I think I found my new favorite quote

[bassjones]

I think the best way of doing good to the poor, is not making them easy in poverty, but leading or driving them out of it. - Benjamin Franklin

[=^-..-^=]

"Those who would sacrifice a little liberty to gain a little temporary security desrve neither liberty nor security." - Ben Franklin.

[deek]

I've always loved Franklin's quote: "The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results."

That's probably my favorite quote of his.

[Morphine Child]

I think the best way of doing good to the poor, is not making them easy in poverty, but leading or driving them out of it. - Benjamin Franklin

After working with poverty as a case manager for a year and a half in noble county I have no choice but to totally agree with Ben. Sure, he probably had sex with slaves, but who amongst our great political leaders wasn't a wild horn-dog?

[Sankofa]

I think the best way of doing good to the poor, is not making them easy in poverty, but having sex with them. - Benjamin Franklin

After working with poverty as a case manager for a year and a half in noble county I have no choice but to totally agree with Ben. Sure, he probably had sex with slaves, but who amongst our great political leaders wasn't a wild horn-dog?

*fixed*

[Morphine Child]

Well, I didn't see it being out of line (especially when there is truth to it). haha.

You make a good point, though. I don't think any less of him for owning slaves or fornicating with them, but I can see where someone else would. Do I approve of what he did? No. But I don't think less of what he had to say and do for the country.

It's a bit like O.J. Simpson: sure he's a murdering crazy son of a b*tch, but that will never make his role in "Naked Gun 33 1/3" less funny to me.

To each his own though.

[deek]

You make a good point, though. I don't think any less of him for owning slaves or fornicating with them, but I can see where someone else would. Do I approve of what he did? No. But I don't think less of what he had to say and do for the country.

I'm sure in a couple hundred years, people will be just as put off by our rampant use of fossil fuels, how many animals have gone extinct or a hundred other things that will be perceived as wrong...and there will be people in the future that dismiss a man's wisdom because of it.

Either way, I think Ben Franklin had a ton of great quotes...

[bassjones]

actually, Ben probably cost himself a presidency by arguing that slavery should be abolished at the writing of the Constitution... He may have owned slaves at some point, but he definitely saw the light by the time the Constitution was written.

[deek]

The debatable question I have is, did Ben really see the "light" or had society started to shift and it was inevitable that the societal norms were changing...

I think a lot of "evils" we see when we look back in time are really just where society was accepting...not saying that's right or wrong, just that its hard to judge a widespread norm before you have a proper perspective.

[bassjones]

well, he knew he was going against the grain of society at that time, and his writings suggest that he knew he was probably costing himself a shot at being President, but he was arguing from a moral stance, not a political one. refreshing...

[=^-..-^=]

Yeah, Franklin experienced a conversion at some point in his life on the issue of slavery. He owned slaves in younger and colonial days, even taking a manservant to the Continental Congress. His papers also ran ads for the slave trade. Like Jefferson, he wrote why slavery was evil, and of the personal conflict that slave owning caused within him. Several slaves personally corresponded with Franklin during the Declaration days, saying that the call for Liberty should apply to slaves as well. He eventually manumitted his slaves, and was head of the Pennsylvannia Antislavery Society. Whether it was a slow transformation from youthful stupidity or a societal change is up for debate.