The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin

Awesome hunt - The Junto Network is actually inspired by Franklin's Junto club - " a club for mutual improvement"

An amazing book, even though the narrative breaks off, uncompleted, decades before the Revolution. He has this wry humor about everything, including/especially himself. The 1784 section is one of my favorites, the 18th-century precursor to both life-hacking and send-ups of life-hacking: "It was about this time I conceiv’d the bold and arduous project of arriving at moral perfection. I wish’d to live without committing any fault at any time; I would conquer all that either natural inclination, custom, or company might lead me into. As I knew, or thought I knew, what was right and wrong, I did not see why I might not always do the one and avoid the other. But I soon found I had undertaken a task of more difficulty than I had imagined. While my care was employ’d in guarding against one fault, I was often surprised by another; habit took the advantage of inattention; inclination was sometimes too strong for reason. I concluded, at length, that the mere speculative conviction that it was our interest to be completely virtuous, was not sufficient to prevent our slipping; and that the contrary habits must be broken, and good ones acquired and established, before we can have any dependence on a steady, uniform rectitude of conduct. For this purpose I therefore contrived the following method...."