Examples Of Benjamin Franklin's 13 Virtues

“Live without committing any fault at any time”. This quote, which was said by Benjamin Franklin when explaining why he came up with his 13 virtues, is a quote that is very hard to live by. Ben Franklin admitted that he was never able to live the virtues perfectly, but felt he had become a better and happier person for having made the attempt. With this said, I decided that it was worth a try, hoping that maybe these virtues would make me think differently about things as well, and possibly make me a better person.
When this project was introduced, I had many doubts that I would actually be able to live up to Benjamin Franklin’s virtues. As I read through the list of 13, I was not quite sure what virtue’s I wanted to try and live by for a week.
The first virtue that was listed was Temperance, which means eat not to dullness; drink not to elevation. This virtue did not
The next virtue, Silence, which means: speak not but what may benefit others or yourself; avoid trifling. This virtue did pop out to me, and I began to consider whether or not this would be one of the virtues I would try to live by for the week. In the age we live in, there is constant noise and chatter, and Ben Franklin made silence one of his virtues to try and teach men when and when not to speak. People constantly are saying the wrong things, whether they realize it or not, and although Ben Franklin would not know about this, the use of technology to communicate has made the virtue of silence even that much harder. Maybe you have become more silent face to face, but everything changes when you use technology. Ben Franklin urged the use of patiencessness when describing the virtue of silence, implying that patience is the key to silence, and if you just wait a little bit longer, the words will no longer be needed. The 3rd Virtue is Order: Let all things have their