{"id":204789,"date":"2026-09-07T13:58:51","date_gmt":"2026-09-07T20:58:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/?p=204789"},"modified":"2026-09-07T13:58:51","modified_gmt":"2026-09-07T20:58:51","slug":"a-bit-of-wisdom-from-the-1742-poor-richards-almanac-american-dream-origins-day-ten","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/?p=204789","title":{"rendered":"A Bit of Wisdom from the 1742 Poor Richard\u2019s Almanac (American Dream Origins Day Ten)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Philadelphia, PA…Our Favorite Founding Father is Ben Franklin. He didn’t just help found our country during the 1776 era.\u00a0 \u00a0For two generations before he helped sell concepts of Freedom, Self-Determination & Inalienable rights. From 1733 to 1758 Poor Richard’s Almanac helped create the unique American identity in a homey, common sense, aspirational way. A few Bits of Wisdom from 1742…<\/p>\n

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1742
\nStrange! that a Man who has wit enough to write a Satyr; should have folly enough to publish it.
\nHe that hath a Trade, hath an Estate.
\nHave you somewhat to do tomorrow; do it today.
\nSpeak and speed: the close mouth catches no flies.
\nLate Children, early Orphans.
\nBen beats his Pate, and fancys wit will come; But he may knock, there’s no body at home.
\nIll Customs & bad Advice are seldom forgotten.
\nHe that sows thorns, should not go barefoot.
\nWhen Knaves fall out, honest Men get their goods:
\nWhen Priests dispute, we come at the Truth.
\nDeath takes no bribes.
\nOne good Husband is worth two good Wives; for the scarcer things are the more they’re valued.
\nHe that riseth late, must trot all day, and shall scarce overtake his business at night.
\nHe that speaks ill of the Mare, will buy her.
\nYou will be careful, if you are wise;
\nHow you touch Men’s Religion, or Credit, or Eyes.
\nThey who have nothing to trouble them, will be troubled at nothing.
\nAgainst Diseases here, the strongest Fence, Is the defensive Virtue, Abstinence.
\nIf thou dost ill, the joy fades, not the pains; If well, the pain doth fade, the joy remains.
\nTo err is human, to repent divine, to persist devilish.
\nIndustry pays Debts, Despair encreases them.
\nWith the old Almanack and the old Year, Leave thy Vices. tho’ never so dear.
\nThe Difficulty lies, in finding out an exact Measure; but eat for Necessity, not Pleasure, for Lust knows not where Necessity ends.
\nIf thou art dull and heavy after Meat, it’s a sign thou hast exceeded the due Measure; for Meat and Drink ought to refresh the Body, and make it chearful, and not to dull and oppress it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Philadelphia, PA…Our Favorite Founding Father is Ben Franklin. He didn’t just help found our country during the 1776 era.\u00a0 \u00a0For two generations before he helped sell concepts of Freedom, Self-Determination & Inalienable rights. From 1733 to 1758 Poor Richard’s Almanac helped create the unique American identity in a homey, common sense, aspirational way. A few […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":174959,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_cbd_carousel_blocks":"[]","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20,1,34],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-204789","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-news","category-quotes","last_archivepost"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/PoorRichardBan.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204789","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=204789"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204789\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":204791,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204789\/revisions\/204791"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/174959"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=204789"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=204789"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=204789"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}