Benjamin Franklin — "No sin withers the soul more quickly than laughter."
No sin withers the soul more quickly than laughter.
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More from Benjamin Franklin
"The nude man catcheth the hen while the clothed man shivers."
"Contentment makes poor men rich, discontent makes rich men poor."
"Industry and frugality are the means of procuring wealth."
"Dost thou love life? Then do not squander time, for that is the stuff life is made of."
"Fear not death for the sooner we die, the longer we shall be immortal."
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.
Details
From 'Poor Richard's Almanack' (lesser-known wisdom)
Date: Unknown, likely 18th century
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Understanding this quote
What it means
This quote argues that laughter is more corrosive to moral character than conventional wrongdoing — that habitual levity hollows out a person's inner life faster than obvious sins do. It frames mirth and frivolity not as innocent pleasures but as subtle spiritual dangers, suggesting that a person who laughs away serious matters loses something essential in themselves.
Relevance to Benjamin Franklin
This sits in tension with Franklin's famous wit and satirical voice in Poor Richard's Almanack, but reflects his belief that undisciplined pleasures undermine virtue and industry. Franklin consistently warned against idle amusements that erode self-mastery. His productivity ethic held that time wasted on careless mirth was time stolen from moral and civic improvement.
The era
Colonial America retained deep Puritan suspicion of frivolity; laughter was widely associated with moral laxity and disrespect for God's gravity. The 18th century's Great Awakening revival movements preached sobriety over worldly amusement. Public life demanded visible seriousness, and clergy regularly cautioned that levity signaled weak character and indifference to salvation.
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