“Imitate Jesus and Socrates.” - Benjamin Franklin

Are you as struck by Franklin's recommendation as I am?

Why both?

If you're going to include Jesus on any list, there really isn't any need to include anyone else.

It was curious to me what Franklin might have been thinking that would lead him to include these two people specifically, and only these two people. Perhaps it was this prompting from a personal friend of Franklin's:

"My list of virtues continued at first but twelve; but a Quaker friend having kindly informed me that I was generally thought proud, that my pride showed itself frequently in conversation, that I was not content with being in the right when discussing any point, but was overbearing and rather insolent, of which he convinced me by mentioning several instances, I determined endeavoring to cure myself, if I could, of this vice or folly among the rest, and I added Humility to my list, giving an extensive meaning to the word."

Humility is "a modest or low view of one's own importance." It may well be that you are important, or the best, but humility moderates a balanced view of how you should view yourself. God opposes the proud just as all others are repulsed by them.

Read the transcript for Benjamin Franklin's 13 Virtues - Humility

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