| Title | : | Poor Richards Almanack |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 0880889187 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9780880889186 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Hardcover |
| Number of Pages | : | 80 |
| Publication | : | First published December 28, 1732 |
Poor Richards Almanack Reviews
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This is a wonderful collection of Benjamin Franklin's philosophies and values, in which his writing proves concise, sound and still relatable today. The maxims this details concern a variety of topics from humility to morality. I thoroughly enjoyed the brief introduction, by Andrew S. Trees, which this begun with. It provided a cursory biography of the life of the great once-humble-tradesman-turned-founding-father, and framed the anthology nicely.
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2022-07-18 (update). Choicest morsels of wisdom, a favorite.
“Early to bed and early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise.” (Discipline, time management)
“Since thou art not sure of a Minute, throw not away an Hour.” (Time)
”You may delay, but time will not.” (Time)
“Have you somewhat to do tomorrow, do it today.” (Time)
“Dost thou love life? Then do not squander time; for that’s the stuff life is made of.” (Time)
“Beware of little expenses: a small leak will sink a great ship.”
“Drive thy business, or it will drive thee.”
“Necessity never made a good bargain.”
“Make haste slowly.”
“Diligence is the mother of luck.”
“All things are easy to Industry, all things difficult to Sloth.”
“Would you live with ease, do what you ought, and not what you please.”
“No gains without pains.”
“Learn of the skillful: he that teaches himself, hath a fool for his master.”
“For age and want save while you may; no morning sun lasts a whole day.”
“Humility: imitate Jesus and Socrates.” -
A collection of wise sayings assembled by the great man. One to dip into from time to time. Wisdom, humour and recipes for smiling. Delightfully presented. Highly quotable...(sorry in advance!):
“One good Husband is worth two Wives; for the scarcer things are, the more they’re valued.
Fish and Visitors stink after three days.0
There are three faithful friends – an old wife, an old dog, and ready money.
Speak with contempt of none, from slave to king,
The meanest Bee hath, and will use, a sting.
A lawyer being sick, and extream ill,
Was moved by his friends to make his will,
Which soon he did, gave all the wealth he had,
To frantic persons, lunatick and mad.
And to his friends this reason did reveal,
(That they might see with equity he’d deal,)
From madmen’s hands I did my wealth receive,
Therefore that wealth to madmen’s hands I leave.
Good sense is a Thing all need, few have, and none think they want.
A false Friend and a Shadow attend only while the Sun shines.
Epitaph on a Scolding Wife by her Husband:
Here my poor Bridget’s Corps do lie, she is
at rest, - and so am I.” -
Peruse the bookshelves at the museum shop of the Independence National Historical Park in Philadelphia, and you will no doubt see this edition of Poor Richard's Almanack. It is great fun reading 77 pages' worth of Benjamin Franklin's maxims for industry, thrift, humility, and cheerfulness -- maxims that can be said to have done much to form our collective sense of the American character. This Peter Pauper Press edition of Poor Richard's Almanack, with its old-style typeface (much like what one sees in many of the documents for sale at shops in Colonial Williamsburg), its woodcut illustrations, the durable light-brown paper of the pages, does much to give one a nostalgic sense of stepping back into history, walking the streets of 18th-century Philadelphia in Franklin's entertaining company. At the same time, it is important to reflect that, when glancing through this fun volume, one is not really reading Poor Richard's Almanack as it was originally published. The original Almanack was, well, an almanac. Like the almanacs of today, Franklin's 1732-58 Almanack contained weather forecasts, legal and medical information, snatches of poetry, inspirational literature, recipes, games -- in short, many of the same things that almanacs contain nowadays. The aphorisms for which Poor Richard is best known nowadays appeared, quite literally, in the margins; the ever-enterprising Franklin squeezed maxims in wherever there was space, and the rest is history. This edition of Poor Richard's Almanack gives one only the maxims, including Franklin's List of Virtues from his Autobiography, and framed by a brief preface that acknowledges Franklin's debts to earlier writers. Overall, this is a highly pleasant and enjoyable presentation of Franklin's "Poor Richard" aphorisms, just as long as one does not think one is getting the entire Poor Richard's Almanack. "Forewarn'd, forearm'd."
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Franklin wrote a yearly almanack with quotes and stories for each month under the pseudonym of Richard Saunders. Almanacks were popular in colonial America. They offered weather forecasts, advice for running a household, puzzles and witticisms. Franklin's almanacks are a funny satire on life in the 18th century and were famous for his wordplays. Many famous sayings we still know were penned by Franklin in his almanac. Here are a few:
Three may keep a secret if two of them are dead.
Lost Time is never found again.
