Benjamin Franklin — "No sin withers the soul more quickly than laughter."
No sin withers the soul more quickly than laughter.
Get This Quote & Author's Image Illustrated On:
Click any product to generate a realistic preview. Up to 3 at a time.
* Initial load can take up to 90 seconds — revising the preview in another color is nearly instant.
Kitchen
Apparel
Other
More from Benjamin Franklin
"Let me add, that only a virtuous people are capable of freedom. As nations become corrupt and vicious, they have more need of masters."
"What's a sundial in the shade?"
"Nothing is certain except death and taxes."
"Wink at small faults; remember thou hast great ones."
"The discontented man finds no easy chair."
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
GeneralVerification
Unverifiable
Found in 1 providers: gemini
1 source checked
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.
AI-generated insights based on extensive research and information for context. Factual errors? Email [email protected].