Ben's Second Virtue

Ben Franklin continually wrote in his autobiography about improving himself. In his book, The Autobiography of Ben Franklin, he listed 13 virtues. With each virtue he gave a brief description on how he interpreted it second came;

Silence
Speak not but what may benefit others or yourself; avoid trifling conversation.

I wish I could say I was practicing Silence; it’s been a long time since my last post on this subject. However I allowed life to crowd my schedule and have just been unable to get back until now.

When I have taught the Communications Merit Badge to Boy Scouts the first thing I include is that they have two ears and one mouth. That means to me that listening is twice as important as talking.

In his Ben’s autobiography he mentions his inclination to prattle as he gets older and sets about to improve his ability to stay silent and learn what others might be able to impart of their experiences and knowledge. In his explanation I think that he means if you can’t add beneficially to the conversation remain quite and let others say what they will. By making sure that you say nothing except what will benefit others it also helps you to refrain from gossiping or detracting from others. Also by not speaking when we are not certain of our facts we practice

In his explanation I think that he means if you can’t add beneficially to the conversation remain quite and let others say what they will. By making sure that you say nothing except what will benefit others it also helps you to refrain from gossiping or detracting from others. Also by not speaking when we are not certain of our facts we practice The Wit and Wisdom of Mark Twain: A Book of Quotations (Dover Thrift Editions) , his observation of Silence was; “The unspoken word is capital. We can invest it or we can squander it”.

What do you think?