Poor Richard's Almanac

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Poor Richard's Almanack (sometimes Almanac) was a yearly almanac published by Benjamin Franklin, who adopted the pseudonym of "Poor Richard" or "Richard Saunders" for the purpose of this work in the title. It appeared continuously from 1732 to 1757. The almanac was a best seller for a pamphlet published in the American colonies; print runs typically ran to 10,000 per year.

It contained the typical calendar, weather, poems, and astronomical and astrological information that an almanac of the period contained. It is chiefly remembered, however, for being a repository of Franklin's aphorisms and proverbs, many of which live on in American English. These maxims typically counsel thrift and courtesy, with just a dash of cynicism.

Benjamin Franklin, the American inventor, statesman, and publisher, hit a publishing home run with Poor Richard's Almanack. Almanacs were very popular books in colonial America. People in the colonies sought them out for the mixture of seasonal weather forecasts, practical household hints, puzzles, and other amusements Franklin published in them. Wordplay also had a large role in Poor Richard's Almanack, with many examples surviving into the American vernacular today.

Franklin wrote under a pen name. If you flipped the pages of Poor Richard's Almanack in the eighteenth century, you would find Franklin's witty and helpful sayings, such as Early to bed and early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise. Franklin wrote and published his almanac for more than a quarter-century, from 1732 to 1758. During the final year he published The Way to Wealth, a collection of maxims from the almanac that remains widely-read today.

[edit] Sample maxims

Let thy discontents be thy secrets; if the world knows them `t will despise thee and increase them.
No nation was ever ruined by trade.
Drive thy Business, or it will drive thee.
He that falls in love with himself will have no rivals.
Setting too good an example is a kind of slander seldom forgiven.
Experience keeps a dear school, yet fools will learn in no other.
Avarice and happiness never saw each other, how then should they become acquainted.
Where there's Marriage without Love, there will be Love without Marriage.
Write with the learned, pronounce with the vulgar.
Necessity never made a good bargain.
Let thy Child's first Lesson be Obedience, and the second will be what thou wilt.
Three may keep a secret, if two of them are dead.
If you'd have it done, Go: if not, Send.
Dost thou love life? Then do not squander time; for that's the stuff life is made of.
If your Riches are yours, why don't you take them with you to t'other World?
A good conscience is a continual Christmas.
There is no little enemy.
God heals, and the doctor takes the fee.
There will be sleeping enough in the grave.
Early to bed and early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise.
Laws too gentle are seldom obeyed; too severe, seldom executed.
If you'd know the value of money, go and borrow some.
When befriended, remember it. When you befriend, forget it.
Force shites upon reason's back.
Well done is better than Well said.
A penny saved is two pence clear.
Hear no ill of a friend, nor speak any of an enemy.
There are three faithful friends—an old wife, an old dog, and ready money.
Lost time is never found again.
Keep your eyes wide open before marriage, half shut afterwards.
God helps them that help themselves.
Don't throw stones at your neighbors if your own windows are made of glass.