Love your Enemies, for they tell you your Faults.
for the rest of my review cut and paste the following link to my blog post:
http://sharonhenning.blogspot.com/201... -
مجموعة جميلة من فلسفات وقيم المفكر والعالِم الفيلسوف بنجامين فرانكلين، لا تزال موثقة حتى يومنا هذا.
تضم الرزنامة مواضیع متعددة ما بین أقوال وأمثال وحكم ونصائح، منها ما ھو خاص بفرانكلین نفسه وبعضها تعود أصولها إلى ثقافات وشعوب وكتب أخرى.
استمتعت بالمقدمة الموجزة التي بدأها مؤمن الوزان بسيرة ذاتية خاطفة لحياة بنجامين فرانكلين الفيلسوف الذي تحول إلى الأب المؤسس، وصاغ المختارات بشكل جيد. -
I've heard this book referenced a lot in history classes, ever since I was in elementary school. I'm in college now and I got to read it....man am I not impressed. I thought it was supposed to be some great collection of advice for the colonial period. It's just a proverb collection! And many of them are repeated....which got on my nerves as I was reading it. Yeah, it was a quick read but seriously? I feel disappointed that that's all it was. Just a bunch of quotes in a list. No commentary on them or anything. I feel ripped.
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The book's principles have aged surprisingly well, Human fallacies/heuristics probably will remain the same despite any technological leaps.
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I've got a thing for wisdom teachings, and in our twittering, flighty, foolish age, there's a real countercultural pleasure in principles that ground human action in a wry practicality.
Franklin's legendary collection of sayings, aphorisms, and poems? It floats my boat. It's not just that these pithy little bits of Sophia are grounding. They're also still...with some inevitable exceptions...surprisingly relevant to contemporary existence.
Good stuff. -
Pretty good. Filled with many of the classic aphorisms we've heard a million times (such as "early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy wealthy and wise" and "three may keep a secret, if two of them are dead.")
Franklin seems a little too preoccupied with gluttony (there are many warnings against eating too much) and sloth and drunkenness.
There are some questionable morsels of wisdom: "Love well, whip well." ???? And "Ne'er take a wife til thou hast a house (and a fire) to put her in." And a fire?!
And this one is just plain bitter: "Where there's marriage without love, there will be love without marriage."
It's safe to say there are a bunch of worse evils than drunkenness, but Franklin writes this: "Drunkenness, that worst of evils, makes some men fools, some beasts, some devils."
And these edicts on eating:
"Three good meals a day is bad living."
"A full belly makes a dull brain."
"He that never eats too much will never be lazy."
"Eat few suppers and you'll need few medicines."
"To lengthen thy life, lessen thy meals."
* * *
The almanac would've been better off if it were organized by vice. As it is, all the varying topics were thrown together, and some witticisms were repeated almost verbatim or reiterated with only slight alteration a few pages apart from each other.
* * *
Thanks Mr. Franklin, for writing a short book to help me reach my book goal. -
A literary glimpse into colonial times, this almanac created by Benjamin Franklin is a priceless treasure for Americans. Franklin, under the pen name of Richard Saunders, displays his outright moral aptitude, and the wisdom of one of the founders of this prosperous nation. Seeing that the almanac was the second most popular book in colonial homes (after, hhhhm, the Holy Bible), it is fitting that a master of economic gain such as Franklin would have created one. Franklin, you live on in the hearts of many Americans, and many of your sayings are still in use these many years later!
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My 1st 5-star book!
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Trite wisdom and moralistic instruction in getting on.
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Brilliant, blissful and beautiful choice of words and phrases. Some are Benjamin Franklin's own and some are derived from Latin, Greek and other older sources. This almanac serves as a book of wisdom, enlightenment and success.
Ben had a desire for educating the common people, having been raised into a lower middle class family, and had his own life-long rags to riches story. He started publishing these yearly almanacs, as a way of better the living conditions of people by words of wisdom, and in part, because he wanted some literary recognition.
I will quote some, the most I connected deeply with:
'He that can compose himself, is wiser than he that composes books'
'Write with the learned, pronounce with the vulgar'
'Thou hadst better eat salt with the Philosophers of Greece, than sugar with the Courtiers of Italy'
'A good example is the best sermon'
'Words may shew a man's Wit, but Actions his Meaning'
'It is not Leisure that is not used'
'He that best understands the World, least likes it'
'Fear not Death; for the sooner we die, the longer shall we be immortal'
And of course, not to forget the ones that made me chuckle:
'Doors and walls are fools paper'
'Fish and visitors stink in 3 days'
'Who knows a fool, must know his brother; For one will recommend another'
'Harry Smatter, has a mouth for every matter'
'Tim was so learned, that he could name a Horse in nine Languages; So ignorant, that he bought a Cow to ride on'
As you read through the Poor Richard's manual, you will feel the comical and amiable energy Ben places in his work. He even sets up fictional absurd experiments just to toy with the reader's reason and logic.
