The Enduring Advice of Franklin’s Poor Richard’s Almanac

Poor Richard’s Almanac (1732-1758) is Ben Franklin’s wisdom in a nutshell: enduring lessons from a young entrepreneur, later a public-spirited scientist, inventor, diplomat, and revolutionary - the man Jefferson asked to edit our Declaration. Franklin was a guy who made you think. We could use him now.

The biggest piece of Franklin’s wisdom was the pitch to “think” and to “get involved,” to invest yourself. In our day, half the nation seems content to outsource their thinking to online, off-target, ideological conformists, those pushing agitation, rejecting tradition, high purpose, and wisdom for raw emotion. Franklin offers an alternative – that we think for ourselves, and apply time-tested lessons each day.

Franklin’s lifelong quest was to improve both himself and the world. That began with improving the public mind, causing people to show discipline and think harder.

On the importance of using our God-given lives fully, he would say: “Lost time is never found again,” “Early to bed and early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise,” and “Little strokes fell great oaks.” “Does thou love life? Then do not squander time, for that is the stuff of which life is made.”

Franklin himself was always looking forward and outward. He pioneered the post office, public library, and volunteer fire departments; he was “other-regarding.” To improve the world, he pushed himself relentlessly, working late hours problem-solving.

When it came to making money, he succeeded by applying his wit to opportunities, seldom letting them pass without making much of each moment, then the next.

Franklin, using the name “Poor Richard,” encouraged “industry and frugality,” which he believed led to “virtue,” reminding us that “A penny saved is a penny earned,” and “Content makes poor men rich; discontent makes rich men poor.”

More a public advisor than preacher, he just reminded you of things you knew, but tended to forget, even wished to. You could take or leave it, but he had something better to hear.

On strong-minded people who resent or resist truth: “He that will not be counselled cannot be helped,” and “Be at war with your vices, at peace with your neighbors.”

On advancement in private and public, he advised: “To be humble to superiors is a mark of greatness; to be submissive to equals is a mark of mediocrity; to be respectful to inferiors is a mark of wisdom.”

Like others after him, from Winston Churchill to Charlie Kirk, he wasn't college-educated, but he educated himself. Kept from schooling for lack of money, he advocated for publicly funded education, read constantly, worked to learn, and pushed himself to know all he could.

On education: “An investment in knowledge pays the best interest,” and “Being ignorant is not so much a shame as being unwilling to learn” and “Experience keeps a dear school… fools will learn in no other, and scarce in that.”

On life’s precepts, lest we forget, he observed simply: “In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes,” “A long life may not be good enough, but a good life is long enough,” and “The things which hurt, instruct.”

He pressed us to use our rights and skills, stay curious, test our courage, reach higher, and always choose the harder course. He encouraged humility, reflection, and self-examination.

His guidance on happiness related to good character, advancing happiness by building character. “Love your enemies, for they tell you your faults,” “Search others for their virtues, thyself for thy vices,” and “A friend in need is a friend indeed!” “Well done is better than well said,” and “He that is good for making excuses is seldom good for anything else.”

On staying active, he loved metaphors and poetic turns. “The used key is always bright,” and “Plough deep while sluggards sleep, and you shall have corn to sell and to keep.” “One today is worth two tomorrows,” and “Beware of little expenses; a small leak will sink a great ship.”

Finally, pointing us forward with confidence and realism: “There are no gains without pains,” “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure,” and this lesson: “Tell me and I forget, teach me and I may remember, involve me and I learn.” Time to get involved.