| Virtue | Description |
|---|---|
| 1. Temperance | Eat not to dullness; drink not to elevation. |
| 2. Silence | Speak only what may benefit others or yourself; avoid trifling conversation. |
| 3. Order | Let all your things have their places; let each part of your business have its time. |
| 4. Resolution | Resolve to perform what you ought; perform without fail what you resolve. |
| 5. Frugality | Make no expense but to do good to others or yourself; i.e., waste nothing. |
| 6. Industry | Lose no time; be always employed in something useful; cut off all unnecessary actions. |
| 7. Sincerity | Use no hurtful deceit; think innocently and justly, and, if you speak, speak accordingly. |
| 8. Justice | Wrong none by doing injuries, or omitting the benefits that are your duty. |
| 9. Moderation | Avoid extremes; forbear resenting injuries so much as you think they deserve. |
| 10. Cleanliness | Tolerate no uncleanliness in body, clothes, or habitation. |
| 11. Tranquillity | Be not disturbed at trifles, or at accidents common or unavoidable. |
| 12. Chastity | Rarely use venery (sexual indulgence) but for health or offspring. |
| 13. Humility | Imitate Jesus and Socrates. |
📋 How He Tracked Progress
Franklin created a chart (a kind of moral scorecard) where each row was a day of the week and each column was a virtue.
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Every evening, he would mark a black dot in the column of any virtue he had failed to live up to that day.
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He focused on one virtue per week, trying to master it while maintaining the others.
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After 13 weeks, he’d cycle back through them — meaning a full cycle every 13 weeks, or 4 full cycles per year.
This method:
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Kept him consciously accountable
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Turned virtue-building into a habit system
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Made character measurable, long before habit-tracking apps
📖 Franklin Reflects on It in His Autobiography
“Tho’ I never arrived at the perfection I had been so ambitious of obtaining... yet I was, by the endeavour, a better and a happier man than I otherwise should have been.”
He knew perfection was unattainable — but the system itself made him significantly better.
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