Benjamin Franklin on Business Ethics (Ftrain.com)

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Thursday, October 3, 2002

Benjamin Franklin on Business Ethics

When in doubt, sleep on the floor and drink water.

In the early days of The Pennsylvania Gazette a contribution was brought into the office with the request that Franklin publish it. According to Isaiah Thomas's history of printing in America, Franklin asked that the piece should be left to the following day, when he would decide about printing it. “The person returned at the time appointed,” Thomas has written, “and received from Franklin this communication: 'I have perused your piece and found it to be scurrilous and defamatory. To determine whether I should publish it or not, I went home in the evening, purchased a twopenny loaf at the baker's, and with water from the pump made my supper; I then wrapped myself up in my great-coat, and laid down on the floor and slept till morning, when, on another load and a mug of water, I made my breakfast. From this regiment I feel no inconvenience whatever. Finding I can live in this manner, I have formed a determination never to prostitute my press to the purposes of corruption, and abuse of this kind, for the sake of gaining a more comfortable subsistence.'”

Ronald W. Clark, Benjamin Franklin, a Biography. Da Capo Press, 1983.