity while you are a renowned partier who supposedly tries to sleep his way through half the women of Paris. :r:
Click to expand...
15. Hypocrisy: I have heard him criticized for extolling the virtues of hard work when, in reality, he was world famous for his long baths and other means of lazing about.
 
Michele Zone said:
15. Hypocrisy: I have heard him criticized for extolling the virtues of hard work when, in reality, he was world famous for his long baths and other means of lazing about.
Click to expand...


That seems harsh. Ben Franklin, in his autobiography, states that he arrived in Philadelphia with about 11 cents in his pocket. Most of that he spent on seven loaves of bread, which he subsisted on until he got a job. Through hard work, he became a master printer, inventor, writer, thinker, and statesman. He retired from his printing business because he was a very rich man. His wealth enabled him to devote his later years to less profitable pursuits, including being instrumental to the founding of the United States. I think he earned a right to kick back a bit. Including time with the ladies. ;)

I believe Ben Franklin doesn't get enough credit for all he did. Especially since he did much of this work when he was an old man, who had had his time in the sun and could have let the young lions do all the work. Maybe that is why he is on the $100 and Hamilton is only on the $10.
 
I had to read Ben Franklin's autobiography in one of my classes a few semesters ago. The thing about him is that he believed that the surface of things is what matters. He believed in politeness as a virtue, for instance. It didn't matter to him what you felt about a person on the inside so long as you were cordial on the outside.

Consider the last one. "Humility: Emulate Jesus and Socrates." Isn't that one of the most contradictory things you've ever read? You're supposed to be humble... but strive to equate yourself Jesus and Socrates! That wasn't contradictory in Franklin's mind because he saw both men, while they were being great, acting humble. Jesus, of course, did miracles and then told people to keep quiet about them, and Socrates claimed that the only thing he knew is that he didn't know anything. To Franklin, there's no hypocrisy in thinking you're hot sh*t and presenting humility to the world, in fact, there's virtue in it.

Franklin was a "deist" who had a very poor notion of spirituality, and had a very fuzzy notion of morality as well. He was a skirt-chaser and described his exploits in his biography without shame. He also described screwing over a family member (brother, iirc) who pledged to take Franklin under his wing as an apprentice printer (he learned how to print and then reneged on their informal apprenticeship agreement). He called these things "errata" which is a printing term basically meaning "typographical errors." He didn't really have a deeper sense of right-and-wrong than that.
 
otterpop said:
That seems harsh. Ben Franklin, in his autobiography, states that he arrived in Philadelphia with about 11 cents in his pocket. Most of that he spent on seven loaves of bread, which he subsisted on until he got a job. Through hard work, he became a master printer, inventor, writer, thinker, and statesman. He retired from his printing business because he was a very rich man. His wealth enabled him to devote his later years to less profitable pursuits, including being instrumental to the founding of the United States. I think he earned a right to kick back a bit. Including time with the ladies. ;)

I believe Ben Franklin doesn't get enough credit for all he did. Especially since he did much of this work when he was an old man, who had had his time in the sun and could have let the young lions do all the work. Maybe that is why he is on the $100 and Hamilton is only on the $10.
Click to expand...
Sorry, it wasn't intended as harsh. I am a fan of Franklin's. But I think that you can't adequately sum up his success with a handful of bullet points. I have read that criticism of him somewhere -- that he extolled the virtues of "hard work" yet was famous for lolling around. Frankly, I suspect he did a lot of creative brain work during such times. Nonetheless, I think it fails to convey something to simply say "hard work" is the basis of success. Hard, physical labor is done by lots of people who will never earn what folks with college degrees earn. "Hard work" alone does not make one a success and I think there is a problem with, essentially, chastising others as failures for supposedly not working hard enough. Lots of people work very hard while the profits acrue to those with the legal right to the profits -- such as share holders -- rather than to those sweating like pigs to make it happen. In that regard, I do think it is in error to promote "hard work" as the basis for success and I can't find a better descriptor than "hypicrisy" for the error involved. Feel free to suggest a better descriptor. :)
 
jordanb said:
I had to read Ben Franklin's autobiography in one of my classes a few semesters ago. The thing about him is that he believed that the surface of things is what matters. He believed in politeness as a virtue, for instance. It didn't matter to him what you felt about a person on the inside so long as you were cordial on the outside.
Click to expand...
This is classic Capricorn. Public image is very important to them, and they are always trying on different masks. Thus, their own sense of who they really are and what they stand for at a deep level is something of a mystery to them and a source of melancholy. But they have great discipline and make some of the best friends you can find. Newton was a Capricorn too. They both excelled at putting their imagination to work for their intellect to develop practical inventions.

He was far from perfect, but Franklin more or less, deserves all the hype he gets. Andrew Jackson - of $20-bill honor on the other hand, got an awful lot of Native American blood on his hands.
 
His principles sound like antonyms of the "7 deadly sins:"

Pride (Humility, Silence)

Envy (?)

Gluttony (Temperance)

Lust (Chastity)

Anger (Tranquility, Sincerity, Justice)

Greed (Frugality, Moderation)

Sloth (Order, Resolution, Industry, Cleanliness)
 
jordanb said:
Franklin was a "deist" who had a very poor notion of spirituality, and had a very fuzzy notion of morality as well. He was a skirt-chaser and described his exploits in his biography without shame. He also described screwing over a family member (brother, iirc) who pledged to take Franklin under his wing as an apprentice printer (he learned how to print and then reneged on their informal apprenticeship agreement). He called these things "errata" which is a printing term basically meaning "typographical errors." He didn't really have a deeper sense of right-and-wrong than that.
Click to expand...

This makes so much sense. Franklin's virtues had nothing to do with Christian morality - they speak to self-reliance and hard work, and working together as a society. Sure, loose morals can signal a breakdown in society, but many do not place such an emphasis on it as Christians do. I guess the Victorians are to blame?
 
Back
Top