Books with author Benjamin Franklin Taylor

The memoirs of a brilliant and beloved Founding Father Printer, author, scientist, inventor, statesman, revolutionary—arguably no American life has been more remarkable than Benjamin Franklin’s.Penned between 1771 and 1790 and published after his death, the unfinished Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin is one of the most acclaimed and widely read personal histories ever written. From his youth as a printer’s assistant working for his brother’s Boston newspaper through his own publishing, writing, and military careers, his scientific experiments and worldwide travels, his grand triumphs and heartbreaking tragedies, Franklin tells his story with aplomb, bringing to life the flesh-and-blood man behind the American icon.This ebook has been professionally proofread to ensure accuracy and readability on all devices.

“But on the whole, though I never arrived at the perfection I had been so ambitious of obtaining, but fell far short of it, yet I was, by the endeavour, a better and happier man than I otherwise should have been had I not attempted it; as those who aim at perfect writing by imitating the engraved copies, their hand is mended by the endevour, and is tolerable while it continues fair and legible” ~ From 'The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin.'Often labeled ‘the world’s first self-help book,’ founding father Benjamin Franklin’s autobiography was never published in his lifetime but has since become a classic. It has remained in print for almost two hundred years and shows no sign of losing popularity in the digital age. This newly revised version of the 1909 edition includes an introduction and detailed footnotes.

I stopped my horse, lately, where a great number of people were collected at an auction of merchants’ goods. The hour of the sale not being come, they were conversing on the badness of the times; and one of the company called to a plain, clean, old man, with white locks, ’Pray, Father Abraham, what think you of the times? Will not those heavy taxes quite ruin the country! How shall we be ever able to pay them? What would you advise us to?’——Father Abraham stood up, and replied, ’If you would have my advice, I will give it you in short; "for a word to the wise is enough," as Poor Richard says.’ They joined in desiring him to speak his mind, and, gathering round him (...) - Taken from "The Way To Wealth" written by Benjamin Franklin under the pseudonym of Richard Saunders. "The Way To Wealth" is also known as "Franklin's Way To Wealth Or, Poor Richard Improved". This edition also contains various selected writings of Benjamin Franklin.

The Way to Wealth is an essay written by Benjamin Franklin in 1758. It is a collection of adages and advice presented in Poor Richard's Almanac during its first 25 years of publication, organized into a speech given by "Father Abraham" to a group of people. Many of the phrases Father Abraham quotes continue to be familiar today. The essay's advice is based on the themes of work ethic and frugality. Some phrases from the almanac quoted in The Way to Wealth include: • "There are no gains, without pains" • "One today is worth two tomorrows" • "A life of leisure and a life of laziness are two things" • "Get what you can, and what you get hold" • "Sloth, like rust, consumes faster than labor wears, while the used key is always bright" • "Have you somewhat to do tomorrow, do it today" • "The eye of a master will do more work than both his hands" • "Early to bed, and early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise" • "For want of a nail...". Benjamin Franklin (January 17, 1706 - April 17, 1790) was one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. A renowned polymath, Franklin was a leading author, printer, political theorist, politician, freemason, postmaster, scientist, inventor, civic activist, statesman, and diplomat. As a scientist, he was a major figure in the American Enlightenment and the history of physics for his discoveries and theories regarding electricity. As an inventor, he is known for the lightning rod, bifocals, and the Franklin stove, among other inventions. He facilitated many civic organizations, including Philadelphia's fire department and a university. Franklin earned the title of "The First American" for his early and indefatigable campaigning for colonial unity, initially as an author and spokesman in London for several colonies. As the first United States Ambassador to France, he exemplified the emerging American nation. Franklin was foundational in defining the American ethos as a marriage of the practical values of thrift, hard work, education, community spirit, self-governing institutions, and opposition to authoritarianism both political and religious, with the scientific and tolerant values of the Enlightenment. In the words of historian Henry Steele Commager, "In a Franklin could be merged the virtues of Puritanism without its defects, the illumination of the Enlightenment without its heat." To Walter Isaacson, this makes Franklin "the most accomplished American of his age and the most influential in inventing the type of society America would become."

This volume presents the Benjamin Franklin's famous essay "The Way to Wealth", which incorporates many of the "Poor Richard" sayings into a treatese on thrift, economy, and financial wisdom -- filled with advise as prudent today as when it was originally issued more than 250 years ago. Rounding out the volume are the companion pieces "From the Morals of Chess" and the humorous essay "A Receipt to Make a New-England Funeral Elegy."

