Benjamin Franklin

Benjamin Franklin
Benjamin Franklinwas one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. A renowned polymath, Franklin was a leading author, printer, political theorist, politician, freemason, postmaster, scientist, inventor, civic activist, statesman, and diplomat. As a scientist, he was a major figure in the American Enlightenment and the history of physics for his discoveries and theories regarding electricity. As an inventor, he is known for the lightning rod, bifocals, and the Franklin stove, among other inventions. He facilitated many civic organizations, including...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionScientist
Date of Birth17 January 1706
CityBoston, MA
CountryUnited States of America
"We hold these truths to be sacred and undeniable" in a draft of the Declaration of Independence changes it instead into an assertion of rationality. The scientific mind of Franklin drew on the scientific determinism of Isaac Newton and the analytic empiricism of David Hume and Gottfried Leibniz. In what became known as "Hume's Fork" the latters' theory distinguished between synthetic truths that describe matters of fact, and analytic truths that are self-evident by virtue of reason and definition.
Outside Independence Hall when the Constitutional Convention of 1787 ended, Mrs. Powel of Philadelphia asked Benjamin Franklin, "Well, Doctor, what have we got, a republic or a monarchy?" With no hesitation whatsoever, Franklin responded, "A republic, if you can keep it."
Outside Independence Hall when the Constitutional Convention of 1787 ended
The States acceded to the Union.
When a man and a woman die, as poets sung, His heart's the last part moves, her last, the tongue
The school looks very good. The uniforms are a good thing. It will be easy for my wife. She won't have to fight about clothes.
It would be thought a hard Government that should tax its People one tenth Part of their Time, to be employed in its Service.
Is there any thing Men take more pains about than to render themselves unhappy?
Think how great a proportion of mankind, consists of weak and ignorant men and women, and of inexperienced youth of both sexes, who have need of the motives of religion to restrain them from vice, to support their virtue, and retain them in the pract
An investment in knowledge always pays the best interest
Anger and Folly walk cheek-by-jole; Repentance treads on both their Heels.
And whether you're an honest man, or whether you're a thief,Depends on whose solicitor has given me my brief.
Enjoying the joys of others and suffering with them, these are are the best guides for man.
Early to bed, early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise