13 sourced quotes by Benjamin Franklin on media, speech & public opinion, happiness & meaning of life, character & virtue, compassion & empathy, justice & rule of law, with a use case for each in GS4, Essay and interviews.
Idleness and Pride Tax with a heavier Hand than Kings and Parliaments; If we can get rid of the former we may easily bear the Latter.
— Benjamin FranklinLetter to Charles Thomson, 11 July 1765; also quoted in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919). The last sentence is sometimes misq
Use itLife/GS4: idleness and pride cost more than any tax.
That it is better 100 guilty Persons should escape than that one innocent Person should suffer, is a maxim that has been long and generally approved; never, that I know of, controverted.
— Benjamin FranklinLetter to Benjamin Vaughan, on Blackstone's Ratio (14 March 1785)
Use itGS2 on criminal justice: better 100 guilty escape than one innocent suffer; bail and wrongful conviction.
Freedom of speech is a principal pillar of a free government; when this support is taken away, the constitution of a free society is dissolved, and tyranny is erected on its ruins. Republics and limited monarchies derive their strength and vigor from a popular examination into the action of the magistrates.
— Benjamin Franklin"On Freedom of Speech and the Press", Pennsylvania Gazette (17 November 1737)
Use itGS2 on Art 19: free speech as pillar of free government; scrutiny of officials keeps republics vigorous.
— Benjamin FranklinPoor Richard's Almanack (1756); this has also been quoted in a paraphrased form used by Bill Clinton in [1998 address to Beijing University,
Use itLife: value critics; enemies reveal your faults.