H.W. Brands · 765 pages
Rating: (16K votes)
“Ben Franklin advises his grandson not to let even the American Revolution interrupt his studies, urging of young adulthood, "This is the time of life in which you are to lay the foundations of your future improvement and of your importance among men. If this season is neglected, it will be like cutting off the spring from the year.”
― H.W. Brands, quote from The First American: The Life and Times of Benjamin Franklin
“The males (of the Hutchinson family that included both religious dissenter Anne and immensely wealthy and politically connected Thomas) were merchants who sought salvation through commerce.”
― H.W. Brands, quote from The First American: The Life and Times of Benjamin Franklin
“Some months earlier one of his oldest friends, Junto charter member Hugh Roberts, had written with news of the club and how the political quarreling in Philadelphia had continued to divide the membership. Franklin expressed hope that the squabbles would not keep Roberts from the meetings. “’tis now perhaps one of the oldest clubs, as I think it was formerly one of the best, in the King’s dominions; it wants but about two years of forty since it was established.” Few men were so lucky as to belong to such a group. “We loved and still love one another; we are grown grey together and yet it is too early to part. Let us sit till the evening of life is spent; the last hours were always the most joyous. When we can stay no longer ’tis time enough then to bid each other good night, separate, and go quietly to bed.” And”
― H.W. Brands, quote from The First American: The Life and Times of Benjamin Franklin
“(Ben) Franklin was never content to let opportunity find him.”
― H.W. Brands, quote from The First American: The Life and Times of Benjamin Franklin
“Franklin’s inquisitive mind craved stimulation, consistently gravitating toward whatever community of intellects asked the most intriguing questions; his expansive temperament sought souls that resonated with his own generosity and sense of virtue. In five years in England he had found more of both than in a lifetime in America. “Of all the enviable things England has,” he told Polly Stevenson, “I envy most its people. Why should that petty island, which compared to America is but like a stepping stone in a brook, scarce enough of it above water to keep one’s shoes dry; why, I say, should that little island enjoy in almost every neighbourhood more sensible, virtuous and elegant minds than we can collect in ranging 100 leagues of our vast forests?” He left such people reluctantly and, he trusted, temporarily.”
― H.W. Brands, quote from The First American: The Life and Times of Benjamin Franklin
H.W. Brands
Born place: Portland, Oregon, The United States
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“বুঝছ না? আমাদের তো শুধু একটা চেহারা, সর্দারের চেহারা। কিন্তু ওর-যে এক পিঠে গোঁসাই, আর-এক পিঠে সর্দার। নামাবলিটা একটু ফেঁসে গেলেই সেটা ফাঁস হয়ে পড়ে। তাই সর্দারিধর্মটা নিজের অগোচরে পালন করতে হয়, তা হলে নামজপের বেলায় খুব বেশি বাধে না।”
― Rabindranath Tagore, quote from Red Oleanders
“I have always found that Angels have the vanity to speak of themselves as the only wise.”
― Aldous Huxley, quote from The Doors of Perception
“Coconut,” he whispered. “Um. Would you please go hit my grandfather?” The”
― Tui T. Sutherland, quote from Darkstalker
“Some moments were golden; they were designed and orchestrated by an invisible hand, and they were meant to be more than moments. They were meant to be memories. “You’ll”
― Heather Burch, quote from In the Light of the Garden
“Grandma Julie’s parents didn’t come to their wedding. Grandpa Byron says they were too busy, but that seems odd to me. Perhaps they were racists and didn’t like her marrying Grandpa Byron. Everyone was a racist in 1972, apparently.”
― quote from Time Travelling with a Hamster
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