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Ben Franklin: The Ideal Man

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Ben Franklin was an influential man both in his endeavors to make the United States great and to better mimic the behaviors of a morally perfect person. Maybe his greatest achievement was creating the thirteen virtues of which to follow be a righteous human being and his plan to use them. Ben Franklin was not a perfect man but he worked effortlessly to try to be the best he could be. Franklin’s ideals are relevant in today’s world because no matter where you came from, where you are, or who you’re with, all people must be determined to be the best they can be. The lessons of Benjamin Franklin; to remember where you came from, where you are going, and who is with you; are monumentally important in this day and age because they are the fundamentals to achieving goals.
Ben Franklin was not a perfect man and he didn’t come from …show more content…

When Franklin evaluated his moral capabilities, he was disappointed of all he had not accomplished so he came up with a plan. Franklin was to work on improving a little part of himself each week until he became the morally perfect person he was determined to become. He knew he couldn’t change everything at once so Franklin established a “dependence on a steady, uniform rectitude of conduct” so he could accomplish his goals little by little (Franklin 112). He came up with thirteen virtues he thinks everyone, including himself, should possess and then carried out his plans day by day. Due to all of Ben’s efforts, Christopher Baldwin, author of “Franklin’s Classical American Statesmanship,” argues that “[Ben] Franklin is to be our role model” because he believes “that the key to the successful pursuit of happiness and the good life is virtue” which promotes a righteous lifestyle for those who choose to follow him (Baldwin 69). He knew that he wasn’t a perfect man so Ben made a plan to change his actions and become a more pure citizen to accomplish his

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