Benjamin Franklin — "He that pursues two hares at once, commonly catches neither."
He that pursues two hares at once, commonly catches neither.
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About Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790)
Polymath Founding Father, diplomat, and Poor Richard's Almanack author who helped draft the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. Closely associated with John Adams (fellow Founder, Massachusetts statesman) and Thomas Jefferson (fellow Declaration drafter). For an intellectual contrast, see Thomas Hutchinson, last royal governor of colonial Massachusetts — Franklin leaked Hutchinson's loyalist correspondence to Boston in 1772 to inflame revolutionary sentiment — Hutchinson represented the colonial-aristocrat crown-loyalty that Franklin's revolution was organized to dismantle.
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Understanding this quote
What it means
Splitting your focus between two competing goals simultaneously usually means you accomplish neither. When attention and energy are divided, each pursuit suffers — you move too slowly to catch either opportunity before it escapes. The core message is that concentrated effort on a single goal outperforms scattered effort across several. Choose one target, commit fully, then move to the next. Divided attention is a reliable path to failure.
Relevance to Benjamin Franklin
Franklin published this in Poor Richard's Almanack, his annual guide to practical wisdom, where he consistently championed focus and discipline. His famous 13-virtue self-improvement program required tackling one virtue at a time — never all simultaneously. As printer, scientist, diplomat, and inventor across a long career, Franklin succeeded by throwing full concentration into each role at each stage of life, embodying the very focus his proverb demands.
The era
In colonial America, hare hunting was a genuine subsistence activity, making the metaphor immediately visceral to readers. Poor Richard's Almanack reached roughly one in three colonial households, spreading practical wisdom during a period of real scarcity. The Enlightenment's push for rational self-improvement made focus and industry moral virtues. An undisciplined colonial farmer risked crop failure, making concentrated effort a matter of survival, not mere self-help advice.
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