Numbers

The Thirteen Virtues of Benjamin Franklin

1. Temperance. Eat not to dullness; 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; perform without fail what you resolve.
5. Frugality. Make no expense but to do good to others or yourself; i.e., waste nothing.
6. Industry. Lose no time; be always employ'd in something useful; cut off all unnecessary actions.
7. Sincerity. Use no hurtful deceit; think innocently and justly, and, if you speak, speak accordingly.
8. Justice. Wrong none by doing injuries, or omitting the benefits that are your duty.
9. Moderation. Avoid extremes; forbear resenting injuries so much as you think they deserve.
10. Cleanliness. Tolerate no uncleanliness in body, cloaths, or habitation.
11. Tranquillity. Be not disturbed at trifles, or at accidents common or unavoidable.
12. Chastity. Rarely use venery but for health or offspring, never to dullness, weakness, or the injury of your own or another's peace or reputation.
13. Humility. Imitate Jesus and Socrates.—Benjamin Franklin, The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin, (1791).

Response to Franklin's List

Franklin's list of virtues generate a response from a variety of people over the centuries.  For example, Mark Twain:

"The subject of this memoir was of a vicious disposition, and early prostituted his talents to the invention of maxims and aphorisms calculated to inflict suffering upon the rising generation of all subsequent ages. His simplest acts, also, were contrived with a view to their being held up for the emulation of boys forever—boys who might otherwise have been happy. It was in this spirit that he became the son of a soap-boiler; and probably for no other reason than that the efforts of all future boys who tried to be anything might be looked upon with suspicion unless they were the sons of soap-boilers. With a malevolence which is without parallel in history, he would work all day and then sit up nights and let on to be studying algebra by the light of a smouldering fire, so that all other boys might have to do that also or else have Benjamin Franklin thrown up to them. Not satisfied with these proceedings, he had a fashion of living wholly on bread and water, and studying astronomy at meal time—a thing which has brought affliction to millions of boys since, whose fathers had read Franklin's pernicious biography."—Mark Twain, "The Late Benjamin Franklin," The Galaxy, July 1870, pp. 138-9.

Another example is from D.H. Lawrence, who wrote,

"Then for a 'list'. It is rather fun to play at Benjamin.

1. TEMPERANCE: Eat and carouse with Bacchus, or munch dry bread with Jesus, but don't sit down without one of the gods.

2. SILENCE: Be still when you have nothing to say; when genuine passion moves you, say what you've got to say, and say it hot.

3. ORDER: Know that you are responsible to the gods inside you and to the men in whom the gods are manifest. Recognize your superiors and your inferiors, according to the gods. This is the root of all order.

4. RESOLUTION: Resolve to abide by your own deepest promptings, and to sacrifice the smaller thing to the greater. Kill when you must, and be killed the same: the must coming from the gods inside you, or from the men in whom you recognize the Holy Ghost.

5. FRUGALITY: Demand nothing; accept what you see fit. Don't waste your pride or squander your emotion.

6. INDUSTRY: Lose no time with ideals; serve the Holy Ghost; never serve mankind.

7. SINCERITY: To be sincere is to remember that I am I, and that the other man is not me.

8. JUSTICE: The only justice is to follow the sincere intuition of the soul, angry or gentle. Anger is just, and pity is just, but judgement is never just.

9. MODERATION: Beware of absolutes. There are many gods.

10. CLEANLINESS: Don't be too clean. It impoverishes the blood.

11. TRANQUILITY: The soul has many motions, many gods come and go. Try and find your deepest issue, in every confusion, and abide by that. Obey the man in whom you recognize the Holy Ghost; command when your honour comes to command.

12. CHASTITY: Never 'use' venery at all. Follow your passional impulse, if it be answered in the other being; but never have any motive in mind, neither offspring nor health nor even pleasure, nor even service. Only know that 'venery' is of the great gods. An offering-up of yourself to the very great gods, the dark ones, and nothing else.

13. HUMILITY: See all men and women according to the Holy Ghost that is within them. Never yield before the barren.

"There's my list. I have been trying dimly to realize it for a long time, and only America and old Benjamin have at last goaded me into trying to formulate it.

"And now I, at least, know why I can't stand Benjamin. He tries to take away my wholeness and my dark forest, my freedom. For how can any man be free, without an illimitable background? And Benjamin tries to shove me into a barbed wire paddock and make me grow potatoes or Chicagoes."—D.H. Lawrence, Studies in Classic American Literature, (New York, T. Seltzer, 1923).

