Benjamin Franklin — "A countryman between two lawyers is like a fish between two cats."
A countryman between two lawyers is like a fish between two cats.
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More from Benjamin Franklin
"Happiness consists more in small conveniences or pleasures that occur every day, than in great pieces of good fortune that happen but seldom to a man in the course of his life."
"Remember that time is money."
"The way to be safe, is never to be secure."
"A full belly makes a dull brain."
"To lengthen thy life lessen thy meals."
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
An ordinary person caught between two lawyers is powerless and will be consumed by both. Like a fish has no chance between two cats — regardless of which cat wins, the fish loses — a common person in a legal dispute will be drained by fees and maneuvering from both sides. The warning: lawyers profit whether their client wins or loses, always at the common person's expense.
Relevance to Benjamin Franklin
Franklin was a printer and tradesman, not a lawyer, with strong populist sympathies. His Poor Richard's Almanack was filled with practical wisdom protecting ordinary people from exploitation. He distrusted professional complexity that served elites over common folk. As a founding father who helped draft foundational legal documents, he understood law's power and its abuse. His lifelong respect for plain dealing and suspicion of those who profit from confusion made this wry observation deeply characteristic.
The era
In colonial and early America, lawyers were widely distrusted — some early charters outright banned them. Legal fees could bankrupt a farmer over a simple land dispute. The profession was seen as deliberately obscuring plain matters to generate billable work. As commerce expanded and land disputes multiplied in the 18th century, ordinary colonists faced ruinous legal costs. Franklin's era saw sharp public resentment toward a legal class perceived as profiting regardless of outcome.
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