Benjamin Franklin — "Wink at small faults; remember thou hast great ones."
Wink at small faults; remember thou hast great ones.
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More from Benjamin Franklin
"It is the first responsibility of every citizen to question authority."
"The sleeping fox catches no poultry."
"A false friend and a shadow attend only while the sun shines."
"God helps them that help themselves."
"We must all hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang separately."
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
Be lenient toward other people's minor mistakes because you yourself carry significant flaws. It demands self-awareness before judgment: tolerance flows naturally once you honestly reckon with your own imperfections. It's a practical check on self-righteousness — the person quickest to condemn others is often least aware of their own failures. Humility here isn't weakness; it's intellectual honesty applied to moral judgment.
Relevance to Benjamin Franklin
Franklin famously tracked his own 13 virtues in a daily ledger, documenting personal moral failures firsthand. His autobiography candidly confessed major errata: abandoning fiancée Deborah Read while in England, fathering an illegitimate son. Despite towering achievements as inventor, diplomat, and statesman, he cultivated deliberate humility, believing genuine moral growth required unflinching honesty about one's own shortcomings before presuming to judge others.
The era
In 18th-century Colonial America, Puritan moral culture encouraged public judgment of sinners — stocks, shaming, and social condemnation were commonplace. Calvinist theology emphasized human depravity, often applied selectively. Franklin, shaped by Philadelphia's Quaker-founded tolerance, pushed back through Poor Richard's Almanack. The Enlightenment was challenging inherited moral hierarchy, asserting reason and self-reflection over communal punishment. This quote reflects that humanist shift: reform yourself before policing others.
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