Benjamin Franklin was born in Boston, Massachusetts in 1706. He was the youngest son of 17 children born to a candle-maker. He learned to read at age 4, and even though he only had two years of formal schooling, he had a passion for books. At age 16he founded his own newspaper, The New England Courant. He wrote and sold essays, published his advice in Poor Richard’s Almanac and established the very first community fire departments and public libraries. Franklin had a natural curiosity about how things work. He spent much of his life trying to find ways for people to live better. He invented a number of different devices including the Franklin wood-stove, bifocals, and the lightning rod. When he invented his safer, heat-efficient Franklin stove, he never bothered to patent it because he had created it for the good of society. He left behind countless literary works on religious, philosophical, scientific, political, and economic subjects.
It was Ben Franklin who said, “Be always at war with your vices, at peace with your neighbors, and let each New Year find you a better man.” Franklin developed these 13 steps to self improvement when he was 20 years old and continued to practice them for the rest of his life.
1. “TEMPERANCE. Eat not to dullness; 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; forbear resenting injuries so much as you think they deserve.”
10. “CLEANLINESS. Tolerate no uncleanliness in body, clothes, or habitation.”
11. “TRANQUILLITY. Be not disturbed at trifles, or at accidents common or unavoidable.”
12. “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.”
13. “HUMILITY. Imitate Jesus and Socrates.”
Benjamin Franklin died in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, he was 84 years old.
