An American Life
0684807610
Walter Isaacson
Notes
By asking what seemed to be innocent questions, Franklin would draw people into making concessions that would gradually prove whatever point he was trying to assert.
“I took care not only to be in reality industrious and frugal,” he later wrote, “but to avoid all appearances of the contrary”…Franklin became an apostle of being—and, just as important, of appearing to be—industrious. Even after he became successful, he made a show of personally carting the rolls of paper he bought in a wheelbarrow down the street to his shop, rather than having a hired hand do it…Franklin was always industrious, and in America he famously believed in also giving the appearance of being industrious. But in France, where the appearance of pleasure was more valued, Franklin knew how to adopt the style.
“a self-created and self-willed man who moved through life at a calculated pace toward calculated ends.”
“Let this be a caution to you not always to hold your head so high. Stoop, young man, stoop—as you go through this world—and you’ll miss many hard thumps.”
Henceforth, Franklin would find himself more attracted to people who were practical and reliable rather than dreamy and romantic.
There were four rules:
- It is necessary for me to be extremely frugal for some time, till I have paid what I owe.
- To endeavor to speak truth in every instance; to give nobody expectations that are not likely to be answered, but aim at sincerity in every word and action—the most amiable excellence in a rational being.
- To apply myself industriously to whatever business I take in hand, and not divert my mind from my business by any foolish project of suddenly growing rich; for industry and patience are the surest means of plenty.
- I resolve to speak ill of no man whatever.
His greatest difficulty was with the virtue of order. He was a sloppy man, and he eventually decided that he was so busy and had such a good memory that he didn’t need to be too orderly.
“He that pursues two hares at once does not catch one and lets the other go . . . Search others for their virtues, thy self for thy vices.”
“…am of the opinion that almost any profession a man has been educated in is preferable to an office held… subject to the caprices of superiors.” Instead, he advised Bache to go home, become a merchant “selling only for ready cash,” and to “always be close” to his wife.
“I have made it a rule, whenever in my power, to avoid becoming the draughtsman of papers to be reviewed by a public body.”