Franklin’s wisdom for US: Virtue is best obtained by learning it in youth.
Franklin wrote these words in a letter to Samuel Johnson, an educator and Anglican clergyman. He prefaced it with these additional words of wisdom:
I think with you, that nothing is of more importance for the public weal, than to form and train up youth in wisdom and virtue. Wise and good men are, in my opinion, the strength of a state: much more so than riches or arms, which, under the management of ignorance and wickedness, often draw on destruction, instead of providing for the safety of a people. And though the culture bestowed on many should be successful only with a few, yet the influence of those few and the service in their power, may be very great. Even a single woman that was wise, by her wisdom saved a city.
Franklin’s call to action for US: Teach our youth to do goodness to others. Only elect officials who are wise and good men and women.
Quote on image:
“General virtue is more probably to be expected and obtained from the education of youth, than from the exhortation of adult persons; bad habits and vices of the mind, being, like diseases of the body, more easily prevented than cured.”