Our opinions are not in our own power; they are formed and governed much by circumstances that are often as inexplicable as they are irresistible.
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"God heals, and the doctor takes the fees."
"scarcely worth a FART-HING"
"There are three faithful friends: an old wife, an old dog, and ready money."
"He that composes himself is wiser than he that composes books."
"Discover some Drug wholesome & not disagreeable, to be mix'd with our common Food, or Sauces, that shall render the natural Discharges of Wind from our Bodies, not only inoffensive, but agreable as Pe…"
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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Humans don't freely choose what they believe. Our opinions are shaped by circumstances — environment, experience, social conditions — that operate largely below conscious awareness. We can't simply decide to hold different views; they form through forces we often can't trace or resist. This is a frank admission that human belief isn't purely rational or voluntary, but is molded by the world around us in ways that feel inevitable once formed.
Franklin's diplomatic career put him face-to-face with irreconcilable political opinions — British ministers and American colonists each certain they were right. His own beliefs shifted markedly over his life: born into a Calvinist household, he moved toward deism and pragmatic ethics. His Autobiography candidly tracks these changes. As a scientist, he understood that natural phenomena follow rules beyond human will — he applied that same intellectual humility to the human mind.
The 18th-century Enlightenment elevated reason yet spawned fierce debates over free will and how beliefs form — Locke argued the mind begins blank, shaped entirely by experience. Politically, the American colonies were fracturing: neighbors became Loyalists or Patriots largely based on economic position and local community, not detached reasoning. Religious pluralism — Quakers, Anglicans, Presbyterians — made it obvious that circumstances of birth dictated faith as much as personal conviction.
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