“So convenient a thing it is to be a reasonable creature, since it enables one to find or make a reason for everything one has a mind to do.”

“While gambling at checkers with some shipmates, he formulated an ‘infallible rule,’ which was that ‘if two persons equal in judgment play for a considerable sum, he that loves money most shall lose; his anxiety for the success of the game confounds him. ‘The rule, he decided, applied to other battles; a person who is too fearful will end up performing defensively and thus fail to seize offensive advantages.’”

“Franklin went on to catalog the most common conversational sins ‘which cause dislike,’ the greatest being ‘talking overmuch…which never fails to excite resentment.’