{"id":39593,"date":"2015-03-05T00:10:33","date_gmt":"2015-03-05T08:10:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.todayifoundout.com\/?p=39593"},"modified":"2015-03-05T02:02:24","modified_gmt":"2015-03-05T10:02:24","slug":"ben-franklins-best-epigrams","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.todayifoundout.com\/index.php\/2015\/03\/ben-franklins-best-epigrams\/","title":{"rendered":"The Truth About Ben Franklin’s Epigrams"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"BenFranklinDuplessis\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Ben Franklin accomplished a lot of things over his 84 years on Earth. He was an influential newspaper editor and printer. He was an inventor, known for bifocals, the lightening rod, and Franklin stove. He was the governor of Pennsylvania for three years. He was an American founding father, who had a hand in drafting the Declaration of Independence. The biographer Walter Isaacson once called Franklin, \u201cthe most accomplished American in his age.\u201d Despite all of this, perhaps the most lasting of all his credits is that of a writer and humorist, the author (or curator, as we will get into in a moment) of many pithy, funny, and true sayings, or epigrams, about life. Here are the origins behind several of them:<\/p>\n

Fish and visitors stink in three days<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

As one might imagine, Ben Franklin didn\u2019t conceive all of these witty epigrams himself. Sometimes he took old ones and adapted them to the times and his voice. \u201cFish and visitors stink in three days\u201d actually originally comes from the 16th century writer John Lyly. In his most famous work, Euphues – the Anatomy of Wit<\/em>, he writes, \u201cFish and guests in three days are stale.\u201d Euphues<\/em> (from Greek, meaning \u201cgraceful and witty\u201d) was such a success when it was published in 1579, that today\u2019s English word \u201ceuphemism\u201d is derived from the title of the book \u00a0Two hundred years later, Franklin would adopt a version of this saying as his own.<\/p>\n

You paid too much for that whistle<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

This underused epigram (at least in this author\u2019s opinion) comes from a 1779 letter he sent to Madame Brillon (long thought to be one of Franklin\u2019s infamous French mistresses). They would correspond twice a week when not in each other\u2019s company, with Franklin usually writing two copies of the same letter – one in English for his safe keeping and one in French for her. This particular letter, published in 1780, became known as \u201cThe Whistle\u201d due to a story Franklin recounts from his youth. When Franklin was seven years old, he went to the toy shop and used all his hard-earned money to buy a whistle. While he enjoyed the whistle very much (though the sound annoyed his family), he was made fun of for paying \u201cfour times as much for it as it was worth.\u201d He cried, realizing that the amount of money he paid for the whistle was far beyond the pleasure it gave him. Continued Franklin in the letter, \u201cAs I grew up, came into the world, and observed the actions of men, I thought I met many who gave too much for the whistle.\u201d<\/p>\n

Eat to live, not live to eat<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

In 1733, Franklin printed the first Poor Richard\u2019s Almanack<\/em>. Writing under the pseudonym \u201cPoor Richard Saunders,\u201d Franklin dispensed advice, truthisms, and words to live by. In this edition is one of Franklin\u2019s more ironic epigrams – \u201cEat to live, not live to eat.\u201d This could be called ironic because Franklin was well-known to overindulge in food, wine, and women. He talked of this in his autobiography, saying: \u201cthe hard-to-be-governed passion of my youth had hurried me frequently into intrigues with low women that fell in my way.\u201d He fathered a child out of wedlock, flirted and sought company with women half his age and in his autobiography he devoted some time to discussing the advantages of sleeping with older women instead. He was also rumored to be a member of the Medmenham Monks, a group \u201cdevoted to sexual access of all kinds”<\/p>\n

As for food and drink, he battled gout for much of his elderly life. Once known as \u201cthe rich man\u2019s disease,\u201d gout is an arthritic condition that can come from the consumption of too much alcohol, too many foods rich in uric acid (like red meat, seafood, and organ meat), and not enough exercise.<\/p>\n

As for the phrase itself, it originally came from the French comedic playwright Jean-Baptiste Poquelin, more known by his stage name Moliere. In his 1668 play, L\u2019Avare<\/em>, a character says, \u201cto quote an ancient philosopher, one must eat to live, not live to eat.\u201d<\/p>\n

Beware of the young doctor & the old barber<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Again from the very first Poor Richard\u2019s Almanack<\/em> in 1733, this saying was probably meant as more of a joke than an actual truth. As one can imagine, this saying doesn\u2019t sit well with doctors nor barbers. In fact, in 1919, New York City coroner (and son of famed physician George F. Shrady Sr.) George Frederick Shrady Jr. wrote as editor of a medical journal that \u201cthis (phrase) was true when written, but today the world knows the young physician is the best trained and fears him not. It\u2019s now only true of the barber.\u201d One wonders what the barber would say to that.<\/p>\n

Early to bed, early to rise, make a man healthy, wealthy, and wise<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

This well-known proverb appeared in the 1735 edition of Poor Richard\u2019s Almanack<\/em>, but, once again, Franklin likely didn\u2019t write it. A form of this phrase appeared in a Renaissance text from the 15th century and even then, it was called old. In a piece about fly fishing, it was used to encourage anglers to go fly fishing early, for it was in the morning sun that fishing was \u201cmost profitable.\u201d Said the text, \u201cFor it will cause him to be well, also for the increase of his goods, for it will make him rich. As the old English proverb says: ‘Whoever will rise early shall be holy, healthy, and happy.”<\/p>\n

There are no gains, without pains<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

While this exact phrasing may not be familiar to most, this proverb was the inspiration behind the more common workout (and t-shirt) saying, \u201cno pain, no gain.\u201d Printed in the 1734 edition of Poor Richard\u2019s Almanack<\/em>, Franklin emphasized the phrase \u201cthere are no gains, without pains\u201d again in his 1758 self-help book The Way to Wealth<\/em>.<\/p>\n

While some sources date this proverb to 1577 (in the form of \u201cThey must take the pain that look for gain.\u201d) and its more modern version to a 1648 Robert Herrick poem, others say this saying may have originated much earlier. The Pirkei Avot<\/em> (English translation: Chapters of the Fathers<\/em>)\u00a0is a collection of rabbinical teachings from the Mishnaic Period, roughly from the first to the third century. According to Chabad.org, in the Pirkei Avo<\/em>t, Ben Hei Hei (a Jewish convert during this time and, apparently, a wise man), stated, \u201cAccording to the pain is the gain.\u201d<\/p>\n

As one can see, Ben Franklin was more of a curator of epigrams, proverbs, and sayings rather than the author, despite that he tends to be given full credit today. Then again, as Franklin once wrote, \u201cany fool can criticize, condemn, and complain – and most fools do.\u201d<\/p>\n

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