Benjamin Franklin's AutobiographyLongmans, Green & Company, 1905 |
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Common terms and phrases
accordingly acquainted advantage affairs afterwards America appeared arrived Assembly attend Autobiography began Boston Brearley School bred brother brought captain character colonies Columbia University common continued dispute Dunciad Ecton Edited employed endeavored England England Courant father Fort Duquesne Franklin friends gave give governor hands horses Hotchkiss School inhabitants instructions intended Keimer length letters Little Britain lived lodging London Lord Loudoun means never obtained occasion officers opinion pamphlet paper Pennsylvania perhaps persons Peter Folger Philadelphia poor Poor Richard's Almanac pounds currency printed printer printing-house procure Professor of English proposed proprietaries province Quakers Ralph received sailed says sect seems sent sermons shillings ship Socratic method sometimes soon street subscription things thought thousand pounds thro tion told took virtue waggons William Temple Franklin writing wrote York young
Popular passages
Page 11 - By comparing my work afterwards with the original, I discovered many faults and amended them ; but I sometimes had the pleasure of fancying that, in certain particulars of small import, I had been lucky enough to improve the method or the language, and this encouraged me to think I might possibly in time come to be a tolerable English writer, of which I was extremely ambitious.
Page 79 - The institution soon manifested its utility, was imitated by other towns, and in other provinces. The libraries were augmented by donations ; reading became fashionable ; and our people, having no...
Page 84 - 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.
Page 80 - Seest thou a man diligent in his calling, he shall stand before kings, he shall not stand before mean men...
Page 102 - An acquaintance, who was also learning it, used often to tempt me to play chess with him. Finding this took up too much of the time I had to spare for study, I at length...
Page 62 - I entertained an opinion that, though certain actions might not be bad because they were forbidden by it, or good because it commanded them, yet probably those actions might be forbidden because they were bad for us, or commanded because they were beneficial to us, in their own natures, all the circumstances of things considered.
Page 88 - I could go thro' a course compleat in thirteen weeks, and four courses in a year. And like him who, having a garden to weed, does not attempt to eradicate all the bad herbs at once, which would exceed his reach and his strength, but works on one of the beds at a time, and, having...
Page 22 - I was in my working dress, my best clothes being to come round by sea. I was dirty from my journey; my pockets were stuffed out with shirts and stockings, and I knew no soul, nor where to look for lodging.
Page 13 - I conceive or apprehend a thing to be so and so ; it appears to me, or I should think it so or so, for such and such reasons ; or I imagine it to be so; or it is so, if I am not mistaken. This habit, I believe, has been of great advantage to me when I have had occasion to inculcate my opinions, and persuade men into measures that I have been from time to time...
Page 66 - is superior to anything I ever saw of the kind; I see him still at work when I go home from club, and he is at work again before his neighbors are out of bed.