Franklin's Autobiography (Eclectic English Classics)

On no occasion call yourself a philosopher, nor talk at large of your principles among the multitude, but act on your principles. For

a questioning of your preferred means can look like indifference toward your most treasured ends. We all fall into this trap from time to time. But the distinction between the two is absolutely vital, and must always be kept in the forefront of our minds in any public debate.

you may learn much that you did not know, but you will learn only by assuming an attitude of humility.

And in this connection let me utter a word of protest against any and every form of affectation. It always arouses contempt; in the first place, because it argues deception, and the deception is cowardly, for it is based on fear; and, secondly, it argues self-condemnation, because it means that a man is trying to appear what he is not, and therefor