Great book, who knew?

I've been reading the Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin (hooray for free Kindle books) and have been surprised at how readable and enjoyable it is. It's a great book. It's easy to see how he became such a man of influence from such humble beginnings. It all came down to how he related to and treated people, his list of 13 virtues that he worked on developing everyday, hard work and frugality. Again, I'm surprised at how pleasant a read it is, pretty entertaining. Here's a few stand out notes that really made a difference in his life and what I think can make a difference in most lives. He worked to cultivate and perfect 13 virtues by focusing on one each week, but tracking how he did in each of them daily. The 13 Virtues are:
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.TRANQUILITY. Be not disturbed at trifles, or at accidents common or unavoidable.
12. CHASTITY. Rarely use venery but for health or offspring, never to dulness, weakness, or the injury of your own or another's peace or reputation.
13. HUMILITY. Imitate Jesus and Socrates. (I'm not all that familiar with Socrates, but apparently he's worth reading about)

Benjamin Franklin admitted he never became perfect in any one of these virtues, but said that trying to perfect them made him such a better man that it was worth the exercise anyway.

Another thing I thought an excellent idea was he formed a group of young people ( he was about 21 at this time) to get together once a week and discuss different political, societal, moral, philosophical or any other worthy point or question. The rules were: every member in his turn should produce one or more queries to be discussed in the company and once every three months produce an essay he wrote on any subject he chose. Queries to be discussed were stated the week before the actual discussion took place. Debates were under direction of a rotating president and were to be conducted in the 'sincere spirit of inquiry after truth, without fondness for dispute, or desire of victory and to prevent warmth, all expressions of positiveness in opinions or direct contradiction were . . . contraband (forbidden).' Breaking the rules carried a small monetary fine. I thought how great it would be to form a group like this today, if only I myself could abide by the rules. :) I'd definitely have to work on the 13 virtues first. In this day and age of slander and unbounded opinion spoken as fact for no other purpose often than to breed discontent, cause polarity and make another person or party look bad, what a refreshing and inspiring gathering something like this would be.

I also love that Benjamin Franklin was one of the foremost advocates for education of women. ( one of my favorite soap boxes, but that's another post)

He also ran a very successful printing press, but refused to ever print anything that libeled, slandered or was a personal attack on anyone. When solicited to print something like this on grounds of the freedom of press he told them he would print the piece separately and the author might have as many copies as he wanted to distribute himself, but he would not fill a newspaper intended to inform and improve society with personal malice, private altercations or degrading articles. How different our media would be today if media outlets practiced this same scruple. Granted I know it's a different time and many things have changed, but principles are principles and I wish more in the media used this approach. Maybe then I'd watch the news rather than just read the sentence blips of the 'In the World this Week' page of The Economist.

Although he had his faults, don't we all, I've come to appreciate more and more what a great statesman and an incredible example Benjamin Franklin is and I'm not even through with the book. I'm more inspired by this book and it's more entertaining than all the modern 'self-improvement' books I've read.(I know, dorky that I read those, but I do.) Definitely a recommended read!