Benjamin Franklin, His LifeGinn, 1906 - 311 pages |
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accordingly acquaintance affairs afterwards America appeared appointed Assembly attend Autobiography Benjamin Franklin Boston Britain brought captain carried colonies continued currency defense dispute Ecton endeavor England English eral father formed Fort Duquesne France French friends gave give GOUT governor hands Hans Sloane heard horses hundred Indians inhabitants Keimer king letters Little Britain lived lodging London Lord Lord Loudoun never obtained occasion opinion paid pamphlet paper Pennsylvania perhaps person Philadelphia pleasure political ministers poor postmaster-general pound sterling pounds currency printed printer printing-house proposed proprietaries province Quakers refused sailed says sect seems sent sermons shillings ship soon street Temple Franklin thing thought thousand pounds tion told took town UNITE OR DIE virtue waggons William Temple Franklin writing wrote young
Popular passages
Page 258 - THE BODY of BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, Printer, (like the cover of an old book, its contents torn out, and stript of its lettering and gilding) lies here food for worms ; yet the work itself shall not be lost, for it will (as he believed) appear once more in a new and more beautiful edition, corrected and amended by THE AUTHOR.
Page 252 - In this situation of this assembly, groping as it were in the dark to find political truth, and scarce able to distinguish it when presented to us, how has it happened, sir, that we have not hitherto once thought of humbly applying to the Father of lights to illuminate our understandings?
Page 17 - Essays to do Good, which perhaps gave me a turn of thinking that had an influence on some of the principal future events of my life.
Page 138 - I had in my pocket a handful of copper money, three or four silver dollars, and five pistoles in gold. As he proceeded I began to soften, and concluded to give the copper. Another stroke of his oratory made me ashamed of that, and determined me to give the silver ; and he finished so admirably, that I emptied my pocket wholly into the collector's dish, — gold and all.
Page 106 - It was about this time I conceiv'd the bold and arduous project of arriving at moral perfection. I wish'd to live without committing any fault at any time ; I would conquer all that either natural inclination, custom, or company might lead me into. As I knew, or thought I knew, what was right and wrong, I did not see why I might not always do the one and avoid the other.
Page 34 - Street wharf, near the boat I came in, to which I went for a draught of the river water ; and, being filled with one of my rolls, gave the other two to a woman and her child that came down the river in the boat with us, and were waiting to go farther. Thus...
Page 111 - Here will I hold. If there's a power above us (And that there is, all Nature cries aloud Through all her works), he must delight in virtue ; And that which he delights in must be happy.
Page 103 - I found it in a China bowl, with a spoon of silver! They had been bought for me without my knowledge by my wife, and had cost her the enormous sum of three-and-twenty shillings, for which she had no other excuse or apology to make, but that she thought her husband deserved a silver spoon and China bowl as well as any of his neighbors.
Page 239 - I saved my money. As I grew up, came into the world, and observed the actions of men, I thought I met with many, very many, who gave too much for the whistle.
Page 33 - ... the shore, got into a creek, landed near an old fence, with the rails of which we made a fire, the night being cold, in October, and there we remained till daylight. Then one of the company knew the place to be Cooper's Creek, a little above Philadelphia, which we saw as soon as we got out of the creek, and arrived there about eight or nine o'clock on the Sunday morning, and landed at the Market Street wharf.