(1706-1790)

Benjamin Franklin had established himself as a printer, writer, and public servant in Philadelphia, the biggest city in the colonies, by the time he was twenty-four years old. He was able to retire at forty-two and spend the rest of his life in service to science, philanthropy, and the young country he helped to found. He also found time to teach himself several languages, start America's first lending library and fire department, invent the Franklin stove and bifocals, and lay the basis for the American Philosophical Society and the University of Pennsylvania. A hugely successful American representative in France, and an early supporter of the abolition of slavery, he wrote of himself with a characteristic mixture of objectivity and self-mockery. The following selection shows him in his rebellious youth, and gives one of his early experiments-personal rather than scientific-whose failure he managed to learn from.

Famous Unitarian Universalists: Ben Franklin

Time.com: Citizen Ben’s Great Virtues

Benjamin Franklin, "The Way to Wealth"

Benjamin Franklin: An Enlightened American

from Autobiography (1771)