"Franklin's Wisdom".
Franklin's wisdom
Happy 234th birthday, America. This is your day to reconnect with your roots, with your forefathers' gathering to declare the fledgling country's independence from the "injuries and usurpations" of a bullying Britain, with your unalienable rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
Many have noted, over the years, that the Declaration of Independence doesn't promise Americans happiness, only the right to pursue it. That pursuit is something to contemplate these days, when partisanship seems so sharp, when anger seems so widespread, when patience seems so worn.
Red, white and blue? Red, white and blues is more like it.
The document whose signing Americans celebrate today bears many signatures, and some of the people who signed it then remain stand-outs in the country's history. One in particular defies time and still offers many lessons and warnings -- in handy sound-bite form -- for the American sons and daughters his brain and his imagination continue to spawn.
That's Benjamin Franklin, of course, who only completed second grade but has been called the first "scientific American," his experiments in electricity sealing his fame long before his patriot days did the same for his status as national hero. He also was an inventor, a newspaperman, an author, a diplomat, the first postmaster general and, speaking of pursuits of happiness, a real bon vivant who had quite a way with the ladies -- but that's another story.
Franklin is summoned today because so much of what he wrote and repeated in his Poor Richard's Almanack from 1733-58 can serve as a user's manual for getting along in modern America. If the wise words don't exactly promise happiness, they do serve as a reminder that current challenges have been faced and dealt with before.
Today's questions, Benjamin Franklin's answers:
The haves and have-nots?
"The poor have little, beggars none, the rich too much, enough not one."
Want to put everything about yourself on Facebook?
"Do not do that which you would not have known."
(2 of 2)
The need for health care reform?
"God heals, and the Doctor takes the fees."
The importance of balance between work and home?
"Drive thy Business, let not that drive thee."
The importance of hard work?
"He that waits upon a Fortune, is never sure of a Dinner."
How persistence pays off?
"Little Strokes, fell great Oaks."
The dangers of hypocrisy?
"Don't throw stones at your neighbours, if your own windows are glass."
The importance of humility in leadership?
"He that cannot obey, cannot command."
Living in the moment?
"One Today is worth two Tomorrows."
The need to think before you speak?
"Man's tongue is soft, and bone doth lack; Yet a stroke therewith may break a man's back."
And Nike sure owes him:
"No gains without pains."
The wisdom in those words is timeless. But two other expressions of Benjamin Franklin's seem especially resonant in this American age of sharp partisanship, hot anger and worn patience.
He said, "A great empire, like a great cake, is most easily diminished at the edges."
And right before he affixed his name to the Declaration of Independence, Benjamin Franklin wrote about the need for the "united" aspect of the future states of America: "We must, indeed, all hang together, or most assuredly we shall all hang separately."
Happy 234th birthday, America. This is your day to reconnect with your roots, with your forefathers' gathering to declare the fledgling country's independence from the "injuries and usurpations" of a bullying Britain, with your unalienable rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
Many have noted, over the years, that the Declaration of Independence doesn't promise Americans happiness, only the right to pursue it. That pursuit is something to contemplate these days, when partisanship seems so sharp, when anger seems so widespread, when patience seems so worn.
Red, white and blue? Red, white and blues is more like it.
The document whose signing Americans celebrate today bears many signatures, and some of the people who signed it then remain stand-outs in the country's history. One in particular defies time and still offers many lessons and warnings -- in handy sound-bite form -- for the American sons and daughters his brain and his imagination continue to spawn.
That's Benjamin Franklin, of course, who only completed second grade but has been called the first "scientific American," his experiments in electricity sealing his fame long before his patriot days did the same for his status as national hero. He also was an inventor, a newspaperman, an author, a diplomat, the first postmaster general and, speaking of pursuits of happiness, a real bon vivant who had quite a way with the ladies -- but that's another story.
Franklin is summoned today because so much of what he wrote and repeated in his Poor Richard's Almanack from 1733-58 can serve as a user's manual for getting along in modern America. If the wise words don't exactly promise happiness, they do serve as a reminder that current challenges have been faced and dealt with before.
Today's questions, Benjamin Franklin's answers:
The haves and have-nots?
"The poor have little, beggars none, the rich too much, enough not one."
Want to put everything about yourself on Facebook?
"Do not do that which you would not have known."
(2 of 2)
The need for health care reform?
"God heals, and the Doctor takes the fees."
The importance of balance between work and home?
"Drive thy Business, let not that drive thee."
The importance of hard work?
"He that waits upon a Fortune, is never sure of a Dinner."
How persistence pays off?
"Little Strokes, fell great Oaks."
The dangers of hypocrisy?
"Don't throw stones at your neighbours, if your own windows are glass."
The importance of humility in leadership?
"He that cannot obey, cannot command."
Living in the moment?
"One Today is worth two Tomorrows."
The need to think before you speak?
"Man's tongue is soft, and bone doth lack; Yet a stroke therewith may break a man's back."
And Nike sure owes him:
"No gains without pains."
The wisdom in those words is timeless. But two other expressions of Benjamin Franklin's seem especially resonant in this American age of sharp partisanship, hot anger and worn patience.
He said, "A great empire, like a great cake, is most easily diminished at the edges."
And right before he affixed his name to the Declaration of Independence, Benjamin Franklin wrote about the need for the "united" aspect of the future states of America: "We must, indeed, all hang together, or most assuredly we shall all hang separately."
Labels: Happy Independence day
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