Benjamin Franklin
1706–1790 · United States
“An investment in knowledge pays the best interest.”
Peak-work percentile in the canon.
The lineage through Benjamin Franklin
Drew From(3)
who shaped Benjamin Franklin
- The first book Franklin bought, and the model behind his prose
- He names Bunyan in the Autobiography and credits him with mixing narration and dialogue — the technique Franklin borrowed for telling his own story
- Read Bunyan first and the Autobiography reads as its secular twin: the pilgrim's road to salvation rebuilt as the road to self-made virtue
via Plutarch's Lives
- Franklin tells you himself where the form came from: Plutarch's Lives, devoured as a boy from his father's shelf — "time spent to great advantage"
- That's why the Autobiography reads like a Plutarchan life and not a confession: it's an exemplary biography, character built from deeds, meant to be copied
- Read Plutarch first and you see the mold Franklin poured himself into
- Franklin's whole gospel of industry traces to a single line of Solomon
- He quotes Proverbs 22:29 directly — the verse his father drilled into him, "he shall stand before kings" — as the spur to a lifetime of diligence
- Read it first and you hear the ancient voice behind the self-made man's swagger when he adds that he has "stood before five"
Portraits
The defining likeness of Franklin and the most-reproduced of all his portraits; the grey-coat version now at the Smithsonian NPG, the same Duplessis likeness adapted for the U.S. $100 bill.
Joseph-Siffred Duplessis, 1778
Franklin seated at a table in spectacles, chin resting on his thumb in concentrated thought, reading a document; a bust of Isaac Newton presides over his shoulder.
David Martin, 1767
Famous Quotes
“Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing.”
“So convenient a thing it is to be a reasonable creature, since it enables one to find or make a reason for everything one has a mind to do.”
“For, even if I could conceive that I had completely overcome it, I should probably be proud of my humility.”
“He that has once done you a kindness will be more ready to do you another, than he whom you yourself have obliged.”
About Benjamin Franklin
American polymath, Founding Father, diplomat, inventor, scientist, and writer. His Autobiography is a foundational American text, presenting the archetypal self-made man. He was instrumental in drafting the Declaration of Independence and securing the French alliance during the Revolutionary War, while also conducting groundbreaking experiments with electricity.