by Curt Kovener
That quote came from printer, publisher, author, inventor, ambassador, and Founding Father Benjamin Franklin. Franklin is one of the most remarkable Americans who ever lived. Compared to him, we are all slackers.
Under the pen name Silence Dogood he offered wisdoms, parables, and witty sayings on life, politics, and human foibles, and religion.
It was most likely his religious views that caused him to not be embraced by the pulpit populace and be denied respect over the decades.
One of his religious observations, he historically correctly wrote, “If we look back into history for the character of present sects in Christianity, we shall find that they have, in their turns, been persecutors, and complainers of persecution. The very early Christians thought persecution extremely wrong in the Pagans, but practiced it on one another. The first Protestants of the Church of England, claimed persecution from the Roman church, but practiced it against the Puritans: these found it wrong in the Bishops, but fell into the same practice themselves both here and in New England.”
Perhaps the same could be said of 21st century Christians. But that is a column for another time.
Let me share some of the wisdom on the man who lived through most of the 1700’s, but whose thoughts could have been written from today’s headlines.
•Three may keep a secret, if two of them are dead.
•They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.
•Tell me and I forget, teach me and I may remember, involve me and I learn.
•In wine there is wisdom, in beer there is freedom, in water there is bacteria.
•You may delay, but time will not.
•Many people die at twenty-five and aren’t buried until they are seventy-five.
•Never ruin an apology with an excuse.
•Fear not death for the sooner we die, the longer we shall be immortal.
•We are all born ignorant, but one must work hard to remain stupid.
•Justice will not be served until those who are unaffected are as outraged as those who are.
•Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy.
•How many observe Christ’s birthday! How few, His precepts!”
•Well done is better than well said.
•Being ignorant is not so much a shame, as being unwilling to learn.
•Lost time is never found again.
•An investment in knowledge always pays the best interest.
•Instead of cursing the darkness, light a candle.
•If all printers were determined not to print anything till they were sure it would offend nobody, there would be very little printed.
•The Constitution only guarantees the American people the right to pursue happiness. You have to catch it yourself.
•Remember not only to say the right thing in the right place, but far more difficult still, to leave unsaid the wrong thing at the tempting moment.
•Be at war with your vices, at peace with your neighbors, and let every new year find you a better man.
•Dost thou love life? Then do not squander time, for that’s the stuff life is made of.
•Never confuse Motion with Action.
•He that is good for making excuses is seldom good for anything else.
•There is never a bad peace or a good war.
•Whatever is begun in anger, ends in shame.
•The heart of a fool is in his mouth, but the mouth of a wise man is in his heart.
•Be slow in choosing a friend, slower in changing.
•When you’re testing to see how deep water is, never use two feet.
•A slip of the foot you may soon recover, but a slip of the tongue you may never get over.
•We must all hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang separately.
•Life biggest tragedy is that we get old too soon and wise too late”
•Keep your eyes wide open before marriage, half shut afterwards.
•Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing.
•Whoever would overthrow the liberty of a nation must begin by subduing the freeness of speech.
•It is the first responsibility of every citizen to question authority.