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Card #c1040IR // #c1040Synthesis

"I made it a rule to forbear all direct contradiction to the sentiments of others, and all positive assertion of my own." "in answering I began by observing that in certain cases or circumstances his opinion would be right, but in the present case there appear'd or seem'd to me some difference, etc."

— In our words · Source: The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin (Benjamin Franklin)

[Use when]

You are right on the substance and still losing the room.

[Why it matters]

He replaced "certainly" and "undoubtedly" with "I conceive" and "it appears to me," and opened every correction by granting the case where the other man was right. He says he was a bad speaker and "yet I generally carried my points." That result is his account.

More from The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin

#c1038"I took some of the papers, and, making short hints of the sentiment in each sentence, laid them by a few days, and then, without looking…You want to learn a craft from a master's work and reading it again isn't teaching you anything. #c1039"I was charm'd with it, adopted it, dropt my abrupt contradiction and positive argumentation, and put on the humble inquirer and doubter."…Your questions keep winning arguments and people have started refusing to answer them. #c1041"I took care not only to be in reality industrious and frugal, but to avoid all appearances to the contrary. I drest plainly; I was seen at…Your work is solid but the people who decide on credit or business never see it.