Advice to a Young Tradesman
By Benjamin Franklin · 1748
Practical advice to young tradesmen on time, credit, debt, bookkeeping, industry, frugality, and maintaining a reputation for financial reliability.
Works
An exploration of beauty in nature, people and art, considering how form, proportion, character and perception shape aesthetic experience.
An exploration of beauty in nature, people and art, considering how form, proportion, character and perception shape aesthetic experience.
An examination of reading and literary judgement, arguing for selective attention to enduring books, independent thought and active engagement with authors.
An exploration of change, intellectual growth and recurring expansion, arguing that each established idea can be surpassed by a wider perspective.
An examination of civilisation as social progress, considering cooperation, institutions, technology, labour, moral development and the conditions that support collective life.
An exploration of moral balance and consequence, arguing that actions, gains and losses are answered by corresponding effects in life.
An examination of self-cultivation, arguing that education, travel, society and varied experience can broaden judgement and correct personal limitations.
An exploration of perception, change, grief and uncertainty, examining how temperament and circumstance shape human experience and limit claims to certainty.
An examination of friendship as a relationship founded on sincerity, mutual respect, independence, trust, and the recognition of another person’s character.
Practical advice on designing programming languages, arguing that they should prioritise simplicity, reliability and the needs of the programmer over elaborate features.
An examination of thought, perception and intuition, arguing that genuine understanding depends on intellectual openness rather than rigid systems or inherited authority.
An exploration of romantic love as a force that enlarges perception, deepens character, and can develop into a broader spiritual affection.
An exploration of humanity’s relationship with nature, arguing that direct experience of the natural world can reveal spiritual and intellectual truths.
An examination of New England reform movements, considering their ambitions, limitations, social experiments, and Emerson’s emphasis on individual moral development.
A warning against another European war, examining dictatorship, propaganda, military ambition and the risks of American involvement.
An examination of ageing, considering its physical limitations alongside the experience, judgement, perspective and forms of independence that later life can bring.
An essay on optimism as a practical outlook, examining how hope, effort and social progress can coexist with suffering and adversity.
Churchill’s reflections on amateur painting, describing its techniques, pleasures, challenges, and value as a restorative form of creative activity.
An examination of personal and social power, considering energy, ability, circumstance, practical competence, and the conditions that enable effective action.
An argument that programming should be regarded as a branch of engineering, combining scientific foundations with practical discipline and professional responsibility for reliability.
An examination of practical wisdom, arguing that sound judgement requires attention to material realities, consequences, discipline, health, and everyday conduct.
An argument for individual conscience over unjust state authority, examining taxation, slavery, war, resistance, and the moral limits of government.
An argument for trusting individual judgement, resisting conformity, and living according to one’s own convictions rather than external approval.
An analysis of how ruling elites gain, maintain and lose power, and how new groups replace declining elites.
An essay arguing that artificial intelligence poses serious near-term risks that can be mitigated through technology, regulation, adaptation, and public understanding.
An account of Transcendentalist thought, emphasising idealism, individual conscience, intuition, spiritual independence, and dissatisfaction with established social conventions.
A practical essay on building financial security through industry, frugality, careful use of time, saving, and avoidance of unnecessary debt.
An outlook on global progress in 2026, examining aid, innovation, inequality, climate, healthcare, education, and the disruptive effects of artificial intelligence.
A reflection on bereavement, suffering and death, offering consolation through faith, remembrance, service and belief in spiritual continuity.
An examination of wealth, property and economic activity, considering how resources, labour, skill and judgement contribute to material independence and social power.