The Wit and Wisdom of Benjamin Franklin

“An investment in knowledge pays the best interest.”

-Poor Richard’s Almanack (1733)

When you open the writings of Benjamin Franklin, you don’t hear the stiff voice of a statesman. Instead, you hear a neighbor leaning over a garden fence: quick with advice, sly with humor, and endlessly practical. Franklin was not only one of America’s Founding Fathers. He was its printer, its philosopher, and its friendly penman, leaving behind words that still fit neatly into the pockets of everyday life.

A Life in Ink and Curiosity

Franklin was born in Boston in 1706, the fifteenth of seventeen children. He left school early, apprenticed to his brother’s print shop, where he learned how ink and type could move ideas as powerfully as armies. By his twenties, he was in Philadelphia, running his own press and establishing The Pennsylvania Gazette.

From there, Franklin’s life unfolded like a widening ripple: printer, essayist, satirist, inventor, scientist, statesman, diplomat. At every stage, writing was his constant companion. Whether composing a pithy proverb or drafting a treaty with France, Franklin wielded his pen with the same steady clarity.

View on Amazon

Full Biography

The Almanac: Pocket-Sized Philosophy

The yearly Poor Richard’s Almanack, launched in 1732, became Franklin’s most famous literary endeavor. It was small, affordable, and slyly wise, written under the name Richard Saunders. Within its pages were forecasts and practical charts—but its real treasures were the short sayings, distilled like strong cider into memorable sips of wisdom.

Some of the best-known still ring true:

• “Lost time is never found again.”

• “Three may keep a secret, if two of them are dead.”

• “An investment in knowledge pays the best interest.”

• “Well done is better than well said.”

• “Haste makes waste.”

• “He that lies down with dogs shall rise up with fleas.”

• “A penny saved is a penny earned.”

These were not the polished ornaments of literature, but the tools of daily living—practical guides for farmers, merchants, and families who stitched Franklin’s wisdom into the fabric of ordinary days.

Essays, Letters, and Self-Improvement

Beyond the almanac, Franklin’s essays showed his deep interest in the practical improvement of society. His famous Advice to a Young Tradesman (1748) spoke directly to the rhythms of work and money:

“Remember that time is money. He that can earn ten shillings a day by his labor, and goes abroad, or sits idle one half of that day… has really spent, or rather thrown away, five shillings besides.”

His most enduring literary work, The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin, blends memoir with a manual for living. Here he sketches his “plan for moral perfection,” a system of thirteen virtues—from Temperance to Humility—that he tracked daily in hopes of shaping not only his fortune but his character. Franklin admitted he failed often, but he believed the effort itself was transformative.

The Scientist at the Desk

Franklin’s curiosity was never confined to words. He was a scientist of the everyday, driven not by ivory-tower abstraction but by a practical urge to understand. His most famous experiment—the kite flown in a thunderstorm—was no parlor trick but part of a lifelong study of electricity. From it sprang the invention of the lightning rod, a simple device that protected homes, barns, and churches from fire.

He experimented with bifocal glasses, the Franklin stove, and even theories of ocean currents. In his letters, he explained his findings with the same clarity as his proverbs. He believed science was not for specialists but for neighbors, for farmers, for anyone curious enough to ask why.

There is a kind of poetry in Franklin’s science. He looked at the world with a tinkerer’s eye and a philosopher’s wonder. To him, the spark of lightning and the spark of thought were kin—both forms of energy waiting to be understood and shared.

Why His Words Still Matter

Franklin’s writings endure because they are not relics but living tools. His proverbs still whisper to us when we waste time or rush foolishly. His essays remind us that work and character are entwined. His scientific reflections echo in every ordinary improvement that makes daily life safer, simpler, and more humane.

He showed that words could guide a nation just as a lightning rod could protect a homestead: by channeling energy into a steady, useful course.

A Closing Reflection

That was Franklin’s genius—he made words and inventions alike serve both the cottage and the commonwealth. His writings remind us that greatness is not only in revolutions or discoveries but in the steady wisdom of daily life.

And so, across centuries, his voice still feels close at hand, urging us to rise early, save our pennies, cherish our time, and—above all—never stop inquiring.