After all, wedlock is the natural state of man. A bachelor is not a complete human being. He is like the odd half of a pair of scissors, which has not yet found its fellow, and therefore is not even half so useful as they might be together.
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"Three things are men most apt to be cheated in, a horse, a wig, and a wife."
"Search others for their virtues, thy self for thy vices."
"The way to be safe, is never to be secure."
"An investment in knowledge always pays the best interest."
"Little strokes fell great oaks."
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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Franklin argues marriage is humanity's natural condition—not mere social convention but essential to wholeness. A bachelor, however capable alone, remains like a single scissor blade: functional in theory but nearly useless without its pair. The quote frames partnership as completing a person and multiplying their effectiveness. It's a pragmatic, even mechanical take on love—about utility and completeness rather than romance or sentiment.
The scissors metaphor is quintessentially Franklinian—grounding emotion in a concrete, mechanical image. Franklin married Deborah Read in 1730 and relied heavily on her to manage his print shop during his long absences abroad. Known for Poor Richard's Almanack, he consistently framed life choices through practicality and utility. The quote reflects his core belief: people, like tools, perform best when properly paired and purposefully applied.
In 18th-century colonial America, marriage was fundamentally an economic institution as much as a romantic one. Some colonies taxed bachelors, viewing unmarried men as social liabilities. Household survival depended on divided labor—men and women filling complementary roles. Life expectancy was short, children essential to family labor, and social standing tied to family formation. Franklin's framing of marriage as practical completion perfectly matched an era where partnership was a survival strategy.
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