Did not strong connections draw me elsewhere, I believe Scotland would be the country I would choose to end my days in.
Benjamin FranklinTags: scotland
Mr. President
I confess that there are several parts of this constitution which I do not at present approve, but I am not sure I shall never approve them: For having lived long, I have experienced many instances of being obliged by better information, or fuller consideration, to change opinions even on important subjects, which I once thought right, but found to be otherwise. It is therefore that the older I grow, the more apt I am to doubt my own judgment, and to pay more respect to the judgment of others. Most men indeed as well as most sects in Religion, think themselves in possession of all truth, and that wherever others differ from them it is so far error. Steele a Protestant in a Dedication tells the Pope, that the only difference between our Churches in their opinions of the certainty of their doctrines is, the Church of Rome is infallible and the Church of England is never in the wrong. But though many private persons think almost as highly of their own infallibility as of that of their sect.
In these sentiments, Sir, I agree to this Constitution with all its faults, if they are such; because I think a general Government necessary for us, and there is no form of Government but what may be a blessing to the people if well administered, and believe farther that this is likely to be well administered for a course of years, and can only end in Despotism, as other forms have done before it, when the people shall become so corrupted as to need despotic Government, being incapable of any other. I doubt too whether any other Convention we can obtain, may be able to make a better Constitution. For when you assemble a number of men to have the advantage of their joint wisdom, you inevitably assemble with those men, all their prejudices, their passions, their errors of opinion, their local interests, and their selfish views. From such an assembly can a perfect production be expected? It therefore astonishes me, Sir, to find this system approaching so near to perfection as it does; and I think it will astonish our enemies, who are waiting with confidence to hear that our councils are confounded like those of the Builders of Babel; and that our States are on the point of separation, only to meet hereafter for the purpose of cutting one another's throats. Thus I consent, Sir, to this Constitution because I expect no better, and because I am not sure, that it is not the best. The opinions I have had of its errors, I sacrifice to the public good. I have never whispered a syllable of them abroad. Within these walls they were born, and here they shall die. If every one of us in returning to our Constituents were to report the objections he has had to it, and endeavor to gain partizans in support of them, we might prevent its being generally received, and thereby lose all the salutary effects
Tags: hive
By my rambling digressions I perceive myself to be growing old.
Benjamin FranklinTags: humor
...wine [is] a constant proof that God loves us, and loves to see us happy.
Benjamin FranklinTags: wine frequently-misquoted 1779
Make yourself sheep and the wolves will eat you.
Benjamin FranklinThe body of B. Franklin, Printer;
Like the cover of an old book (it's contents torn out, and stript of its lettering and guilding), lies here, food for worms
But the work shall not be wholly lost, for it will (as he believed) appear once more, in a new and more perfect edition, corrected and amended, by the Author.
Any society that would give up essential liberty to obtain a little security will deserve neither and lose both."
Ben Franklin
He who empties his purse into his mind, shall never go bankrupt.
Benjamin FranklinAku lebih suka mengatakan, dia hidup berguna, daripada dia meninggal kaya raya.
Benjamin FranklinTags: audacity-of-hope
Imitate Jesus and Socrates
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