Poor Richard's Homepage

Upon discovering this excellent medium of communication known as the "Internet," whereby the entire world can speedily view the writing of one man, I resolved to put it to use at once. Considering that the world would gain by what I have gleaned from the wisdom of many ages, I have placed a small portion of it here, for all who may wish to see. Not being skilled in the use of this marvelous device, the computer, I must trust my good friend Shawn Smith with the more technical aspects of the work. And so, I present to you, Poor Richard's Homepage. So that you may find the relevent advice more quickly, I have divided these sayings into several topics.

--- Richard Saunders

Money and Finances
Friends and Neighbors
Philosophy and Religion
Marriage and Family
Virtue and Vice
Words and Speech
Time

Hey, welcome to our page. This is Shawn Smith here, just wanted to let you know a couple things. First of all, although most of what you will read on this page is by Benjamin Franklin, you'll hear from me every once in a while, too. The main way to tell will be the font, my writing will look like this, while Franklin's writing will look like this. Pretty easy, right?

A few facts about Poor Richard's Almanac, from which the sayings on my page are taken. Benjamin Franklin wrote and published a series of almanacs from 1733 to 1738. These almanacs were his most popular work and the most popular almanac in the colonies. Franklin developed the persona of Richard Saunders, a poor man with a nagging wife, as the "author" of these almanacs. Not all, or even necessarily most, of the sayings in the Almanac were coined by Franklin; many of them have sources from earlier philosophers and thinkers such as Francis Bacon. But, all of them are colored by Franklin's brilliant wit and skill with words.

Of course, the Almanac is not Franklin's only important work. He also wrote a number of political essays, an autobiography, and propaganda for the Revolution. His other accomplishments include publishing an extremely successful newspaper and being a foreign ambassador for the nascent United States.

If, while reading Poor Richard's sayings, you come across an asterik that looks like a link (kind of like * that), you can follow that to a little side note about that particular saying. If that saying is relevent to another section --- after all, they do tend to overlap --- you can follow the linked "+" at the end of it to another page.

Thanks for stopping by, hope Richard and I have given you something to think about. While you're here, be sure to sign my guestbook.

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