Were it not for the odiously offensive Smell accompanying such Escapes, polite People would probably be under no more Restraint in discharging such Wind in Company, than they are in spitting, or in blowing their Noses.
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"Guests, like fish, begin to smell after three days."
"A great talker may be no fool, but he is one that relies on him."
"He that would live in peace and at ease, must not speak all he knows, nor all he sees."
"He that is rich, is wise enough."
"After Supper walk a Mile, after Dinner sleep a while."
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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The quote argues the only reason passing gas in public is considered impolite is its offensive odor. If flatulence were odorless, polite society would treat it no differently than spitting or blowing one's nose — both then-acceptable public behaviors. It is a deadpan logical argument that strips away social taboo by isolating its single practical cause: the smell, not the act itself.
Franklin wrote this in his 1781 satirical essay 'Fart Proudly,' mocking the Royal Academy of Brussels for soliciting impractical scientific proposals. It perfectly captures his irreverent wit and democratic streak — he loved deflating pomposity. As printer, inventor, and diplomat, Franklin consistently blended practical reasoning with humor, believing no subject was too undignified if examined with honest logic and a completely straight face.
Written during the Enlightenment, when European scientific academies were multiplying and taking themselves very seriously, this essay lampooned their pretension directly. In 18th-century social life, public spitting and nose-blowing were entirely commonplace, making Franklin's comparison pointed and deliberate. He composed it while serving as American minister to France (1778–1785), embedded in aristocratic Parisian culture he found simultaneously impressive and absurdly self-important.
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