Poor Ben suffered obesity throughout his later life, and was a reason for his death. To this, we can understand his intensive interest in health and being in shape, for he writes the following adages:
'To lengthen thy life, lessen thy meals'
'Beware of meat twice boiled and an old foe reconciled'
'Eat few Suppers, and you'll need few Medicines'
'After Fish, Milk do not wish'
'Hold your Council before Dinner; the full Belly hates Thinking as well as Acting'
He even goes on recommending some kind of physical work out for people to do:
'Use now and then a little Exercise a quarter of an Hour before Meals, as to swing a Weight, or swing your Arms about with a small Weight in each Hand; to leap, or the like, for that stirs the Muscles of the Breast.'
He is probably the earlier English writer to form the common modern phrasing we use to do;
'No pain, no gain' in the form : 'No gains without pains'
Another thing worth mentioning, is that he is fascinated by great thinkers and inventors, for he dedicated small paragraphs on their death and birth anniversaries, and thus educating his readers in general knowledge. He also teaches some of his inventions and methods of how to grow wine from grapes in the woods, and how to protect houses from thunder and lightening. One of the extremely few negative things I have seen in his work, is his ignorance of the difference between Turks as an ethnicity and Muslims as a religious group.
To anyone who read up until here, and enjoyed some of the quotes and ideas mentioned, please do not hesitate to read the entire collection, for there are so many adages that I cannot possibly include or be able to fully grasp. So a person's interpretation and usage of a proverb may vary. -
Even though it's short, this is a better book to dip into than to read straight through -- the way to get value from it is to spend at least a little time pondering the maxims.
But I'm not like that; I went from cover to cover. The result was to make me feel guilty: I should have been finishing my grading, not reading this book, and Franklin is happy to drive the point home...
Well done is better than well said.
Have you somewhat to do to-morrow, do it today.
You may delay, but Time will not.
... as well as plenty of others.
Mostly pleasant reading, with a scattering of disrespect for women passing as humor.
Sam's wife provok'd him once; he broke her crown:
The surgeon's bill amounted to five pounds;
This blow (she brags) has cost my husband dear,
He'll ne'er strike more: Sam chanc'd to overhear.
Therefore, before his wife the bills he pays,
And to the surgeon in her hearing says:
Doctor, you charge five pound, here e'en take ten,
My wife may chance to want your help again. -
This is an interesting book and gives some insight into the kind of advice people were often given. While I was reading I realized there was apparently some serious paranoia about a few different things: doctors, women, and debt collectors. While it's already a given that certain unfortunate ideas held nowadays stem from earlier periods this book gives a pretty good idea of what some of them were and are, especially regarding women. Having said that, I'm not sure anyone is a big fan of being in debt but I can't help but think there were some different undertones to that sentiment back in the day.
So, I can't say I always "enjoyed" this book but it is historically illuminating and I would recommend it on those merits. Probably my favorite piece of advice was "Men and melons are hard to know." This was not something I'd ever heard before and I found it quite amusing. I looked it up and it is actually a pretty good observation: both can be pretty thick. -
A bit outdated with quotes like "Marry your Son when you will, but your Daughter when you can" but still great relevance in some: "Whate'er's begun in anger ends in shame."
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There is NO better book of witticisms and wisdom than this one.
Totally tweetable, forever memorable.
I guess that's what you call timeless. -
Benjamin Franklin is the model of a wise and virtuous man. This Almanack is an amazing collection of wise adages. Amazing how much wisdom was he able to concentrate on them.
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Sell not virtue to purchase wealth, nor liberty to purchase power.
But what thou hast no need of; and e’er long thou shalt sell thy necessaries.
I have never seen the philosophers stone that turns lead into gold, but I have known the pursuit of it then a man’s gold into lead.
No longer virtuous, no longer free
Friendship increases by visiting friends, but by visiting seldom.
Old boys have their playthings as well as young ones; the difference is only in the price.
He that best understands the world, least likes it.
All things are cheap to the saving, dear to the wasteful.
Drink water, put the money in your pocket, and leave the dry-bellyach in the punch-bowl -
This collection of the Sayings of Poor Richard makes for a fun read! Here are some of my favorites:
“Who has deceiv’d thee so off as thy self?” (6).
“How many observe Christ’s Birth-day; How few his Precepts! O, ‘tis easier to keep Holidays than Commandments” (12).
“When painful Colin in his grave was laid,
His mournful wife this lamentation made:
I’ve lost, alas! (poor wretch, what must I do?)
The best of friends and best of husbands too.
Thus of all joy and happiness bereft:
And with the charge of ten good children left;
A greater grief no woman sure can know.
