Benjamin Franklin：The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin, Excerpt 44

In this piece it was my design to explain and enforce this doctrine, that vicious actions are not hurtful because they are forbidden, but forbidden because they are hurtful, the nature of man alone considered; that it was, therefore, every one's interest to be virtuous who wish'd to be happy even in this world; and I should, from this circumstance (there being always in the world a number of rich merchants, nobility, states, and princes, who have need of honest instruments for the management of their affairs, and such being so rare), have endeavored to convince young persons that no qualities were so likely to make a poor man's fortune as those of probity and integrity.

Source： https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/148
Locator：Excerpt 44 · Verified：2026-10-19 · Verification：Short excerpt

This is a direct reading: the original and source are kept; commentary will be added later.

公版传记；原文逐字取自 Project Gutenberg，仅摘录段落并附全书链接。

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