Benjamin Franklin Quotes
I am a mortal enemy to arbitrary government and unlimited power.
Franklin, Benjamin. "Silence Dogood, No. 2." The New-England Courant, 16 April 1722.
This view causes great problems for Republicans and Tea Party members in that they share this and a few other particular views with the race haters like Lane. Many tend to conflate the viewpoints—especially when KKK and Aryan Nation members show up at Tea Party Rallies. Also, the extreme hyperbolic rhetoric. Someone who disagrees supports “tyranny” and is not a fellow citizen.
What is fascinating about this quotation is that England itself was an aristocracy with a monarchy and very few elements of fairness and equality. The aristocracy and the monarch very much used the system and the common people for their benefit. However, the degree of abuse and tyranny and absence of any sense of equity, shocked even this English aristocrat. Behoof was a Middle English word derived from words that mean to profit from. By the time he used it, it meant benefit or advantage—a slightly wider meaning, but even in 1591 it was not a commonly used words but one used more by the intelligentsia of the day.
Benjamin Franklin FRS FRSA FRSE was one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. A polymath, he was a leading writer, printer, political philosopher, politician, Freemason, postmaster, scientist, inventor, humorist, civic activist, statesman, and diplomat. As a scientist, he was a major figure in the American Enlightenment and the history of physics for his discoveries and theories regarding electricity. As an inventor, he is known for the lightning rod, bifocals, and the Franklin stove, among other inventions. He founded many civic organizations, including the Library Company, Philadelphia's first fire department, and the University of Pennsylvania.
