Benjamin Franklin — "Who dainties love, shall beggars prove."
Who dainties love, shall beggars prove.
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More from Benjamin Franklin
"Rather go to bed supperless, than rise in debt."
"He that speaks much is much mistaken."
"He that pursues two hares at once, commonly catches neither."
"Nothing is certain except death and taxes."
"Three things are men most apt to be cheated in, a horse, a wig, and a wife."
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
People who crave luxury and expensive indulgences will end up in poverty. 'Dainties' are fine foods and costly treats beyond ordinary means; 'prove' means 'become.' The warning is simple: spending beyond your means to satisfy desires for luxury destroys financial security. Self-discipline and frugality preserve wealth across a lifetime, while chasing pleasures you cannot afford leads inevitably to ruin and want.
Relevance to Benjamin Franklin
Franklin published this in Poor Richard's Almanack, his annual collection of proverbs promoting thrift and industry. Born the fifteenth of seventeen children to a Boston candle-maker, Franklin clawed out of poverty through discipline and self-education. His autobiography celebrated frugality as a core virtue. Though he later enjoyed wealth and Paris salons, his foundational creed—waste nothing, want nothing—shaped both his personal rise and his advice to fellow Americans.
The era
Colonial America in the 1730s–1750s, when Franklin circulated this, was economically precarious for most settlers. Imported luxuries carried steep prices and British tariffs, making extravagance a genuine path to debt. Protestant culture equated frugality with godliness and moral rectitude; indulgence was sinful. With no safety nets—no banks, no bankruptcy protection as we know it—financial ruin was permanent and social, making this warning urgently practical rather than merely moralistic.
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