Benjamin Franklin's Virtues Analysis

In The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin, Franklin recollected his story from his childhood up to the years before his death. Franklin grew up in a Puritan household, so that while he never identified with a single sect of Christianity during his adulthood, he did believe in the foundation of Christianity and the importance of living with moral integrity. Franklin attempted to be morally perfect by creating a list of thirteen virtues that would keep him on the path of righteousness. Among the virtues that helped shape the rest of his life, Franklin saw industry, humility, and sincerity as the utmost importance for a life of moral perfection.
Franklin came from a poor family where the only way to success was through one’s own hard work, which …show more content…
As Franklin puts it, humility is to “imitate Jesus and Socrates” and to suppress pride (Franklin 72, 80). He was known to be very prideful, especially when it came to being right. As a young man, he would engage in debates just to prove that he was correct and his opponent wrong. However, he didn’t realize the full extent of the problem until later, when “a Quaker friend having kindly informed me that I was generally thought of as proud, that my pride showed itself frequently in conversation… I determined to endeavor to cure myself… I even forbid myself… the use of every word or expression in the language that imported a fixed opinion… And this mode, which I at first put on with some violence to natural inclination, became at length easy and so habitual to me that perhaps for the last 50 years no one has ever heard a dogmatical expression escape me” (Franklin 79-80). Franklin worked diligently to eradicate his pride so as to get closer to moral perfection. In addition to suppressing his pride by being less rigid in his conversation, Franklin also worked to strengthen his humility by imitating Jesus and Socrates. While he was religious in the moral sense, Franklin was not part of any sect, which allowed him to see the good qualities of every sect. He had friends that were Protestants and Catholic and Quakers, which was a way he imitated Jesus; Jesus was kind to …show more content…
He defined sincerity as thinking justly and speaking accordingly (Franklin 72). Since he was a well-to-do man with many accomplishments under his belt, advice was often asked of Franklin by fellow Assemblymen and friends. Franklin used sincerity to give meaningful and thoughtful advice, instead of just random words of encouragement. As a result, those who took Franklin’s advice almost always prevailed in their endeavor. For example, Rev. Gilbert Tennent wanted to build a new meeting house in the city, and originally asked Franklin to give him the names of people from which he could gain the funds necessary for his undertaking. When Franklin refused, Tennent asked for advice, which Franklin gave willingly, saying, “I advise you to apply to all those who you know will give something; next, to those who you are uncertain whether they will give anything or not… and lastly, do not neglect those who you are sure will give nothing; for in some of them you may be mistaken… He did so, for he asked of everybody; and he obtained a much larger sum than he expected” (Franklin 111). Without Franklin’s advice, Tennent would most certainly have not gotten as much money as he did, and would not have built as nice a meeting house as he did. Franklin gave advice to many people on many different subjects, but each piece of advice was deliberately thought out as is necessary when trying to be