ipl-logo

Benjamin Franklin's Aim For Personal Perfection

1392 Words6 Pages

Benjamin Franklin in the essay, Aim for Personal Perfection, explains what he believes are the thirteen virtues to follow in life to aim for purity and perfection. Franklin supports his explanation by describing all of the virtues and defining what they mean to him and how he tries to conquer all of them but fails. Franklin’s purpose is to inform the readers of what virtues occurred to him at this time in his life so that he can apprise the readers of what he assumes are the steps to personal perfection. Even though he didn’t reach his goal, he still made it clear that benefitted from these qualities and he became a better man for this; he became more humble and put thought into others. Committing to a dream or working your whole life around something you want so badly ends in positive results. Conquering a challenge includes changing your daily routine, resetting all habitual actions, and abandoning all fruition, as Benjamin Franklin did. Not only did Franklin dedicate his life to …show more content…

Franklin states the virtue of Moderation is to “Avoid extremes; forbear resenting injuries so much as you think they deserve”(Williams). Whether it’s more food, more clothes, more women, or mostly money, satisfaction and fulfillment in life is rare to come across these days.
The virtue of Cleanliness states, “Tolerate no uncleanliness in body, clothes or habitation” (Williams 2). Being clean not only creates self confidence but also creates more opportunities, such as jobs or friendships. Not only being clean but clean eating is also in this category. Feeling and looking good is the point of this virtue.
Tranquility is the quality or state of being tranquil; calm. Many men fail at becoming a gentlemen because of their personality, their anger tends to act up which creates problems. Franklin virtue says, “Be not disturbed at trifles, or at accidents common or unavoidable” (Williams 2). Avoid all events that might lead to

Show More
Related
144 Words | 1 Pages

I think that Ben Franklin's intentions for moral perfection are accurate. Being held to such a high standard will make ultimately make you a better human being. Some of these standards are just impossible to achieve. I personally think that virtue number 6 industry, does not have to be achieved to be perfect. Someone can be perfect and still have time to rest.

Read More
2150 Words | 9 Pages

Benjamin Franklin, while not specifically trying to define a statesman, wrote a list of twelve virtues he aspired to attain in his attempt at achieve moral perfection. After scouring Christian teachings, Biblical revelations and classical works, he determined that temperance, silence, order, resolution, frugality,

Read More
730 Words | 3 Pages

Benjamin Franklin-- inventor, scientist, and a man of many success was an intelligent and interesting man. Through various deeds, he has improved and changed the lives of numerous individuals. Of many published accounts, he wrote “The Columbian Magazine” in 1786 where he tells us of his love for chess and how it has “been the amusement of all civilized nations of Asia.” He believed the game taught valuable life lessons and that “[it contained] several very valuable qualities of the mind [that are] useful in the course of human life [which are to] be acquired or strengthened by [the game].” Included in the passage, is a familiar form of his writing known as process analysis.

Read More
568 Words | 3 Pages

As he wrote for one of his libraries mottos “To pour forth benefits for the common good is divine.” Franklin also identified and flagged a belief we all know to be true, but not all be willing to accept. Success isn’t made by huge defining events, it may be defined by them, but it is the small advances that we make every single day that ultimately leads us to success. So keep making a small advance every single day, it is what will lead you to your defining moments.

Read More
311 Words | 2 Pages

Benjamin Franklin is known by many for his work with modern day electrical technologies. He worked with lightbulbs, conductors, batteries, and invented many other objects we still use to this day. However, Benjamin Franklin was not always the successful inventor everybody knows him as today. He started out from a working-class family, and through backbreaking work in addition to stark diligence he raised his stature to the powerful figure we distinguish him as today. It is because of this mindset and his climb to success that Benjamin Franklin is the prototypical American.

Read More
610 Words | 3 Pages

Even when he was a boy, he made a strict schedule which is similar to Benjamin Franklin’s “Thirteen Virtues” to

Read More
455 Words | 2 Pages

First Rule: Finish better than your beginnings. Benjamin Franklin is explaining in this first rule to always end better than you started basically. He’s saying to not accept excuses because they will not benefit you throughout life. Some of the circumstances that took place in Franklin’s life was that he was the youngest son, he had no formal education, and he was beaten as an indentured servant. The rule also means to not allow the circumstances that take place in your life to imprison you.

