394. Benjamin Franklin, Religion and Virtue

Readers of my blog have learned that Confucian moral philosophy helped Franklin shape his virtues. According to Dr.Dave Wang's research, we know that Franklin set up his goals to make him a better person after he read Confucius works in 1726. Franklin believed that his successes in life were because of his own efforts to cultivate his virtue.

In 1738, barely a year after Franklin published in his Pennsylvania Gazette, works of Confucius Moral philosophy, he told hisfather,   "I think vital religion has always suffered when orthodoxy is more regarded than virtue. The scriptures assure me that at the last day we shall not be examined on what we thought but what we did."  (Benjamin Franklin, letter to his father, 1738)