Benjamin Franklin’s 13 virtues, and how he practiced them

Benjamin Franklin wanted “to live without committing any fault at any time.” In his words: “I soon found I had undertaken a task of more difficulty than I had imagined.”

So he made a plan. He chose 13 virtues, “annexed to each a short precept,” and worked on them one at a time. He described it in his Autobiography, written in his 79th year.

The 13 virtues, in his words

1. Temperance. Eat not to dullness; drink not to elevation.
2. Silence. Speak not but what may benefit others or yourself; avoid trifling conversation.
3. Order. Let all your things have their places; let each part of your business have its time.
4. Resolution. Resolve to perform what you ought; perform without fail what you resolve.
5. Frugality. Make no expense but to do good to others or yourself; i.e., waste nothing.
6. Industry. Lose no time; be always employed in something useful; cut off all unnecessary actions.
7. Sincerity. Use no hurtful deceit; think innocently and justly; and, if you speak, speak accordingly.
8. Justice. Wrong none by doing injuries, or omitting the benefits that are your duty.
9. Moderation. Avoid extremes; forbear resenting injuries so much as you think they deserve.
10. Cleanliness. Tolerate no uncleanliness in body, clothes, or habitation.
11. Tranquillity. Be not disturbed at trifles, or at accidents common or unavoidable.
12. Chastity. Rarely use venery but for health or offspring; never to dullness, weakness, or the injury of your own or another’s peace or reputation.
13. Humility. Imitate Jesus and Socrates.

The list “contained at first but twelve.” Humility came last, after “a Quaker friend having kindly informed me that I was generally thought proud.”

One at a time

He decided “not to distract my attention by attempting the whole at once, but to fix it on one of them at a time.” He put them in an order where each would help with the next: “Temperance first, as it tends to procure that coolness and clearness of head…”

He compared it to weeding a garden. A gardener doesn’t pull every weed at once, but works “on one of the beds at a time.”

The little book

“I made a little book, in which I allotted a page for each of the virtues.” Each page had seven columns in red ink, one for each day of the week, crossed by 13 red lines, one for each virtue. Each evening he marked “by a little black spot, every fault I found upon examination” for that day.

Each week had one virtue to guard. The others were left “to their ordinary chance.” That way he could “go through a course complete in thirteen weeks, and four courses in a year.”

Later he moved the pages to “the ivory leaves of a memorandum book” and marked them in pencil, so he could “wipe out with a wet sponge” and start again.

His day began and ended with a question. In the morning: “What good shall I do this day?” In the evening: “What good have I done to-day?”

How it went

“I was surprised to find myself so much fuller of faults than I had imagined; but I had the satisfaction of seeing them diminish.”

“My scheme of Order gave me the most trouble.” He told of a man who wanted his whole ax ground as bright as its edge, if he would turn the wheel himself. Tired of turning, the man settled: “I think I like a speckled ax best.”

Of Humility, he wrote: “I cannot boast of much success in acquiring the reality of this virtue, but I had a good deal with regard to the appearance of it.”

He never reached the perfection he set out for. Still, “by the endeavour,” he was “a better and a happier man than I otherwise should have been if I had not attempted it.”

To try his method

1. Write down the virtues you want, each with a short rule.
2. Make a page with seven columns for the days and a line for each virtue.
3. Choose one virtue for the week, and leave the rest to chance.
4. Each evening, mark a spot for each fault of the day.
5. Next week, move on to the next virtue.

Quotes from the Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin, edited by Frank Woodworth Pine (Project Gutenberg), with spelling modernized.