Benjamin Franklin — "He who dines on human meat, shall never want for things to eat."
He who dines on human meat, shall never want for things to eat.
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More from Benjamin Franklin
"Contentment makes poor men rich, discontent makes rich men poor."
"The greatest invention of the world is the invention of good bread."
"The greatest pleasure of a dog is that you make a fool of yourself with him and not only will he not scold you, but he will make a fool of himself too."
"For age and want save while you may; no morning sun lasts a whole day."
"Honest men marry soon, wise men never."
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.
Details
From 'Poor Richard's Almanack' (lesser-known wisdom)
Date: Unknown, likely 18th century
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Understanding this quote
What it means
Those who are willing to exploit others ruthlessly will never lack for resources or opportunity. Using cannibalism as dark metaphor, the saying observes that predatory behavior — consuming others' labor, ambition, or misfortune for personal gain — ensures one is always provided for. It is a cynical, unsentimental view of survival: the most ruthless actors in any system tend to thrive precisely because they have no limits on what they will take.
Relevance to Benjamin Franklin
Franklin was a shrewd pragmatist who navigated cutthroat colonial commerce, transatlantic diplomacy, and factional politics. His Poor Richard's Almanack mixed moral uplift with dark wit, and he had firsthand knowledge of how mercantile elites, creditors, and political rivals consumed those beneath them. Franklin himself played hardball in business and diplomacy, understanding that sentiment rarely governed those who accumulated power. This cynical proverb aligns with his unsentimental realism about human nature and ambition.
The era
Colonial and early modern Atlantic society was built on systems of brutal extraction — indentured servitude, the transatlantic slave trade, mercantilist exploitation of colonies, and debtors' prisons. The powerful openly consumed the weak with legal cover. Franklin lived through the full arc of this era, witnessing how those willing to profit from others' suffering faced few consequences and, often, great reward. The quote's dark logic was empirically visible in daily colonial economic life.
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