Who (with ten children) —who will have me now?” (24).
“Three may keep a secret, if two of them are dead” (31).
“Eat to live; live not to eat” (34).
“To lengthen thy life, lessen they meals” (34).
“A fat kitchen, a lean will” (38).
“Keep your eyes wide open before marriage, half shut afterwards” (50).
“Let thy Discontents be Secrets” (59). -
A good book much like meditations just less long winded. Has good saying and adds value to any life. I really enjoyed it a short read.
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I read it six years ago. I can't give it an accurate review right now. I'm just logging all of my digital books into a file on my computer...
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Some excerpts:
- Neither a fortress nor a maidenhead will hold out long after they begin to parley.
- Gifts much expected, are paid not given.
- The cat in gloves catches no mice.
- Laws too gentle are seldom obeyed; too severe, seldom executed.
- Where there’s marriage without love, there will be love without marriage.
- Who has deceiv’d thee so oft as thy self?
- Hear Reason, or she’ll make you feel her.
- What signifies knowing the Names, if you know not the Natures of Things?
- Mankind are very odd Creatures: One Half censure what they practice, the other half practice what they censure
- The Horse thinks one thing, and he that saddles him another.
- If you would not be forgotten, as soon as you are dead and rotten, either write things worth reading, or do things worth the writing.
- ’Tis easier to suppress the first Desire, than to satisfy all that follow it.
- Be civil to all; sociable to many; familiar with few; Friend to one; Enemy to none.
- The honest Man takes Pains, and then enjoys Pleasures; the knave takes Pleasure, and then suffers Pains.
- All would live long, but none would be old.
- Men differ daily, about things which are subject to sense, is it likely then they should agree about things invisible?
- The Proud hate Pride—in others.
- Search others for their virtues, thyself only for thy vices.
- Necessity never made a good bargain.
- Wealth is not his that has it, but his that enjoys it.
- He that is rich need not live sparingly, and he that can live sparingly need not be rich.
- When the well’s dry, we know the worth of water.
- ’Tis easier to build two Chimneys than maintain one in Fuel.
- He that would catch Fish, must venture his Bait. -
I read this book January of last year, it took me a couple hours or so and I gave the book 3 stars after completion. In my review I discussed how the book seemed outdated and at the time I didn’t really get much from the book but a few quotes which were certainly memorable such as the famous “early to bed early to rise makes a man healthy wealthy and wise” after reading this book for a second time and a year later, it really shows me how much I’ve changed in a few ways.
Firstly, I learned that most of the book is a collection of quotes that Franklin enjoyed rather than things he’d written which I could’ve figured out if I simply read the introduction but whilst trying to make haste in my reading I missed one of the most important pieces of a book. Secondly, this time around I didn’t rush to finish the book but would spend my nights reading 20 pages or so before bed to really absorb the information shared by Franklin and in doing so I’ve had so many more highlights and really understood each quote more thoroughly than before. Lastly, I’ve taken the time to understand every word in the book with the help of a dictionary, I was surprised to find myself assuming the meaning of old English incorrectly and in doing so changed the meaning of sentences completely.
Overall I learned some valuable lessons here:
1. Don’t be too quick to finish a book. It’s about the amount of absorption not completion.
2. Don’t be afraid to reread a book.
3. Don’t assume you understood something completely without thorough research.
On a side note: if you want a book that discusses virtues and vices from the perspective of a wealthy entrepreneur and successful inventor then look no further. -
How is it possible to write a review to a book with phrases that have become so much a part of our everyday language? Phrases such as "Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy wealthy and wise." Or "He that sows thorns should never go barefoot." And on and on!
I noticed many of the phrases had already been uttered by other authors. For example, "Reading makes a full man, meditation a profound man, discourse a clear man" is very reminiscent of Francis Bacon's essay "Of Studies," in which he writes, "Reading maketh a full man, conference a ready man, and writing an exact man." I also noticed a slightly tweaked version of Washington's famous quote,
“Be courteous to all, but intimate with few, and let those few be well tried before you give them your confidence. True friendship is a plant of slow growth, and must undergo and withstand the shocks of adversity before it is entitled to the appellation.” Thomas Jefferson also had his own version of it: "Be polite to all but intimate with few."
The truth is, we can't know how many of these proverbs Franklin truly came up with, but nevertheless, his collection of aphorisms and witty proverbs is fun to browse now as much as they were 250 years ago when the first edition was published. The Almanac was an instant success, making Franklin both wealthy and famous. It's a great coffee table book to read during family time, and portable enough to take to the doctor's or jury duty. -
Classic Secular proverbs demonstrating the wisdom and wit of Ben Franklin. In my journal listed 20 to highlight. When I read it again, there will be others that strike me as relevant.
