Benjamin Franklin — "I shall rise to apologize for not getting up."
I shall rise to apologize for not getting up.
Get This Quote & Author's Image Illustrated On:
Click any product to generate a realistic preview. Up to 3 at a time.
* Initial load can take up to 90 seconds — revising the preview in another color is nearly instant.
Kitchen
Apparel
Other
More from Benjamin Franklin
"In this world nothing is certain but death and taxes."
"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 h…"
"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."
"He who dines on human meat, shall never want for things to eat."
"It is a grand mistake to think of being great without ever being good."
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
Mocking rules of social etiquette due to gout and age
Date: Unknown, likely late in life
GeneralVerification
Unverifiable
Found in 1 providers: gemini
1 source checked
Understanding this quote
What it means
This quote captures a self-defeating paradox delivered as deadpan wit. The speaker acknowledges he should stand but cannot — yet the very act of rising to offer that apology defeats its own purpose. It is a wry admission of limitation wrapped in verbal irony: the remedy and the problem are the same action, leaving the apology suspended in comic contradiction that makes the listener laugh rather than take offense.
Relevance to Benjamin Franklin
Franklin was celebrated as much for razor-sharp wit as for science and statecraft. His Poor Richard's Almanack overflows with paradoxes and self-deprecating observations. In his later years, plagued by gout at diplomatic gatherings in Paris, he had real cause to remain seated. This verbal sleight of hand — turning a social apology into a logical puzzle — is pure Franklin: charming, self-aware, and disarming all at once.
The era
In 18th-century polite society, rising to greet someone was a fundamental gesture of respect — failing to stand was a genuine social slight requiring acknowledgment. Franklin's era prized wit above almost all conversational virtues; salons in Philadelphia and Paris rewarded the cleverest turn of phrase. A quip that exposed the absurdity of formal etiquette while simultaneously performing it was considered the height of cultivated, gentlemanly humor.
AI-generated insights based on extensive research and information for context. Factual errors? Email [email protected].