"For my own Part, when I am employed in serving others, I do not look upon myself as conferring Favours, but as paying Debts. In my Travels, and since my Settlement, I have received much Kindness from Men, to whom I shall never have any Opportunity of making the least direct Return. And numberless Mercies from God, who is infinitely above being benefited by our Services. Those Kindnesses from Men, I can therefore only Return on their Fellow Men; and I can only shew my Gratitude for these mercies from God, by a readiness to help his other Children and my Brethren. For I do not think that Thanks and Compliments, tho' repeated weekly, can discharge our real Obligations to each other, and much less those to our Creator."
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AphoristsEngineers from the United StatesFounding Fathers of the United States of AmericaElectrical engineersGovernors of Pennsylvania
Original Language: English
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Sources
Letter to Joseph Huey (6 June 1753); published in Albert Henry Smyth, The Writings of Benjamin Franklin, volume 3, p. 144
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Benjamin_Franklin
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Benjamin Franklin
1706 – 1790
US-amerikanischer Staatsmann, Naturwissenschaftler und Schriftsteller
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