Happy 300th Birthday Benjamin Franklin

Guinnessy writes "Benjamin Franklin was born on 17 January 1706 in Boston, Massachusetts. Franklin was a man of diverse talents: publisher, inventor, ambassador, politician, wit with some human frailities says NPR. In Physics Today, Philip Krider presents Franklin's work on electricity and the development of the lightning rod, work whose fame helped Franklin obtain aid from the French against the British. In the same magazine, Joost Mertens considers Franklin's explorations of the calming effects of oil on water. Those investigations, it turns out, had a less than calming effect on Dutch scholars. Philadelphia is planning a series of events celebratng Franklin's life throughtout the year."

Comments

Wish you were here

[digitaldc]

Ben Franklin, oh how we need people like him today.

Some great quotes from Poor Richard's Almanack:

• Drive thy Business, or it will drive thee.
  He that falls in love with himself will have no rivals.
  Setting too good an example is a kind of slander seldom forgiven.
  Experience keeps a dear school, yet fools will learn in no other.
  Write with the learned, pronounce with the vulgar.
  Necessity never made a good bargain.
  Three may keep a secret, if two of them are dead.
  Dost thou love life? Then do not squander time; for that's the stuff life is made of.
  If your Riches are yours, why don't you take them with you to t'other World?
  A good conscience is a continual Christmas.
  God heals, and the doctor takes the fee.
  Early to bed and early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise.
  Laws too gentle are seldom obeyed; too severe, seldom executed.
  If you'd know the value of money, go and borrow some.
  When befriended, remember it. When you befriend, forget it.

Re:Wish you were here

[corbettw]

More great Franklin quotes (not all from Poor Richard's):

Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy.
Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both.
A countryman between two lawyers is like a fish between two cats.
A life of leisure and a life of laziness are two things. There will be sleeping enough in the grave.
A place for everything, everything in its place.
A penny saved is a penny earned.
At twenty years of age the will reigns; at thirty, the wit; and at forty, the judgment.
Be civil to all; sociable to many; familiar with few; friend to one; enemy to none.
Keep your eyes wide open before marriage, half shut afterwards.

Interesting quote.

[JaxWeb]

I think Benjamin Franklin was very good, and I am glad to see him remembered.

Something I got from the website www.politicalcompass.org/:

Q:
Which founding father said of the proposed American Constitution This is likely to be administered for a course of years and then end in despotism ... when the people shall become so corrupted as to need despotic government, being incapable of any other ?

A:
Benjamin Franklin in a speech to delegates to the US Constitutional Convention prior to the final vote.

Franklin on Older Women

[SeanDuggan]

Franklin was also a bit the ladies man. For instance, his treatise on the advantages of older women vs younger women. I particularly like his dismissal of the lesser attractiveness...

5. Because in every Animal that walks upright, the Deficiency of the Fluids that fill the Muscles appears first in the highest Part. The Face first grows lank and Wrinkled; then the Neck; then the Breast and Arms; the lower parts continuing to the last as plump as ever; so that covering all above with a Basket, and regarding only what is below the Girdle, it is impossible of two Women to know an old one from a young one. And as in the Dark all Cats are grey, the Pleasure of Corporal Enjoyment with an old Woman is at least equal and frequently superior; every Knack being by Practice capable by improvement.

Re:get your wallets out...

[danwesnor]

FYI - Benjamin Franklin is responsible for hundreds of inventions, yet refused to file a patent for any of them. In fact, he published them openly, often with explanations of how they worked, so that others could copy and use them without paying him roylties.