This new edition of Benjamin Franklin’s The Way to Wealth draws upon the authoritative text first published in the early nineteenth century. The original images from the timeless publication have been recovered and placed within this new text, bringing the original writings of Franklin fully into their historical context. For further authenticity, the text – including archaisms – has been preserved as Franklin wrote it. The sayings introduced and promoted by Benjamin Franklin in this book promote a good work ethic and wise attitude to life and wealth. The aphorisms and lessons within this short text are consistent with the life of Franklin, whose multi-faceted career spanned the fields of inventing, public service, activism, diplomacy and the sciences. Rather than speak the words directly, Franklin draws upon a character – Poor Richard – as a surrogate person who acts upon his lessons. By following the advice herein, Richard is no longer so poor and has begun to accumulate wealth thanks to being responsible and diligent in both work and leisure, combined with frugality. The words exemplify the Protestant work ethic for which Franklin would become recognised posthumously by economic thinkers such as Max Weber. Much of the wisdom herein is timeless and imbued by the life experience of the Founding Father himself. Despite the archaic imagery and wording, it is possible to gain insight and inspiration in work from this book even today. Were such a text updated and authored for the modern day, we might refer to it as something of a ‘self-help’ guide – to Franklin however, these words were simple good sense.

First published in 1732 by Benjamin Franklin when he was just 26, Poor Richard's Almanack was issued annually for the next 25 years. Extremely popular with readers of the day, the Almanack was a fascinating compilation of weather predictions, recipes, jokes, and delightful aphorisms — many representing Franklin's common-sense philosophy, and others, proverbs from the past.This handy little volume presents hundreds of these charming maxims, carefully selected from a number of Franklin's "almanacks." Arranged in nearly 30 categories (eating and drinking; men, women, and marriage; friendships; money and frugality; religion; professions and occupations, etc.), they include such familiar phrases as:Early to bed and early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise.Haste makes waste.Love your Neighbour; yet don't pulldown your Hedge.He that lies down with Dogs, shall rise up with fleas.Hunger never saw bad bread.He's a Fool that makes his Doctor his Heir.He that has not got a Wife, is not yet a compleat Man.An ideal sourcebook for writers, public speakers, and students, this practical and entertaining little book will also delight general readers with its rich store of time-honored folk wisdom.

The fascinating tale of one of America's founding fathers, The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin continues the tradition of Arcturus's classics range by publishing the writings of some of the world's most famous figures. In one of the most exemplary autobiographies ever written, Benjamin Franklin explores his vast range of interests from politics to writing to science. Through his considered narrative and his account of his varied accomplishments, he provides a window into the world during the era of the American War of Independence.

"""The first book to belong permanently to literature. It created a man."" Few men could compare to Benjamin Franklin. Virtually self-taught, he excelled as an athlete, a man of letters, a printer, a scientist, a wit, an inventor, an editor, and a writer, and he was probably the most successful diplomat in American history. David Hume hailed him as the first great philosopher and great man of letters in the New World.Written initially to guide his son, Franklin's autobiography is a lively, spellbinding account of his unique and eventful life. Stylistically his best work, it has become a classic in world literature, one to inspire and delight readers everywhere."

The World on Wheels and Other Sketches by Benjamin F. TaylorThe perpetual lever called a wheel is the masterpiece of mechanical skill. At home on sea and land, like the feet of the Proclaiming Angel, it finds a fulcrum wherever it happens to be. It is the alphabet of human ingenuity. You can spell out with the wheel and the lever—and the latter is only a loose spoke of that same wheel—pretty much everything in the Nineteenth Century but the Christian Religion and the Declaration of Independence. Having thought about it a minute more, I am inclined to except the exceptions, and say they translate the one and transport the other.Were you ever a boy? Never? Well, then, my girl, wasn't one of your first ambitions a finger-ring? And there is your wheel, with a small live axle in it! But whatever you are, did you ever know a boy worth naming and owning who did not try to make a wheel out of a shingle, or a board, or a scrap of tin? Maybe it was as eccentric as a comet's orbit, and only wabbled when it was meant to whirl, but it was the genuine curvilinear aspiration for all that. Boys, young and old, "take to" wheels as naturally as they take to sin. I am sorry for the fellow that never rigged a water-wheel in the spring swell of the meadow brook, or mounted a wind-mill on the barn gable, or drew a wagon of his own make. My sympathies do not extend to his lack of a velocipede, which is nothing if not a bewitched and besaddled wheelbarrow.In fact, it seems to be the tendency of everything to be a wheel. There's your tumbling dolphin, and there's your whirling world. The conqueror whose hurry set on fire the axles of his chariot was no novelty. Who knows that the Aurora Borealis and the Aurora Australis, lighting up the sky about the polar circles in the night-time, may not be the flashes from the glowing axles of the planet? Who knows that the ice and snow may not be piled up about the Arctic and Antarctic just to keep the flaming gudgeons as cool as possible? Does Sir John Franklin? Does anybody?Take an old man's memory. Only give it a touch, and it turns like a wheel between his two childhoods, and 1810 comes round before you can count the spokes, and 1874 hardly out of sight.When they made narrow wooden hands with slender wrists, and called them oars, and galleys swept the Eastern seas in a grave and stately way, they did well. When they fashioned broad and ghastly palms of canvas that laid hold upon the empty air, and named them sails, they did better. When they grouped around an axle the iron hands that buffeted the waves and put the sea, discomfited, rebuked, behind the flying ship, they had their wheel, and they did best!