Read More
415 Words | 2 Pages

Benjamin Franklin and His 13 Virtues In part II of Benjamin Franklin’s Autobiography, he lists the 13 virtues every man should follow to establish a modeled “habitude” that would better life for all men of the time period. Although not all men of the 1780s were perfect examples of these virtues, these virtues are what the “old lights” strived to be. The virtues “occurred to [Franklin] as necessary or desirable” (Franklin, 428). The success of the nation was reliant on heading towards a similar goal - a goal to be a well-respected example for the nation.

Read More
545 Words | 3 Pages

I think that the virtue of saving is the most important to Franklin. For money and material are limited, but people's desires are unlimited. When people are attracted to a certain object, if we can control ourselves, then we can make the best choice for the control of our brain. “Temperance, for example, was by some confined to eating and drinking, while by others it was extended to mean the moderating every other pleasure, appetite, inclination, or passion, bodily or mental, even to our avarice and ambition.” (Franklin 4)Every man should be the one who is to control himself, and to restrain himself from his desire.

Read More
166 Words | 1 Pages

In his arrival in France, Benjamin Franklin played his role to the hilt and set a symbolic figure for the French. His setting of a symbolic figure is admirable in my opinion because it shows that he was a man who would set an expectation and surpass it. I also admire that he was seen as a person who would not make it far just because of his childhood and how he was not wealthy or anything. One quote that makes me see him as a symbolic figure of wisdom is, Picture me, he wrote a friend, “very plainly dressed, wearing my thin gray straight hair that peeps out under my only coiffure, a fine fur cap, which comes down to my forehead almost to my spectacles. Think how this must appear among the powdered heads of Paris. ' '.

Read More
628 Words | 3 Pages

Among the discussion of the virtues that Franklin believes make a person the most characteristic, he continues to discuss reality and appearance in Part Two of his work. Franklin discusses that he has set a goal “to arriv[e] at moral Perfection.” (Franklin 534). The way that Franklin thought he could reach this goal is forming twelve virtues that he feels everyone should aim to carry: temperance, silence, order, resolution, frugality, industry, sincerity, justice, moderation, cleanliness, tranquility, chasity, and humility (Franklin 534-535). Franklin formulates a plan for him to keep track of how he is obeying his twelve virtues by keeping a “little Book in which [he] allotted a Page for each of the Virtues” (Franklin 537), making it clear that Franklin believes that appearance is more important than

Read More
621 Words | 3 Pages

The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin is composed of four different parts that were written at three different periods in Franklin’s life. The first section starts with Franklin addressing his son and it seems as though Franklin is telling his life story so that it may be an example of how he was continuously improving himself. Franklin also makes mention of his religious beliefs and God throughout the book which seems to be a theme throughout the book. Throughout Franklin’s Autobiography there are many themes displayed; self-improvement and religion, seem to stand out as two of the major subjects that Franklin was focused on.

Read More
835 Words | 4 Pages

After realizing Franklin needed to change his ways he then came up with thirteen virtues to embody in his life. He took on each virtue at a time fully master it before moving to the next, to make sure he truly did practice what each one ment. Franklin “made a little book, in which I allotted a page for each of the virtues. I ruled each page with red ink, so as to have seven columns, one for each day of the week, marking each column with a letter for the day” (Franklin 116). The book allowed Franklin to take a step further on his self examination.

Read More
943 Words | 4 Pages

Commercial Food Production Essay The question of whether humans should eat meat is a controversial subject that most everyone has an opinion about. To prepare for this essay I watched, Paul McCartney on Slaughterhouses and Earthlings; 101 Reasons to be Vegan, I also chose to watch a third video entitled, A Video Tour of a Beef Plant Featuring Temple Grandin. All three videos shed light on the meat producing industry in different ways. Analyzing the content of these videos helps gain knowledge of the treatment of animals and how they are processed for human consumption.

Read More
796 Words | 4 Pages

We need to decide in every situation the right thing, to do for us. This eventually leads to the statements about finding the mean of all the virtues for yourself. Once you have achieved true happiness, you will be able to deliberate for any person in any scenario what the mean is for them and the right thing to do for all cases and all

Read More

More about Benjamin Franklin's Aim For Personal Perfection

Related Topics

Open Document