Basis of Inspiration for Other Works

“Expect to hear tunes from their June release, 'The Art of Virtue,' also on Addiebelle. Spanning the musical landscape from Cajun to bluegrass and old-time fiddle tunes, the album draws its inspiration and title from Benjamin Franklin's 'The Thirteen Virtues,' and it's one of the year's most creative and thoughtful recordings. [Adrienne] Young wrote or co-wrote nine of the album's 15 songs, which extol moral values.

"'I had been reading a lot of Ben Franklin's works and came across a passage in his autobiography where he offered an idea for the United Party of Virtue,' Young says. 'It would be a new political party where there wouldn't be any kind of affiliation other than anybody who was a member would have to exhibit a character that was the highest quality and had...devoted his or her life to the greater good. Thematically, the record is loosely designed around that. The box holding all the goodies together is scripted with the idea that, as individuals, we hold tremendous power with our daily choices, our words and our actions. And we form our collective reality with the choices we make as individuals.'”—Jack Bernhardt, “Adrienne Young is mindful in her music-making,” The News & Observer (Raleigh, North Carolina), December 30, 2005.

How It's Used

“In his autobiography, [Benjamin] Franklin tells how he molded his career with a set of resolutions that he drafted as a young man (and adhered to more successfully than most of us ever do for one short year). He has long been the object of ridicule for these solemn directives to himself. And there seems good reason to make fun of a young man who declares that he has 'conceiv'd the bold and arduous Project of arriving at moral Perfection.' He wrote: 'I wish'd to live without committing any Fault at any time.' Really!

“But wait. What is this moral perfection that Franklin aspires to? He sums it up in a list of 13 virtues: temperance, silence, order, resolution, frugality, industry, sincerity, justice, moderation, cleanliness, tranquility, chastity and humility. Except for chastity, what do these have to do with what most people mean by morality? Does anyone really think that cleanliness is next to godliness? Is silence a moral duty? Is disorder immoral?"

“Ben Franklin was fond of promoting a list of thirteen virtues. Temperance, moderation, and chastity among them. Historical records and assorted offspring suggest he knocked holes in the list on a regular basis, perhaps leading him to write, ‘A benevolent man should allow a few faults in himself, to his friends in countenance.’”

“Benjamin Franklin was one of the first to recognise that recording your behaviour helps to change it. In his autobiography, Franklin states, 'About this time, I conceived the bold and arduous project of arriving at moral perfection.' He listed 13 virtues which he wanted to establish in himself. Among them were temperance and industry. He specified what he would have to do to achieve these. Temperance, for instance, required that he 'eat not to dullness, drink not to elevation'. For industry, he wrote, 'lose no time, be always employed in something useful, cut off all unnecessary actions'. After he had recorded his behaviour for some weeks he noted, 'I was surprised to find myself so much fuller of faults than I had imagined but I had the satisfaction of seeing them diminish'.

“When you take notes on your behaviour, you often look at what you're recording and you say to yourself, 'Why on earth am I getting upset over that? It's such a trivial thing!" and you spontaneously change your attitude'.”

“You may not be stretching and challenging yourself enough. Your comfort zone could be fossilizing into a complacency zone. Are your personal habits stepping stones or stumbling blocks? Use Benjamin Franklin's 'method for progressing.' He identified 13 virtues he wanted to develop. Each week he worked on one of the virtues for a total of 'four courses (cycles) in a year.' Each night before retiring, Mr. Franklin reflected on and recorded his progress on that week's virtue.

"Join the Daily Reflect and Plan Club. You need at least 15 minutes and ideally 30 to 45 minutes each work day. Use this time to read or listen to spiritual, inspiring, or educational material, write in your journal, day dream, review the previous day, set your priorities for the next day to sort out the urgent from the truly important, pray and meditate, continue developing your vision, values, and purpose, etc.”

“Will [the John] Templeton [Foundation] ever run out of virtues and have to shut the magazine [In Character]? Benjamin Franklin, after all, managed only 13 on his list. Rosen and Sargeant promise not to stoop as low as ‘Punctuality’ or ‘Wakefulness.’ [The editor Charlotte] Hays replies, ‘We are not bound by any classical list.’”

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