Benjamin Franklin was so busy as an inventor, publisher, scientist, diplomat, and U.S. Founding Father that it’s easy to lose track of his other accomplishments. So add one more to the roster: his early work in printing colonial paper currency designed to counter the constant threat of counterfeiting. Franklin was an early innovator of printing…

Benjamin Franklin’s many achievements as a statesman and scientist grew from his belief in the power of self-improvement. At the age of 20, he began an arduous project of “arriving at moral perfection,” as documented in his autobiography published posthumously in 1791. He was determined to practice 13 virtues that, rotated on a weekly basis,…

The following is a speech delivered by Conrad Black at the Canada Strong and Free Networking Conference 2023 in Ottawa on March 24, 2023. I have been asked to give a summary of the development and current condition of conservatism in the United States and Canada. Please allow me to begin with a bit of…

Perhaps the United States wouldn’t have become so politicized had we all followed a good piece of advice from Benjamin Franklin. In Franklin’s 1737 book, “Poor Richard’s Almanac,” he stated what would be his literal and figurative idea behind money: “A penny saved is two pence clear.” Contrary to popular belief, Franklin, who was known for his…

“Checkmate!” concludes a chess match and separates the victor from the vanquished. Yet, the ending of the chess match is not the most important part of the game. What matters most are the moves and strategies that precede the win and constitute the game. In his essay written in 1750, “The Morals of Chess,” Benjamin…

“An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure” is one of those proverbs that many only half-know. In fact, probably most people can only recite, “An ounce of prevention.” The story behind this proverb and its potential for diverse application are fascinating. In my first piece on proverbs, I talked about proverbs as…

Benjamin Franklin ranks among the most popular of the Founding Fathers, and for good reason: He was a larger-than-life scientist, inventor, diplomat, and above all, cunning politician and staunch advocate for the right of Americans to cast off British shackles and chart their own course. But beyond his inventions, his advocacy as delegate to the…

Children of the Great Depression were friends with frugality. My dad, who grew up poor, but who became a physician thanks to the G.I. Bill—he served in the infantry in Italy—used to hound us kids about leaving lights on in the house. My wife’s parents packed food for their vacations, so they rarely ate in…

For any trivia question that asks, “who was the first American to do X,” answering Ben Franklin is always a good guess. He was a true renaissance man, who was the most internationally renown colonist (and eventually American) of his day. Of course, he was complex, but he ended up on the right side of…

When Benjamin Franklin loaned money to a man in 1784, he made this request: “When you meet with another honest Man in similar Distress, you must pay me by lending this Sum to him.” In other words, Franklin did not want to be paid back; he wanted that man to help someone else in the…